Big Wins for Our Little Ones

We are thrilled to share some big victories for early childhood coming out of this year’s session…

  • In the FY2020 budget process, an additional $260,000 was added to pay for the pilot site visits for the Quality Assurance Report (QAR) pilot project. QAR will create a framework to measure the quality level of early childhood programs and help understand where investments can be made to implement improvement strategies. Why does quality matter? Click here to find out! 

  •  Sen. Schupp filed SB 336, Nathan’s Law. Nathan’s Law will increase the safety of home-based child care settings by capping the number of children allowed in care. Nathan’s Law was included in SS SCS HCS HB 397 and was Truly Agreed and Finally Passed on 5/16. Now, it goes to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

  • Language allowing private early childhood education centers and programs to contract with school districts or charter schools was included in HB 604 and was Truly Agreed and Finally Passed on 5/17. This policy is important in creating a strong, mixed-service delivery system in Missouri. Need a refresher on what a “mixed-service delivery system” is? Click here!


These are all priorities that SouthSide and our partners have spent a great deal of time and energy advocating for over the last few years. Thank you to Senator Jill Schupp, Senator Wayne Wallingford, Representative Kathy Swan, Representative Brenda Shields and Representative Donna Pfautsch as well as our partners at Kids Win Missouri and Aligned who worked hard on the front lines and behind the scenes on behalf of Missouri children!

Cleo Fisher