"Our investigation found a felon living with a provider, billings for children no longer being cared for, facilities being paid for the same child twice and many other abuses that were costing Missourians millions," Blunt said. "This is an example of what better management and oversight can mean for important programs like child care. Now we can take the money we saved and use it to help additional low-income children and families access child care."
The child care program has an annual budget of $190 million. The result of Blunt's actions to enforce better management and oversight of the program will result in at least 10 percent savings in the child care program.
Blunt announced his plan to change current policy to improve the child care program and to recommend the same level of service be funded for 2008. The improvements this year can be funded entirely from the savings in the program. These improvements include:
- Raising income limits for child care eligibility for low-income families from 108 percent of the federal poverty level to 126 percent, which equals an annual income of $26,019 for a family of four. Blunt's action will provide services for 3,348 additional children.
- Increasing by 5 percent the reimbursement rates for licensed and inspected child care providers, including qualified faith-based facilities. This action will assist at least 28,475 children who are receiving care from these providers.
- Funding a $4 million electronic time and attendance system to bring additional efficiencies and savings to the program.
"We expect to bring additional efficiencies to this program that will allow us to serve even more children," said Blunt. "I look forward to working with the General Assembly to continue these improvements for 2008."
