10.22.26
Many child care concerns, such as limited child care slots, workforce recruitment and retention challenges for early childhood teachers and staff, and family concerns about child care affordability, are common across Kansas. However, the context for child care is unique to each community. The Child Care Zones initiative provides communities with a unique chance to focus on community-specific challenges and localized approaches to address them.
The All In For Kansas Kids initiative funds seven Kansas communities as Child Care Zones. A Child Care Zone is a self-defined geographic area (of at least two Kansas counties) with a consortium of leaders and community members focused on piloting targeted solutions to local child care concerns. Zones are formed to support overall community needs for child care and are not limited to a specific facility or organization. Most of the grantees are not child care agencies: they include an economic development agency, a municipal government, community foundations and other philanthropic organizations, and/or child care coalitions.
The example of one Child Care Zone illustrates how this approach can work to bring multiple local partners together to meet early childhood needs. Rice and Stafford County Child Care Zones leaders met with multiple school superintendents across the two counties in early 2026 to talk about child care. From these initial conversations, the community has hit the ground running with initiatives to increase child care capacity:
- Little Kats Child Care program, operated by the Chase/Raymond School District, has opened as a small center, providing up to 24 child care slots for local families. They selected the small center license type for more flexibility and sustainability with mixed age programming.
- Multiple districts in Stafford County are planning to open child care programs in the coming year.
- Stafford Schools USD 349 is offering a summer internship program for high school students interested in early childhood education. The interns learn about early child care education and how to run a child care business.
- Rice is also looking at CTE programs for students.
Child care is just one part of how this community is serving families with young children. The USD 405/Rice County Parents as Teachers home visiting program was recognized as a 2025 Blue Ribbon Awardee at the National Parents as Teachers conference this fall. As these cross-county partnerships grow, they will continue to provide opportunities to share lessons learned, leverage shared resources, and create positive impact for families and early childhood professionals.
This Child Care Zone initiative is funded by our state’s Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five Renewal, as well as private foundation support.
A recent evaluation of the Child Care Zones project found that most grantees have used the opportunity to develop multi-pronged approaches which aim to accelerate growth of child care capacity in the near-term while bolstering long-term sustainability. Grantees have found the zones approach and funding to be considerably effective for strengthening local early childhood systems. Read the report and profiles of each of the Child Care Zones grantees here, and watch a video with partners sharing program outcomes here.
10.22.26
Many child care concerns, such as limited child care slots, workforce recruitment and retention challenges for early childhood teachers and staff, and family concerns about child care affordability, are common across Kansas. However, the context for child care is unique to each community. The Child Care Zones initiative provides communities with a unique chance to focus on community-specific challenges and localized approaches to address them.
The All In For Kansas Kids initiative funds seven Kansas communities as Child Care Zones. A Child Care Zone is a self-defined geographic area (of at least two Kansas counties) with a consortium of leaders and community members focused on piloting targeted solutions to local child care concerns. Zones are formed to support overall community needs for child care and are not limited to a specific facility or organization. Most of the grantees are not child care agencies: they include an economic development agency, a municipal government, community foundations and other philanthropic organizations, and/or child care coalitions.
The example of one Child Care Zone illustrates how this approach can work to bring multiple local partners together to meet early childhood needs. Rice and Stafford County Child Care Zones leaders met with multiple school superintendents across the two counties in early 2026 to talk about child care. From these initial conversations, the community has hit the ground running with initiatives to increase child care capacity:
- Little Kats Child Care program, operated by the Chase/Raymond School District, has opened as a small center, providing up to 24 child care slots for local families. They selected the small center license type for more flexibility and sustainability with mixed age programming.
- Multiple districts in Stafford County are planning to open child care programs in the coming year.
- Stafford Schools USD 349 is offering a summer internship program for high school students interested in early childhood education. The interns learn about early child care education and how to run a child care business.
- Rice is also looking at CTE programs for students.
Child care is just one part of how this community is serving families with young children. The USD 405/Rice County Parents as Teachers home visiting program was recognized as a 2025 Blue Ribbon Awardee at the National Parents as Teachers conference this fall. As these cross-county partnerships grow, they will continue to provide opportunities to share lessons learned, leverage shared resources, and create positive impact for families and early childhood professionals.
This Child Care Zone initiative is funded by our state’s Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five Renewal, as well as private foundation support.
A recent evaluation of the Child Care Zones project found that most grantees have used the opportunity to develop multi-pronged approaches which aim to accelerate growth of child care capacity in the near-term while bolstering long-term sustainability. Grantees have found the zones approach and funding to be considerably effective for strengthening local early childhood systems. Read the report and profiles of each of the Child Care Zones grantees here, and watch a video with partners sharing program outcomes here.