Missouri’s education department hopes to resolve a backlog of payments to daycares across the state in the next two months, agency staff told the State Board of Education on Tuesday.

The department previously predicted the backlog — which has left many daycares on the brink of closure — would be overcome by the end of July.

Everyone involved in the process “is frustrated, is exhausted, is at the end of their rope, myself included,” said Pam Thomas, assistant commissioner for Missouri’s Office of Childhood. “And I think that the only thing that you can say is you recognize it. We sincerely apologize.”

Technical issues with the education department’s disbursal of federal funds has left many daycare providers struggling to keep their doors open as they wait on payment from the state.

“We understand this program is vital, not only to the providers and the families, but to the employers, to those that are going to school,” Thomas said. “We understand that, and we are doing the best we can to get this cleaned up within the next month and get back on track.”

The subsidy, part of a federal block grant program that is state-administered, helps cover the cost for daycare owners serving low-income and foster children.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the program, has largely blamed a contracted vendor for the months-long backlogs. The system, which launched in December, is still not fully operational.

The vendor contracted to develop and implement the new system for the subsidy program is World Wide Technology, a large technology services provider headquartered in St. Louis.

“The first time the vendor put more resources and came on site and took us seriously was May 1,” she said. “We are not experts in an information technology system in the department.”

She said World Wide Technology has doubled their staffing on the project and brought in experts, but until it did that, the agency was “treading water” because it didn’t have the expertise to fix various issues.

The state now has three vendors working on the program and “it takes all three of them to come together and get on the same page with what we need,” Thomas said.

Thomas said they are bringing in outside staff to help work through the backlog, because they have enough staff to process new requests as they come in but “do not have the capacity for the backlog on top of that.”

Those other vendors are MTX Support, to help with the data system, and KinderSystems for administering the system that tracks children’s attendance for payments, said Mallory McGowin, a spokeswoman for the education department, in an email to The Independent.

McGowin said it took “longer than expected” to contract with and onboard the vendors. There are now around 1,800 providers’ accounts that will be reviewed by the contractors, she said, a process that is currently underway.

Thomas estimated it would take 45 working days to clear the backlog, but that is “dependent upon the vendor getting those system glitches fixed.”

Board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge raised concern at the meeting for struggling daycare providers.

“I am keenly aware,” Westbrooks-Hodge said, “… of the challenges we’ve heard from providers who literally are going out of business because they’re not being paid.”

Providers, she added, “don’t have the margins to tolerate our issues.”

Karla Eslinger, who has been commissioner of education since July 1, said her agency is doing all it can, and urged providers “just keep working with us.”

She said the problems should’ve been addressed earlier.

“We should have addressed it this way three months ago,” Eslinger told the board.

Eslinger added that she has “no patience when it comes to this. We will get these folks paid. We will take care of these children.

“I’m hoping that next month we’re going to have a very, very different story.”

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.

Copyright 2024 St. Louis Public Radio

The barn doors have opened for the 2024 Missouri State Fair. The Show Me State’s largest agriculture expo is underway in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia.

State Fair Director Jason Moore said a new feature at this year’s fair is a drone show.

“The first three nights after each concert, it’ll be done in conjunction with our fireworks display that we’ve historically seen after a show. So, we’re going to have 200 drones up in the night sky lit up. And I think that’s going to be a really added show that really haven’t seen that at the fair before,” Moore told Missourinet.

State Department of Agriculture Director Chris Chinn said the entertainment for kids is a hit.

“Mr. Stinky Feet is always a favorite,” Chinn told Missourinet. “The Pied Piper, a percussion professor, Smarts Comedy Science Show, those are things that we continue to hear from parents, ‘Bring that back. It entertained my kids.’ They loved it. So, we’re going to have that. But we also have some new things. We have some magic shows.”

Chinn said a new fair food this year is elephant ears.

“That is more of a southern United States fair favorite,” she said. ‘But elephant ears, I’ve had them as a child at the Illinois State Fair. They are amazing. You know, it’s just fried dough with cinnamon and sugar on them. It’s kind of like bready. As a child, they were my favorite. I haven’t had one since I was an adult.”

