02.16.26
Highly qualified and valued professionals are key to creating consistent, safe, and nurturing experiences for all Kansas children. All in for Kansas Kids is addressing the common challenges that contribute to early workforce shortages and burnout.
Innovative approaches to creating sustainable child care careers.
Child care providers make a substantially lower salary than the average Kansan. Many do not have benefits such as health insurance and have limited ability to take time off when needed.
- Child Care Aware’s Baby Steps program provided $2.1 million in stipends for child care providers to encourage opening infant slots, retaining 97% of the providers enrolled.
- The Child Care Health Insurance Reimbursement Program (CHIRP) provided support to 303 child care providers, 68% of whom said the program made them more likely to stay int the field.
Supporting education and career growth.
Professionals are more confident and successful when they have the tools to provide a high-quality environment and a clear path to grow in their careers.
- Nearly 14,000 early childhood professionals have created individual profiles in the Cape Workforce Registry in its first year, giving them access to over 1,000 courses and other professional development offerings.
- The Links to Quality (L2Q) Program supports continuous quality improvement to all licensed child care programs in Kansas through coaching, technical assistance, assessment against quality indicators, and recognition.
- Updated Kansas Core Competencies for Early Childhood Care and Education Professionals articulate the knowledge, skills, attributes, and behaviors that professionals should know and use in their work. Kansas early childhood professionals have free access to a variety of resources to familiarize themselves with the Core Competencies and integrate them into practice.
To learn more about our early childhood system’s progress supporting the early childhood workforce, check out the All in for Kansas Kids Strategic Plan Progress Dashboard.
02.16.26
Highly qualified and valued professionals are key to creating consistent, safe, and nurturing experiences for all Kansas children. All in for Kansas Kids is addressing the common challenges that contribute to early workforce shortages and burnout.
Innovative approaches to creating sustainable child care careers.
Child care providers make a substantially lower salary than the average Kansan. Many do not have benefits such as health insurance and have limited ability to take time off when needed.
- Child Care Aware’s Baby Steps program provided $2.1 million in stipends for child care providers to encourage opening infant slots, retaining 97% of the providers enrolled.
- The Child Care Health Insurance Reimbursement Program (CHIRP) provided support to 303 child care providers, 68% of whom said the program made them more likely to stay int the field.
Supporting education and career growth.
Professionals are more confident and successful when they have the tools to provide a high-quality environment and a clear path to grow in their careers.
- Nearly 14,000 early childhood professionals have created individual profiles in the Cape Workforce Registry in its first year, giving them access to over 1,000 courses and other professional development offerings.
- The Links to Quality (L2Q) Program supports continuous quality improvement to all licensed child care programs in Kansas through coaching, technical assistance, assessment against quality indicators, and recognition.
- Updated Kansas Core Competencies for Early Childhood Care and Education Professionals articulate the knowledge, skills, attributes, and behaviors that professionals should know and use in their work. Kansas early childhood professionals have free access to a variety of resources to familiarize themselves with the Core Competencies and integrate them into practice.
To learn more about our early childhood system’s progress supporting the early childhood workforce, check out the All in for Kansas Kids Strategic Plan Progress Dashboard.