Distinct Count of Children

How many children are served in the Kansas early childhood care and education system?

Where are those children located? What services are they receiving?

As of 2022, there are a total of 212,462 children across Kansas (American Community Survey, 2022, one year estimates). To effectively serve those children and their families, the Kansas early childhood system must understand:

about how many children are being served in each of the 4 major early care and education programs;
where children receive services by county and region; and
the ages and other demographics of who those children are.

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Total Approximate Count of Children Birth Through 5 Served in 2023

113,523 Children

Disclaimer

This number is approximate. Some data contains duplicates and some data is under-reported. See methodology documentation for more information.

Explore the interactive data dashboard

Services

What systems serve Kansas children?

Child Care

63,552 Children

Defined as: Non-parental or non-relative care provided in a licensed day care home, a group day care home, a child care center, or an independent preschool not affiliated with, or located at, a public school. Some families whose children receive Child Care Services are eligible for Child Care Assistance subsidies to help pay for the cost of these services. Note: demographic data does not include the child care assistance program. See methodology documentation for detailed information.

Home Visiting

12,324 Children

Defined as: Education and support offered to families and their young children by a trained family-support professional in the family’s home. See methodology documentation for detailed information.

Pre-K

26,053 Children

Defined as: Preschool services offered by local providers for all children birth through 5.

Part C

11,596 Children

Defined as: Comprehensive statewide program of early intervention services for infants and toddlers ages birth through 2 with disabilities, and their families. See methodology documentation for detailed information.

You might notice that these numbers don’t add up to the total children served, shown above. This is because a child may be receiving one or more services at the same time – for example, they might be in child care and also receiving Part C intervention services.

Our numbers reflect the best available data for each type of services and we are not able to determine if the same child is receiving multiple services at this time. Additionally, demographic data provided does not include the child care assistance program.

Timeframe

July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023

Data in this dashboard represents children served during the state fiscal year which is July 1–June 30 of every year.

Services versus funding

Focus on service delivery

The Kansas early childhood ecosystem (meaning all the types of early childhood care and education programming) is a complex braiding of agencies, programs, and funding sources. The dashboard focuses on the number of children served across the ecosystem. The dashboard cannot be used to draw conclusions about the availability, or lack thereof, of services in various counties and regions in Kansas.

Stellar future

More to come!

What you see here is only the beginning: more data (including census data), more functionality, and enhanced features are on the horizon. Contact the team at ECIDS@ku.edu to get involved or learn more.