Moore said the live music is a popular attraction each year.

“The Budweiser stage, and they’ll do bands throughout the afternoon and then into the evening. Our kids stage, there’s a lot of free entertainment acts that just roll throughout the day,” said Moore.

Other popular fair attractions include the livestock competitions, giant sculpture made out of butter, tractor pulls, carnival rides and petting zoo.

Meanwhile, the fair has returned just in time for mild temperatures. Chinn hopes that the weather will be nice throughout the 11-day event.

“The weather can really complement your fair, or it can really have a negative impact on it. And so, you know, we can always count on one thing during the Missouri State Fair, we’re going to get rain in the state of Missouri. We always joke that maybe we should move it to July, because that seems to be when we really need those rains,” Chinn said.

After two years of drought problems, Missouri has been blessed with decent rain this year.

“Money just gets tight on the farm,” said Chinn. “It’s very hard to pick up those livestock and travel with them, hay shortage, feed shortages. We’ve had a drought the last two years, and the livestock community was kind of resilient to it. It really shocked us.”

The weather during last year’s fair was mostly mild – driving about 350,000 people to the fair.

The State Fair runs through August 18th.

Copyright © 2024 · Missourinet

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Friday’s practice for the Missouri Tigers provided quite a bit of insight. The team even provided a peek at the first and second lineups during a no-huddle drill. Five players — Daniel Blood, Marcus Bryant, Javen Richardson, Corey Flagg and Nicholas Deloach — spoke to the media after practice.

Here are MissouriOnSI’s notes and observations from Friday’s allotted practice viewing and player interviews:

•  Starting offensive line during goal line drills (left to right): Extra blocker: LT: Marcus Bryant (52), RG: Cayden Green (70), C: Connor Tollison RG: Cam’Ron Johnson (74), Armand Membou (79), Additional blocker: Mitchell Walters (75)

• The second lineup ran an interesting trick play in goal line; Drew Pyne lined up at receiver, looked like Daniel Blood in the wildcat. Pyne ran back for the wildcat player to toss it back to him before Pyne tossed a touchdown to a tight end.

• Brett Norfleet, for the third day in a row, did not appear to be out at practice during the media viewing session.

• Eli Drinkwitz added some entertainment by signing country music over the speakers in between frequent “woo!” yells. Safe to say he made the correct career choice.

• Williams Nwaneri and Nate Noel were both taking reps on the kickoff team.

• No surprises with the first-team offensive lines during the no-huddle drill with Noel in the backfield: Bryant, Green, Tollison, Johnson, Membou

• Offensive line in the second lineup: LT: Jayven Richardson (76), LG: Logan Reichert (66), C: Drake Heismeyer (69), RG: Curtis Peagler (77), Mitchell Walters (75).

• Nate Noel looks as advertised with his twitchiness. Had a nice cut outside on a run to the left. He’s quick but smart with his vision.

• Wide receiver Daniel Blood said in his press conference he’s working on improving his ability after the catch. Said coaching staff emphasized darting, or turning, up the field as soon as he catches it instead of waiting to engage with a defender.

• Blood also said he has experience as punt returner, was an all-state returner, a position Drinkwitz said Blood will get a chance to compete at. Says fearlessness, trust in blockers and vision are all crucial to being a good returner.

• SMU transfer OT Marcus Bryant said he feels like a missing puzzle piece Missouri was looking for. Says he was looking for a team that wasn’t rebuilding.

• Miami transfer linebacker Corey Flagg was honest that former defensive coordinator Blake Baker was the main reason he transferred to Missouri before Baker left for LSU. But Flagg was convinced by Drinkwitz and linebackers coach D.J. Smith that Missouri was still the right program for him to have the opportunity to compete. Says the competition in the linebacker room is making every one better.

Watch the full interviews with OT Marcus Bryant and WR Daniel Blood below.

Football Position Previews: Quarterback | Running Back | Wide Receiver | Tight End | Offensive Line | Defensive Tackle|Inside Linebacker| Edge Rusher|Cornerbacks|Safeties|Special Teams

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