The Kansas Early Childhood Transition Task Force is asking for early childhood care and education services to be combined into one agency or department.
That recommendation was among several in the board’s final report to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly as announced Monday. The report compiled responses from a series of public input sessions across the state earlier this summer, and it highlights the need to shift away from the current setup that includes four state agencies providing oversight for early childhood services. The Task Force report recommends considering a unification of services into an existing agency or creating a new one.
Other recommendations include better data collection and sharing to improve accountability as well as providing better support for both families and businesses needing access to child care.
The recommendations followed a series of challenges noted throughout the information-gathering process, including:
*Overlapping requirements for programs providing similar services to the same populations
*Lack of clear lines of decision-making
*Lack of alignment in workforce policy
*Lack of support for providers
*Public confusion over which agencies are
responsible for which services
*Competing oversight on providers from multiple
agencies
*A system that is hard for families to navigate
The Task Force membership included business, government, advocacy and early childhood representatives as well as members of the Kansas Legislature. The report also included help from The Hunt Institute when it came to operational support and policy knowledge.
