How Kentucky Built Substitute Staffing Into Its Child Care Rules

Most states say nothing at all about substitutes who work for someone other than the center.

Directors are left to work out for themselves whether an outside substitute is allowed, what has to be documented, and who is responsible for what.

Kentucky answered those questions in regulation. That is the kind of groundwork that lets a substitute pool actually function, and it is worth knowing about.

What Kentucky did

Kentucky's child care center licensure regulation, 922 KAR 2:090, defines a contract substitute staff member as a person who temporarily assumes the duties of a regular staff person and is paid by a contract entity rather than by the center. It then sets out what that arrangement requires: the same training standards as regular staff, entry into the state's training database as a staff member of that agency, and a complete hard copy records file kept on site and retained for five years.

Kentucky also requires licensed centers to have qualified substitutes available. One for a Type II center, two for a Type I.

Put those together and you get a state that has done the work on both ends. It expects centers to have substitute capacity, and it has written down how an outside agency can legitimately provide it.

The background check piece

Kentucky's screening system, KARES, is built so that an approved entity can hold a worker's clearance. An agency enrolled in the system submits the application, receives the determination, and employs the cleared worker. A center placing that worker is not starting the process over.

A substitute working across a metro might pick up shifts at a new center most weeks. If each one had to run its own screening, they would spend more time waiting on determinations than working in classrooms.

What none of this is

None of this is unique to Tandem, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Kentucky's system is open to any staffing agency willing to enroll and meet the requirements. What the state has built is a clear path, not an exclusive one.

We think that is the right design. A state that makes room for one agency has done a favor. A state that makes room for the model has changed something.

The workforce piece

Kentucky has put real money behind this workforce.

Since October 24, 2022, per the Division of Child Care, any employee of a licensed or certified child care program working at least twenty hours a week has been eligible for the Child Care Assistance Program with all household income excluded from the application. The people caring for other families' children could not always afford care for their own, and Kentucky removed the income test for them specifically. Centers receive full reimbursement for those employees' children without having to offer a discount.

If you run a program in Kentucky, that is a retention tool you can raise in interviews. There are conditions, including that an employee cannot be their own child's primary teacher, and it does not apply to center owners.

Kentucky has also invested on the provider side. In July 2021 the state raised CCAP reimbursement to the 80th percentile of its market rate survey, meaning the state's maximum payment covers what most Kentucky programs actually charge. The legislature has funded keeping it there in the budgets since.

What it does not solve

Policy that makes substitute pools possible does not, on its own, staff a classroom.

Kentucky centers still run thin margins and high turnover, and the gap between a state that has made room for this model and a Tuesday when two teachers call out is exactly the gap we built Tandem to close. What that Tuesday costs is its own subject, covered in The Real Cost of a Missed Day.

That is a large part of why Kentucky is our sixth state.

Get started

Centers in Kentucky: Create a free profile at join-tandem.com. We are live in the Louisville area now, with Lexington coming soon.

Teachers in Kentucky: Download the Tandem app to begin your onboarding and start booking shifts at licensed centers near you.

🧸 Crib Notes

• Most states are silent on outside substitutes. Kentucky defined a contract substitute staff member in regulation and spelled out the training, database entry, and five year on-site file that come with it.
• The state also requires centers to keep qualified substitutes available. One for a Type II center, two for a Type I. It expects the capacity and it explains how an agency can supply it.
• KARES lets an approved agency hold a worker's clearance, so a substitute picking up shifts at a new center most weeks is not restarting screening each time.
• None of this is exclusive to Tandem. Any agency willing to enroll and meet the requirements can use the same path, which is what makes it good policy rather than a favor.
• Since October 2022, child care employees working twenty or more hours a week qualify for CCAP with all household income excluded, and centers are reimbursed in full rather than discounting.
• Policy makes the model possible. It does not staff the classroom on the Tuesday two teachers call out.

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