Flexible Child Care Solutions for Today’s Workforce

Child Care, Workforce, and Business: What’s Taking Shape in Missouri

Across Missouri, employers are increasingly seeing what families experience every day: when child care is unstable or unaffordable, it directly affects workforce participation, attendance, and retention.

That reality is driving new collaboration across the state. In partnership with Kids Win Missouri and Child Care Aware ® of Missouri (CCAMO), Missouri is advancing the Child Care Works (CCW) concept, a strategy designed to help employers, families, and communities share responsibility for child care solutions.

What Is the Child Care Works Concept?

CCW is a workforce-focused approach that recognizes child care as a shared economic issue not just a family concern. The concept brings together:

• Employers
• Families
• Community and state partners

to explore practical ways to improve child care affordability while supporting employee retention and economic growth.

Rather than expecting employees to solve child care alone, CCW focuses on coordination, navigation, and shared investment.

While CCW is one option, another tool employers may be able to leverage as part of a broader child care strategy is the Employer-Provided Child Care Tax Credit (Internal Revenue Code Section 45F).

Under this provision, employers may be eligible for:

• Up to 25% of qualified child care facility or cost-sharing expenditures
• Up to 10% of qualified child care resource and referral expenditures
• A combined annual credit capped at $150,000, claimed using IRS Form 8882

Employers should always consult their tax professionals to determine eligibility. While the credit alone is not a solution, it can help offset costs when paired with thoughtful workforce strategies like those being explored through CCW.

Other Forms of Employee Support 

Additionally, through CCAMO and the Missouri Childhood Resource and Referral (MCRR) service, employers can connect employees to:

• Child care resource and referral services
• Concierge-style navigation to reduce employee stress
• Guidance on available community resources

These supports allow employers to help address child care challenges without managing cases or becoming child care experts themselves.

This is a growing and ongoing conversation, not a one-size-fits-all solution. We can provide options that are intentionally flexible. Some employers start by:

• Sharing child care navigation resources with employees
• Participating in regional workforce conversations
• Exploring cost-sharing or tax-supported strategies
• Learning how existing tools can support their workforce

The goal is not immediate adoption, but informed engagement by helping employers understand how child care affects their workforce and what options may be available.

Child care works when the workforce works and Missouri is building the path forward.

Click here to learn more about the MCRR service or Child Care Works or email cckmw@mochildcareaware.org. 

Explore our other Child Care Aware® of Missouri resources:

Clock Hour Training
Scholarships for Educators
Child Care Health and Wellness
Family Child Care Network
Leadership Development Opportunities
Missouri Office of Childhood Updates
Show Me Child Care Resources
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