Child Care

The Child Care Task Force of Ellis County was established in September 2021 by The Chamber in Hays, Kansas and is facilitated by President/CEO Sarah Wasinger. Meetings occur the second Tuesday of every month, excluding December, at 4 p.m. in the Welcome Center conference room located at 2700 Vine St. unless otherwise noted on the calendar. All businesses and non-profit organizations are invited to attend and participate in the meetings.

Mission: Providing resources for child care professionals to cultivate our next generation of community leaders and workforce.

Vision: A community that will empower current and future child care professionals to provide quality care that further strengthens Elis County families and business.

Goals:

1. Execute an updated childcare survey to provide future direction to task force for ongoing efforts

2. Apply for grant funding and generate sponsorships to cover crisis response kits that equip providers with the materials they need to keep children and themselves safe in the event of a crisis

3. Work with the Kansas Department of Health & Environment and local childcare providers to create a crisis handbooks and flip charts that outline step-by-step instructions for handling a wide variety of crisis situations

4. Connect families with child care providers in Ellis County

5. Make resources for child care professionals more readily accessible and communicate where they can find assistance for their profession

6. Advance the quality of care through continued education and professional development offered by the task force and Innovation Center

7. Develop a comprehensive pay to play model for businesses that want to remove barriers to childcare for their employees

8. Work with Hays High School to ensure the CDA track for childcare is finalized as a pathway

9. Host a provider resource fair and provider inservice

10. Share documentation that outlines requirements of being a provider and the rules and regulations that need followed to current and prospective providers

11. Share resources from the Kansas Department of Health & Environment that outline good questions for caregivers to ask prospective providers for their children

12. Update resources on The Chamber's website for the task force

Thank you to the individuals below for their participation and support of the Child Care Task Force of Ellis County!