To help remedy the state’s child care shortage, 27 organizations have been allocated $11.4 million to open up more child care slots across the state. Gov. Laura Kelly, in conjunction with the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, announced a second wave of funding for child care programs Thursday as part of an initiative meant to accelerate the development of more child care options statewide. “Building off the grants announced this summer, this funding will be transformational for families and communities across the state,” Kelly said. “Expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care will spur economic growth by allowing more families [...]

Three years after the pandemic sent most Kansas kids home to learn, schools have a vexing new challenge: getting them to come back to class. Missing school has become a crisis statewide. More than one in four Kansas students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, which means they missed at least 10% of instruction time. That figure nearly doubled over the previous two years. State education leaders are still compiling data from last school year, but they expect the problem is getting worse. “Definitely a dramatic uptick … which is not what anybody would want to see,” said Robyn [...]