Elle Cormaney, 15 months, left, explores a bag Thursday at the home-based day care of Vicky Lord. With Elle and Lord, from left, are Tylan Griffin, 2 months; Riley Loeppke, 21 months; and Nathan Peltier, 9 months. Because of stagnant reimbursement levels by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services for day care, some providers are hesitant to accept children whose care is paid through SRS. In the past, Lord said she took children paid through SRS but would lose 00 to 00 a month. Now, she said she would think twice before accepting them.

The rates the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services pays for child care have remained stagnant for six years.

As a result, there seem to be fewer centers and homes taking SRS-funded children. Some have been forced to close.

What SRS pays for child care is among the core concerns of the recently formed statewide union – Child Care Providers Together.

“It’s time for things to start changing and to be brought up to date,” said Phyllis Mosher, who is a member of the child care union and cares for children out of her home in Topeka.

SRS looks at parents’ income to determine how much to give for child care. If the amount is less than what child care providers are charging, parents are expected to make up the difference.

Parents who qualify for child care funding are those with low incomes, receiving temporary assistance, receiving food assistance, getting education or training, or a teenager completing a high school education. To be eligible, a family of four must have a monthly salary of $3,184 or less.

SRS reimbursement rates were called into question earlier this month when Lakeshore Learning Center, a Topeka day care that had 137 children, announced it would close.

“I don’t expect we will be the last,” Director Roberta Sekavec said.

Ninety-five percent of the center’s children were funded by SRS, and it was the only center in town to take children during the late-night work shift.

The gap between what SRS paid, $2.22 an hour, and what the center charged, between $2.88 and $3.77 an hour, continued to grow, Sekavec said.

“More and more families and parents (were) unable to make up the difference. And then what you have are children falling through the cracks,” she said.

SRS spokesperson Michelle Ponce said legislative approval would be needed to spend more money on child care assistance. In the past, the department has focused on ensuring the maximum number of families would have access to child care.

“I would say it is not a unique concern with child care, but providers of all our services,” Ponce said.

Lawrence child care provider Vickie Lord will think twice before accepting another child funded under SRS. The gap between what parents who use SRS pay and her rates can be as much as $100 to $200 a month.

“You get frustrated because you are still not getting paid for that child what you are getting paid for all the others. And (SRS says) it is up to you to work that out with (the parent),” Lord said. “Well, they wouldn’t be on SRS if they had the means to pay like our private people do. So they are expecting them to do something they can’t do.”

At Stepping Stone Inc., Director Shelly Platz-Davidson said with a budget already tight because of the high cost of taking care of infants, there wasn’t room to subsidize SRS children as well.

“I always felt a little conflicted for not providing that opportunity, but I also felt financially it was going to be hard for us,” Platz-Davidson said.

Not everyone taking SRS funded children is unhappy.

“They are no different than private pay,” said Tina Amour, who takes care of 10 children in her Lawrence home.

Since the child care providers union has formed, union spokesperson David Patterson said there have been some improvements with SRS. For example, child care providers are given a warning when a parent’s SRS funding runs out.

“It was just a blip in the process,” Patterson said.