By Dalton Black, Executive Director, United Way of Harvey and Marion Counties
In 2023, the largest daycare in Harvey County closed, and families were left scrambling. That’s how the Harvey County Childcare Task Force got started. Parents, providers, employers, schools and public agencies came together around one question: what would it take to make quality childcare available and affordable for every family here?
Three years later, we still don’t have a complete answer. What we do have is a set of experiments. Each one tests an idea, and each one is teaching us something. Here’s where they stand.
The problem we’re trying to solve
Harvey County has enough licensed childcare for only about a quarter of the children who need it. That’s a gap of roughly 1,352 slots, according to Child Care Aware of Kansas data from this spring. The more surprising number is this: our providers are licensed to care for 540 children full time, but they enroll only 358. The buildings and licenses are there. What’s missing is the staff to open those classrooms and the wages to keep good teachers.
That’s hard to fix from inside a childcare center. If a center raises tuition to pay teachers more, care gets even harder for working families to afford. Providers keep telling us the same thing: they can’t raise pay without pricing out the families they serve.
Experiment one: paying the people who provide care
This summer, we awarded our first round of Childcare Workforce Stabilization Grants through the Early Childhood Initiative Fund. Four licensed centers received a total of $39,000:
- Cardinal Kids Learning Academy in Sedgwick
- Community Playschool in North Newton
- Hesston Community Child Care Association
- Little Railers Daycare in Newton
The rule was simple: every dollar goes to staff pay. Centers can use it for wage supplements, retention and hiring bonuses, or incentives for evening and weekend hours, whichever staffing problem is holding them back most. The grants run through June 2027. Each center will report on how the money affects hiring, retention and staff morale. That gives us local data instead of guesses.
Experiment two: taking pressure off providers
Through our part of the Saline, Harvey and Ellsworth Counties Child Care Zone, led by Salina Area United Way, we tested a range of smaller supports this year:
- 12 programs got BrightWheel subscriptions to handle billing, attendance and parent communication.
- One program got a bookkeeping subscription.
- Childcare staff received 13 gym memberships.
- Providers across the county received Med Kits.
In March, 20 providers from Harvey, Marion and McPherson Counties came to our first networking conference. One of our four grant recipients first heard about the grant there. In August, we joined neighboring counties to host a Childcare Business Summit in McPherson on tax credits and how employers can help.
Our Zone partners are testing ideas too. Across the three counties, 9 providers have received $51,000 to offer evening, overnight and weekend care, and 17 providers have received $67,500 in wage supplements.
What the statewide evaluation is telling us
The University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research recently evaluated Child Care Zones across Kansas. Several findings match what we’re seeing here. Other providers are often a provider’s most valuable resource. Small investments, like stipends for after-hours care or infant and toddler slots, have made a real difference in several communities. The harder work of building lasting systems takes longer and needs support well beyond a single grant. That’s why we’re investing in relationships and a stronger coalition, not just one-time checks.
What’s next: new experiments for Year 3
Our Zone is working on renewing for our Year 3 award, shared between the two United Ways, for September 2026 through September 2027. We’re using it to build on what we’ve learned and try a few new ideas:
- A second round of workforce grants, with more emphasis on evening and weekend care. Right now, only two providers in Harvey County offer evening care, two offer weekend care, and none offer overnight care, even though our largest employers run around the clock.
- Grants to reopen unused classrooms. These would help programs turn licensed-but-empty slots back into care families can use.
- Small quality-improvement grants for things like safety equipment and classroom materials that keep a program from meeting licensing or quality standards.
- More employer involvement, including follow-up conversations with local businesses about funding care, reserving slots for employees, or offering childcare benefits.
- A second provider conference, with continuing education credit and support to cover the cost of attending.
Big news: a new CSBG award for families
I’m excited to share that United Way of Harvey and Marion Counties has received $44,000 through the Kansas Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) discretionary program, administered by the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation. It funds the Harvey County Childcare Access Initiative from September 2026 through August 2027.
The Zone grant mostly works with providers and staff. This grant works directly with families. It funds a program coordinator for the Task Force and a Harvey County Childcare Landscape Brief to guide where we invest next. It also funds a scholarship pilot: about 20 families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline will receive roughly $300 a month for three months, with priority for families with the lowest incomes. Mid-Kansas Community Action Program will help with referrals and eligibility.
Recognition for the Task Force
In February, Child Care Aware of Kansas named the Harvey County Childcare Task Force one of 66 Child Care Community Champions statewide. That’s a credit to every provider, parent, employer and partner who keeps showing up. The award isn’t the goal, though. Better care for Harvey County kids is the goal.
What we don’t know yet
Our honest answer right now is that we don’t yet know how these experiments will change childcare in Harvey County. The workforce grants have been running for just over two months. The first reports come in December. Some ideas will work better than we hoped, and some won’t. Real change here, like more open slots, more teachers who stay, and more families who can find care, will take years to show up in the numbers.
That’s the point of treating this work as a set of experiments. We try something, measure it carefully, and use what we learn to decide the next step. The 2026 Harvey County Community Health Needs Assessment now lists childcare access as a community health priority through 2029. That gives us a long-term commitment and a clear way to measure whether we’re making progress.
If you’re a provider, parent, employer or neighbor who cares about this, there’s a place for you on the Task Force. Reach out at info@uwhmc.org. We’d love your help figuring out what works.