Douglas County approves $100,000 challenge to expand child-care scholarships

Douglas County commissioners on Oct. 15 authorized the county administrator's office to proceed with a one-time $100,000 community childcare scholarship challenge fund that will match outside pledges and be administered by Positive Brightstart.

The fund is intended to expand an existing scholarship program that helps low-income families access early childhood care. "This would the $100,000 would be, in a sense, a pledge in the form that would establish a, a 1 time childcare, scholarship challenge fund," county staff member Jill Jellicker told commissioners during the meeting. She said the fund would be open Jan. 1 and would wrap up Dec. 20, 2026.

The scholarship program is currently run by Positive Brightstart. Marie Taylor, executive director of Positive Brightstart, and Sunday Monson, who oversees the scholarship program there, joined staff to describe administration and eligibility. Taylor said Positive Brightstart already uses funding from the Kansas Early Childhood Block Grant to administer scholarships and that accepting the county matching funds would not create new administrative costs for the agency. "They have the capacity to put out to to to process these very smoothly with families and the providers," Jellicker said.

Under the challenge-grant framework, private donors, foundations and businesses would be asked to pledge contributions; the county would be invoiced for its share and provide a match when pledges are received. Jellicker and partners cited previous donor commitments to the scholarship program, including a pledge from the Lawrence Restaurant Association and Mass Street Fish House, and identified the Douglas County Community Foundation and the Rice Foundation as potential partners.

Commissioners discussed eligibility and accountability. Commissioner Kelly asked whether the program would apply the same eligibility and provider requirements used for existing early-education grant dollars; staff said they expect to use the same framework because it encourages reporting and standards that support outcomes in the community health improvement plan. Taylor said the program prioritizes families with the greatest need and that home-based providers have participated in the past.

Commissioners also discussed whether smaller employers could participate; Jellicker and Taylor described a consolidation approach by which smaller donors could pool gifts to reach match thresholds so larger matches would be triggered. Taylor and staff emphasized flexibility in match amounts and that the challenge proposal is a starting point.

Commissioner Reed moved to authorize the county administrator's office to proceed with the proposed community childcare scholarship challenge fund as detailed in the agenda; a second was recorded and the motion passed unanimously.

The county will not pay administrative costs to Positive Brightstart for this match, staff said, and the proposed timeline aims to concentrate fundraising and matching activity within the 2026 calendar year.