Child Care Compliance section

We monitor Missouri's child care facilities through inspections and investigations, ensuring providers meet standards that protect children's health, safety, and developmental needs.

Section Leaders: Caron Ahlemeyer, Kayla Todaro
Phone Number: 573-751-2450
Email: ChildCare@dese.mo.gov

A key feature of MTSS is the hierarchy of tiered levels of support that are matched to children’s needs. Matching support means a child may receive a different level of intervention for different outcomes. For example, a child’s needs may be met for mathematics and social/emotional behavior through the core curriculum (Tier 1), but that child may need intervention (Tier 2 or 3) for literacy.

Movement across tiers should be a fluid process. A child may change their need for a specific tier of intervention at any point in their learning and support should be quickly adjusted.

Section 544.456 RSMo, known as “Sam Pratt’s”  law, allows any court involved in a case of abuse, neglect, or death of a child to impose as a condition of release that the defendant is prohibited from providing child care services for compensation pending final disposition of the case.   Additionally, the court is required to notify the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and the Department of Social Services (DSS) when an order is filed, as well as the final disposition of the case.  If charges are filed with the court having jurisdiction and an order is file

An application should only be cancel rejected if the application was rejected incorrectly. Reasons an application may have been rejected incorrectly could include:

• Income was entered or budgeted incorrectly;
• Household provided information timely but the information was not entered timely in the system;
• Application was rejected before the application due date; or
• Household was not given sufficient notice to provide needed information.

Nita M. Lowey 21^st Century Community Learning Centers Grant

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) competitive grant application for school-age afterschool programming is currently closed. You may download the application below for reference to assist with any future planning. To view a list of approved applications, please click on 'approved programs' on the right side of the page.

Some household needs are considered invalid for Child Care Subsidy. Examples of child care needs that are not valid include, but are not limited to:

Homeless is defined as an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.