EXCLUSIVE: Daycare Center Closes Because of Late State Payments

Some low income families are losing their child care center, and an error by the state may be to blame, according to a KY3 News exclusive report.

The owner of a northside Springfield daycare center says it will close its doors this week because of delayed payments from the state. Missouri officials call it a simple mistake, but some childcare workers are calling it a bigger problem.

80 percent of the families served by The Lala Bye Learning Center qualify for state funding.
So when the payments stopped last spring, it put the entire operation in a hole, according to owner Delilah Mays.

"This hurts me, this hurts me," says Mays of her decision to close Lala Bye Learning Center on East Divison Street. "This was a very hard decision for me to make."

She says she can no longer trust the state to pay her on time for the child care she provides.

"It's just, ridiculous, it's ridiculous," says Mays. "When you have payments that are withheld from you, that really hurts."

Mays says the state didn't reimburse her for three months of summer care - in May, June or July - until this fall. Mays estimates the total amount of delayed money was around $6,000.

"Why does the payment have to take so long? You shouldn't have to wait 60 to 90 days to get a payment," Mays says.

The Department of Social Services acknowledges the error. "There had been payments that were delayed, but they were made up in September. We had a worker that didn't do their job in this situation. But this is an aberration. It is not the norm," says spokeswoman Celesta Hartgraves. "We had a worker that didn't provide timely customer service. We are committed to working with this provider and making sure they get timely reimbursements," adds Hartgraves.

But Mays says her decision to close has been made.

"It hurt bad. It cost me to not be able to meet some of my operating expenses," says Mays. "You got payroll that's due every two weeks, you got supplies, you got utility bills, your phones. Things don't stop just because they make a mistake."

The daycare's closing will hurt lower-income parents like Amy Mcevans, who had to rush their children into other programs that are more expensive.

"It's costing a lot of people because with Delilah not being able to get paid like she should, it's hurting us parents because we have to pay more for daycare," says Mcevans.

"I couldn't believe it, because it was right around the corner. It was close, it was convenient," she adds. "I can't afford to call in, to stay home with him," she says referring to her son Dillon.

"It's tough for them and really tough for me," adds Mays.

While the state calls this an isolated mistake, Mays and other childcare workers tell KY3 News that timely payments to daycare centers have been a continuous bureaucratic problem in Jefferson City. They say it is a process that needs to be reformed.

"I just feel like until things are changed with the state, with the steps and processes they go through, to get daycare providers paid, I feel like I'm always going to be faced with these issues," Mays says.

Daycare workers say the main problems are that authorizations for payments are changed often without much notice and that there are too many people in Jefferson City that must sign off on a payment. Mays says reducing the red tape would help as well as making the pay period more frequent to twice a month, instead of just once.

Springfield State Senator Norma Champion was contacted for comment for this story but did not return calls. An Champion aide called back, and says as far as he knows, this mistake was an isolated incident.

"From what we understand that center takes care of 53 kids and the mistake involved four kids, so I can't imagine that would put her out of business," says the Champion aide. But he promised to look into the matter further to see if there was a more widespread problem.

Another person close to the daycare system contacted by KY3 today says the problem is bigger than this one instance.

"This one was probably just a mistake, but there have been lots of other things happening that make the system not work," the source says.

"Authorization of payments has been a real problem. The state will authorize a family for service, and the provider will assume to give that family care and then halfway through the period, the state just stops authorization. Unless you check every family every day, there is no way to know. And then providers won't be reimbursed for care," the source says.

The daycare source says it is rare that a provider gets paid in full every month, and that the discrepancy hurts daycare businesses.

"This system is not set up to protect child care providers. It's unpredictable and sloppy, and it needs to be reformed," she says.