Introduction: In Kansas, only 44% of the needed child care placements are available to families. County child care varies dramatically from 25% to 63%. Employers are losing experienced workers due to the lack of affordable and accessible quality child care. Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) educators, facilitate coalitions to build child care capacity in local communities. Additionally, educators are working to develop the child care work force. These collaborative efforts have resulted in new child care centers, expanded early childhood education opportunities, increased family members in the workforce, and visionary approaches to child care training.

Panel Discussion: Educators from each of three Kansas counties share coalition designs and structures, stages of development each community child care coalition has experienced and the trajectory of their work ahead. Coalition constructs, challenges, and capacity building strategies are presented. Panelists will describe processes used to identify child care needs at the local level, present data collected from community surveys, address the impact of collected data, and present funding needs for building child care capacity in these communities. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with questions and answers following the panel presentation.