Missouri

Kids Win Missouri is a non-partisan, statewide coalition comprised of more than 100 members, representing child well-being, early childhood development, education, health, child safety and family economic security. They work to advance policies that support the well-being of Missouri children through education, collaboration, and advocacy.

State Allies:

Top Priorities for 2021

Expand access to voluntary, effective home visiting programs and services for families from prenatal to age 5.

Protect state funding for early childhood programs and services.

Develop a statewide “North Star” policy agenda that builds a stronger early childhood system in Missouri and increases access to high quality, equitable, and sustainable early care and education.

Missouri’s 2020 Early Childhood Policy Landscape and Progress:

$10.10B STATE BUDGET
Estimated FY20 State General Fund Expenditures

ALIGNED GOVERNMENT
House (R), Senate (R)
Governor (R)

42% LOW-INCOME
279,247 Young Children (0-8) are Below 200% FPL

The COVID-19 pandemic shortened the time of the legislative session by about 30 percent, and its economic impact forced legislators to drastically change the proposed FY2021 budget. Within three weeks, budget leaders cut approximately $700 million from traditional revenue sources utilizing the budget proposed by Governor Parson in January as a baseline. The ally’s work during the session was a combination of defense and promoting relief for early learning stakeholders.

HB1682 extends Medicaid coverage for postpartum depression and related mental health conditions up to one year after birth (NCSL).
HB1414 reforms Missouri’s foster care system and provides additional supports to homeless children: 1) ensures homeless youth have access to a free birth certificate, Medicaid, and can contract to receive mental health care, 2) clarifies that a child’s attendance in court hearings should only take place when the judge and family support believe it’s in the best interest of the child, 3) creates temporary alternative placement agreements, a mechanism to provide services to parents and family placement to ensure safety of children not brought into foster care, 4) ensures timely risk assessments within 72 hours of child abuse and neglect reports, 5) ensures foster parents have access, at the time of placement, to full medical records of their foster child, and 6) fixes a background check duplication issue for child care providers (saving them at least $40 per employee) and allows for non-expiring child care licenses.
Supported child care providers and families by encouraging the state to provide financial relief and assistance through its allocation of more than $66M in CARES Act funds.
2.2 percent increase in FY20 ($33,504,053) General Fund over FY19 (Mincic, 2020). There was an overall increase in child care from state and federal sources combined.
Missouri had percentage increase in General Funds for Early Childhood Program/ MO Preschool Program and Early Childhood Development, Education and Care Programs for low-income families from FY19 to FY20 (NCSL). There was an overall increase in pre-k from state and federal sources combined.
65.9 percent increase in General Funds from FY20 ($4,611,500) over FY19 (Mincic, 2020).
Early Childhood Special Education: 6.4 percent increase in FY20 ($36,013,040) over FY19 in Dedicated Funds (Early Childhood Development, Education and Care Fund funds; lottery funds for education) (NCSL).
Helped secure $3 million in Medicaid matching funds for home visiting programs; General Assembly approved budget language to allow home visiting programs to draw down a federal Medicaid match, increasing funding for family supports.

*Early childhood policy progress in a state is the result of numerous efforts — by those listed on this page and many others — who worked both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

More from Missouri:

After Two Years of Work in Missouri, Allies Win Executive Order to Merge State Offices Serving Youngest Children

January 29, 2021

Missouri’s governor has announced the formation of the Office of Childhood, and advocates around the state celebrated the move as a monumental step towards creating a comprehensive vision and program alignment of Missouri’s early childhood system.

2019 Missouri Legislative Session Shows Advocacy Translating into Success

August 8, 2019

From 2012-2016, Missouri was the only state in the country to ban quality rating systems for early childhood providers. Alliance partner Kids Win Missouri catalogs the two years of progress since the state legislature lifted the ban — and how the state is finally righting the course in early childhood policy.

Download the full 50-State report.

The Alliance for Early Success 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Policy expands state data (disaggregating low-income young children by race) and provides high-level state policy trend analysis for the nation as a whole. Click the icon to download the report.

State Budget Data: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), “Table 4: Fiscal 2020 State General Fund, Estimated (Millions); The Fiscal Survey of the States.” Spring, 2020

Low-Income Data (including disaggregation by race): National Center for Children in Poverty, “NCCP Analysis of ACS 1-year Estimates—Public Use Microdata Sample, 2019.”

State Action Data: Provided by state advocates, October-November 2020, with analysis and synthesis by Frontera Strategy for Alliance for Early Success, “Protecting Progress and Investing in Scale: The 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Education Policy.”

Additional State Actions: Mincic, Melissa, Early Care and Education, State Budget Actions, Fiscal Year 2020. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), October 2020.