Delays in state subsidy payments force rural Missouri preschool to close

Sharon Sweezey, who owns Jades Preschool and Daycare in rural Boone County, sent a message to parents Monday evening that said her facility would have to temporarily close at the end of the week.

Sweezey said she has been struggling to keep the business afloat due to delays in payments from Missouri’s Child Care Subsidy Program — an issue that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education acknowledges has been a problem for many providers across the state.

Of the 97 children at Jades, Sweezey said 57 are state-subsidized.

In December 2023, DESE’s Office of Childhood launched the Child Care Data System, a web-based, near real-time system where families and providers enter and view information for child care subsidies.

However, both child care facilities and parents have reported issues with the new system.

“There have been a number of unforeseen challenges during the transition, which involves loading family and provider data from the existing, outdated state systems into the new CCDS,” a spokesperson for DESE said in a statement to KOMU 8. “The OOC is working hard to mitigate these issues and sincerely apologizes to the child care providers and families affected.”

The spokesperson said there are about 9,000 provider invoices that still must be processed for February and March. DESE has increased staffing to help improve the processing of these requests.

On Tuesday, after informing parents and the state that she had to close her doors, the department worked with Sweeney to process subsidy payments for 15 children, totaling $9,978, which she had requested Jan. 31. She is expected to receive those payments within 15 business days.

However, Sweezey said this will not be enough to keep her from closing Friday. She said she is also owed payments from the state for all 57 subsidized children for March. She said she submitted requests for these payments April 1. Under the old system, Sweezey said she would have received those payments within 10 days of submitting the request.

Subsidy payments vary from child to child based on the state’s “maximum base rate” criteria, which include factors like attendance, time of care, location, age and type of facility. Because of this, Sweezey said it’s difficult to estimate how much the state owes her but that it’s likely in the tens of thousands.

Now, parents with children enrolled at Jades are scrambling to find care for their children in a market that is already oversaturated. About 78% of Missouri’s counties are child care deserts, where only one out of three children has access to a child care facility.

Jades Director Johnna Dopplick said it is very difficult to find child care in Columbia as most day care facilities are at capacity.

“Families are displaced, they have nowhere to go,” Dopplick said. “They’re lost. We’re getting messages, we’re getting parents coming in crying because they don’t know what to do.”

James McGuire’s 4-year-old son has been enrolled at Jades for over a year. McGuire said his child does not qualify for the state child care subsidy program. However, he said he chose Jades Preschool and Daycare because it is one of the more affordable options in Columbia. He said he will now have to send his child to a day care that is out of his family’s budget.

“The place that I think (can take) my boy, they want $75 to $95 more every week,” McGuire said. “We were struggling with payments already. And now, we gotta go up there because of lack of options. We got to go pay something we can barely afford because we got no other choice.”

Courtney Franklin is a parent of two children subsidized by the state who are enrolled at Jades Preschool and Daycare. She said she was “crushed” to learn about the closure.

“This day care has been everything to me,” Franklin said. “I got diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022. This family has just absolutely helped me in the best ways, like, it was a struggle. I was always at the hospital, and I couldn’t take my kids, and they have been here for everything. I do not want this to happen. My kids love it here.”

Franklin said she is concerned about all the families who are looking for care.

“With day cares closing, there’s going to be so many parents that are going to struggle to find people to watch their kids, and I don’t know how it’s going to work,” Franklin said. “I’m thankful that I can watch my kids. But if I were to get super sick, and I have to stay in the hospital, what are my kids gonna do? Where are they gonna go? Who’s gonna watch them?”

Parents aren’t the only ones who have been placed in a tough position. Sweezey said she has 27 employees who will be out of a job.

“It’s scary; you have to leave your second home and go find somewhere else to work,” Dopplick said. “So you’re applying on Indeed, you’re applying everywhere, but it’s not going to be the same work environment.”

Dopplick said she is upset with the state and how it has managed this issue.

“I would like to tell the state to get it together,” Dopplick said. “They need to pay their providers for the work that we’ve done. We’ve worked our butts off, our teachers have worked their butts off. The owners have put their blood, sweat and tears … and people are losing (their businesses) because the state can’t get it together.”

This story was republished from KOMU and the Columbia Missourian.