Since COVID, Kanetha Brown has had more and more parents reach out to her for a spot at her daycare, K-Bee's. She is routinely reaching the limit of 10 kids.

"I normally let (parents) know there's a waitlist or call back, sometimes they just want even a drop-in," she told KAKE.

That capacity limit is now changing. On Tuesday the Wichita City Council voted unanimously to approve the new joint city and county daycare regulations that increase the maximum a home daycare can be licensed for from 10 to 12.

"Essentially, we're just going to be following the state law now and for some reason, our ordinance was more restrictive," says Councilperson Becky Tuttle. 

Tuttle leads the City Council's efforts to make this change. She says it is an easy improvement to give around 300 providers more space. 

"Every one of our anchor industries and supply chain organizations says that workforce is their biggest issue right now, or one of their biggest issues," said Tuttle.

"They need a more skilled workforce and if we can have safe, reliable, affordable, early learning opportunities, child care opportunities, that really ensures that our workforce can be where they need to be, at work.”

The potential for added daycare spots is massively needed in Wichita and Sedgwick County according to Child Start's executive director Tanya Bulluck. 

The organization helps daycares throughout South Central Kansas with resources and coaching. Bulluck says "just last year, we were only meeting 38% of the demand of children who need care and right now we're at 41%."

She says the situation is a crisis, not just here but all over Kansas. So while this change might seem small, she says "we have roughly 648 programs that could potentially take advantage of this opportunity.”

Both Bulluck and Tuttle say this change could also encourage more people to start a home daycare business because the two extra spots mean more revenue. Brown says that will be a benefit to a lot of people starting out because she knows it'll be a big help to her.

"Everything has gone up in every grocery went up, supplies have gone up. So having those two extra children would help me with the education of the kids and buying things for them.”