Laura Kelly's task force wants child care reorganization. Will Kansas Legislature approve?

A task force established by Gov. Laura Kelly has completed its assignment, delivering to the governor a plan to reorganize the state government's early childhood services.

The Kansas Early Childhood Transition Task Force approved a 135 page final report to the governor on Monday.

"I see it as a roadmap and a blueprint for how we can rearrange the programs that we're already providing, but do it in a way that makes it easier for families," Kelly told reporters afterward. "There's more of a one stop shop for early childhood services rather than this maze that they have to go through now. I also expect that over time it will make our state government much more efficient and effective, possibly saving us some money, allowing us to redirect those monies into actual services rather than bureaucracy."

Kansas early childhood services report was a year in the making

The report is the culmination of a year-long process studying one of Kelly's 2022 reelection campaign promises: to consolidate child care and early childhood development programs into a single cabinet-level state agency. Creation of the task force via executive order last January was Kelly's first official action of her second term.

Fulfilling that campaign promise will require cooperation between the Democratic governor's administration and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

"The work is still ahead," said Cornelia Stevens, the task force co-chair and a director of a Wichita child care provider. "We've submitted the report and now it's time to bring this to life. It's now in the hands of the governor and the Legislature."

While the task force had influential legislators on it, some have expressed doubt that the Legislature would approve of such a substantial change to the operation of state government. Kelly said she has not yet had conversations with legislative leadership about what would be acceptable to them.

"We recognize that we can come up with the best plan in the world, but if we can't get it through the Legislature, then it's all for naught," Kelly said. "So we purposely included some some pretty substantial legislators on this committee so that they could have input and they could guide the committee's work in a way that allows for the Legislature to look at all the options available and decide how we ought to rearrange our early childhood services."

The governor cannot unilaterally reorganize the services, which are established in their current agencies by law. Such an administrative change requires either an act of the Legislature or an executive reorganization order.

The Kansas Constitution provides for executive reorganization orders, but the Legislature can block them — as they did in 2020 to Kelly's proposals to form a state energy office and to reunite social welfare services in one agency.

Participants at various task force meetings have agreed that Kansas' early childhood services are not well organized.

50 child care and early education programs are spread across Kansas government

A state inventory identified 50 child care and early childhood education programs spread across the Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and the Kansas Department of Education, which also houses the Kansas Children's Cabinet and Trust Fund.

Part of the task force's job was to determine which of those programs should stay in their existing location, such as DCF's child welfare services, and which should move, such as KDHE's child care licensing role. The report laid out plans for what to move, the logistics of the transition and how to evaluate it through data and metrics.

"Through the unification of these services, the Task Force believes that Kansas can create greater government accountability of our system, streamline processes to reduce bureaucratic red tape, eliminate duplication across the system, and enhance the experiences of children and families by creating a one-stop shop for early childhood care and education," the report states.

The report recommended a timeline where the realignment of state programs isn't complete until July 1, 2026, and it indicated additional funding will be needed for temporary costs to properly transition services.

While the original idea called for creation of a new state agency dedicated to early childhood services, the task force suggested the same goal could be accomplished by reorganizing the services under an existing agency.

"Both options should be considered, as realignment is needed, regardless of the form it takes," the report said.

Kelly said she appreciated the flexibility in the task force's recommendations for how a consolidation is accomplished.

"We ought to be consolidating all of the services that are being provided to our early childhood education and care system in a way that's better for the families and more effective and efficient for the state," Kelly said.

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Laura Kelly's child care task force wants unified Kansas state agency