Volume 16, No.1, February 2006

Early Childhood Education in Missouri

Contributors:
Wayne Mayfield, Senior Research Analyst
Kathy Thornburg, Director
Center for Family Policy and Research, University of Missouri-Columbia

Benefits of High Quality Early Childhood Education

Research has shown that high quality early childhood education programs have positive short- and long-term effects on young children, especially those who are disadvantaged. In addition to having direct effects on children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, high quality early education programs have many beneficial secondary advantages for society, including effects on parents, employers, and governments. Compared to their peers who lack well structured preschool experiences, children who attend high quality preschool programs:

• use fewer special education services,
• repeat fewer grades in school,
• have higher high school graduation rates,
• have lower rates of juvenile delinquency and adult arrests,
• use less welfare as young adults, and
• earn more money as adults.

As a result of these positive effects, governments spend fewer dollars on special education, social welfare programs, and the criminal justice system. Because these children become working adults who earn more money, government tax revenues increase. In addition, parents with children in high quality care are more likely to remain employed and productive on the job, thereby decreasing turnover and absenteeism for employers. As these children enter the workforce, employers also benefit from having employees who are better educated and prepared to succeed in the workplace. Finally, the society as a whole benefits from high quality early education programs because crime rates are lower, more tax revenue is raised, and fewer government outlays are needed—which means that money can thus be spent on other needed services.

Cost-benefit analyses looking at the economics of early childhood education are another way of touting the long-term benefits of high quality programs. These studies have shown that, for every dollar invested, good quality early education programs will yield returns ranging from $4 to $17.

Licensing of Early Childhood Programs (Centers and Family Child Care)

In general, state licensing provides basic health and safety standards for out-of-family child care settings, including center-based and home-based programs. Missouri’s licensing regulations include education requirements for program directors, annual training requirements for staff, adult-child ratios, health and safety rules, staff background screenings, and space and equipment requirements. Although licensing regulations do not guarantee program quality, they provide a necessary foundation for building a statewide system of high quality early childhood settings. Currently, Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services licenses approximately 2,000 centers and 1,800 family homes that serve roughly 150,000 children birth to five.

Subsidy for Child Care/Early Childhood Education

One of the most intractable problems posed by poverty is the issue of child care. For many families, adults must make a choice between caring for their own children—and thus making little or no money but saving on child care—or finding affordable child care that allows them to earn money (much of which must go to paying for child care). The child care subsidy system exists to help families with low incomes pay for child care so that they can work.

Although Missouri currently provides child care subsidies to approximately 45,000 children from low-income families a year (average cost of $3,400 per child annually), thousands of children from poor working families do not receive subsidies due to our low eligibility guidelines. In Missouri, the current family income eligibility requirement for child care subsidy is 112 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. (In fact, Missouri’s income eligibility requirement ranks 50th in the nation). That means a mother with two children who earns $8.65 an hour ($17,800 a year) earns too much to qualify for child care subsidy funds.

Licensing, Subsidy, and Poverty in Missouri

Table 1 presents relevant data for all Missouri counties with respect to child care in Missouri for children birth to five. An important caveat to note is that the percentage of children birth to five potentially needing child care does not take into account the small proportion of children who already are enrolled in kindergarten. In addition, the percentage of children under five in poverty was used to calculate the estimated number of children birth to five in poverty by county. A final caveat is the slight difference between who qualifies for child care subsidies (112% of Federal Poverty Level) and the Census Bureau designation of poverty status (100% of Federal Poverty Level).

How Well Do Licensed Programs Meet the Need for Early Education/Child Care in Missouri?

To determine the potential number of children needing child care, the number of children ages 0-5 was multiplied by the percentage of children ages 0-5 who had all parents in the workforce. Then, to determine the extent to which licensing serves the needs for child care in Missouri, the number of licensed slots (licensed program capacity) was divided by the number of children ages 0-5 potentially needing child care. For the entire state, Missouri’s licensing system reaches almost half of the needed capacity; specifically, 47 percent of the potential child care need is met by licensed program capacity. As can be seen in Table 1, counties differ widely in the extent to which potential child care needs are met by available licensed slots. Map 1 shows these data broken down into three categories: dark blue for counties with relatively low percentages; light blue for counties in the middle; and white for counties with relatively high percentages.

How Well Do the Subsidy and Licensing Systems Meet the Needs of Low-Income Families in Missouri?

Map 2 shows county-by-county how the subsidy and licensing systems interact to provide child care for families with low incomes (using data from Table 1). The colors represent the percentage of children ages 0-5 from low-income families with working parents who receive child care subsidies. Counties in dark blue are doing a poor job in providing subsidies to low-income families; those in white are doing a relatively good job, and those in light blue are in the middle. For the state, the average is 41%. Counties with 10 or fewer children who receive subsidy funds are red on this map.

The size of the circle in each county represents the relative percentage of subsidized children in licensed programs by county. For the state, this average was 73 percent. This means that 27 percent of subsidized children are in registered facilities, which do not have to meet the minimum licensing standards and are thus at greater risk of being low quality settings. Small circles indicate counties that have low percentages of subsidized children in licensed care. Large circles indicate those counties that have a high percentage of such children in licensed care; medium circles represent counties in the middle of the range.

As Table 1 and Map 2 indicate, counties differ widely in subsidy need met and licensed program attendance. For example, in Adair County, there are an estimated 344 children in poverty, 25 of whom receive child care subsidies. Thus, only 7 percent of the children who potentially need subsidy funds currently receive them, a very low percentage. However, Adair County is doing a good job with respect to the percentage of subsidized children in licensed programs—92 percent of such children attend licensed facilities. In St. Louis City, nearly two-thirds of children receive child care subsidies (better than the state average), but only 62.5 percent of these children attend licensed programs (lower than the state average).

Conclusion
The information presented in this brief is a challenge to all Missourians—including parents, government officials, early childhood professionals, as well as business and community leaders—to increase:

• the number of licensed facilities in the state in order to provide more regulated programs that are likely to be of higher quality;
• the number of low-income families receiving child care subsidy funds;
• the number of subsidized children attending licensed rather than registered programs.

Thanks to Tanna Klein, Corinne Patton, Doris Hallford, Debra Enochs, Becky Houf, Margee Franklin, and Lance Huntley for help in putting together this brief.

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