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*For Immediate Release:    *     
November 25, 2025
          
*Contact:    *     
Grace Hoge
[email protected]

*ICYMI: Governor Kelly Highlights
Economic Impacts of Investing in Child Care*

*"
KEY QUOTE"*: “Kelly, who is about to enter her last year in office, said she is "looking forward to coming back in a few years and seeing the outcome of consolidating "[early childhood] "services." In her seven years in office, she thinks the state has "come a long way." "When I was running in 2018, I talked about that, that when I was finished being governor *what I wanted was to leave behind the most robust, comprehensive early childhood system in the country*," Kelly said. "Are we there yet? No, we're not. Working on it, and we're getting closer and closer, but I'm very proud of the strides that we have made given what we've had to go through during the seven years, including that pandemic, which was a real barrier to the trajectory that we had in mind for early childhood."

*Why Kansas child care funding was an investment in economy* [ [link removed] ]
*"Jason Alatidd, Topeka Capital-Journal"*
November 23, 2025


* When Kansas got an influx of federal pandemic relief money, state officials invested millions of dollars in child care. The result has been thousands of additional slots spread around the state, including hundreds in Topeka, thanks to the Kansas Child Care Capacity Accelerator grant program.


* The Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University last month released the results of its annual Kansas Speaks public opinion survey. [ [link removed] ]The poll included questions about child care. *Of the poll respondents, 91% said high-quality, affordable infant and toddler care is either highly or extremely important for Kansas families.

*
* "Whether you're talking the capital city or you're talking Scott City, child care is absolutely fundamental to economic growth," Kelly said.


* Kelly recalled traveling to the Paris Air Show for a trade mission in her first year as governor, where she had her first meeting as governor with CEOs. As her Kansas Department of Commerce staff discussed incentives for businesses, "I just threw out at that meeting, so what if we were to figure out a way to work together on child care?"


* In that meeting and others later, business leaders "immediately grabbed onto that idea," Kelly said. "It was like somebody had finally brought to their attention something that really would make a difference, particularly because workforce is always their biggest issue and here we can have something that will help you attract and retain workforce."


* Kelly also views child care funding as being more than an economic investment. "It's not just that it makes it easier for this couple to go to work while their child is well taken care of in this center or that home," she said. "But rather, what this investment will do for the state of Kansas overall."


* *As of October, the accelerator grant had helped create 5,101 new licensed child care slots statewide*, according to an impact report [ [link removed] ]by the University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research. Of those new slots, 30% were for infants, defined as children under 18 months old. The grant helped hire 802 staff members, and the state reports that in many cases the funding supported higher wages. The state estimates that 5,655 new child care slots will be created statewide by the time all projects are completed.


* "What we're trying to do is to build on what we have been doing," she said. "*We have increased the number of slots that are available. I think we've increased the quality of early child care and early childhood education in the state.* There's lots more to do. That's why I'm really excited that we were finally able to get the Legislature to let us set up the Office of Early Childhood." That new office consolidates government services and had been a priority of Kelly's second term.


* "That's going to allow us to build on what we've already accomplished," Kelly said. "Because we're going to eliminate a lot of the duplication or gaps that currently exist because we'll have one set of eyes sort of looking at everything rather than having everything siloed all across. So it's going to make a difference in what we're able to provide as a state, both the effectiveness of it, the cost effectiveness of it, but it's also going to eliminate a lot of the bureaucratic red tape that our families have to go through, our providers have to go through and our businesses have to go through…*I couldn't be more pleased than to know that that's there and that will be there for the next generation of Kansans.*”

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