AUGUST 2026 — POST 2 — CHURCHES

Preschools, Mother's Day Out, and Daycare: When Your Church Runs a School

As the school year starts, thousands of Kansas City area families drop their children at church-based preschools, Mother’s Day Out programs, and daycares. If your church runs one — or rents space to one — you’re in the childcare business, with everything that means for licensing, liability, and insurance. The good news: this is well-traveled ground, if you walk it deliberately.

If the church runs the program

First, licensing: Missouri and Kansas both regulate childcare, with exemptions that some church programs qualify for and some don’t — hours, ages, and program type all matter, and ‘we’re a church’ is not by itself an exemption. Get a definitive answer in writing. Second, insurance: tell your carrier exactly what the program is. Enrollment counts, ages served, hours, meals, transportation — these drive both coverage and price, and a program your policy doesn’t know about is a program it may not cover. Abuse and molestation coverage, discussed often in this series, is at its most critical here.

If an outside program uses your building

A real lease, not a handshake — with indemnification running to the church
The program’s own liability and abuse coverage, evidenced by certificates naming the church as additional insured, renewed annually
Clarity on who maintains the space, the playground, and the security systems — maintenance duties follow liability
Confirmation your own policy knows a childcare tenant operates in your building — it affects your coverage too

The playground and pickup line

Wherever the program’s liability ends, the church’s premises liability continues: parking lot traffic patterns at drop-off, playground equipment condition, sidewalks and stairs. An annual documented walk-through of the spaces children use — with repairs actually completed — is the least glamorous and most effective risk management a hosting church can do.

Questions about your coverage? I’ve spent more than 46 years helping Kansas City area businesses and families get insurance right. As an independent agent with access to over 50 markets, I work for you — not an insurance company. Call or text Jay Stoetzer at 816-384-7738, or email jay@insure247.com for a no-pressure review.