The State of Illinois is expanding assistance to child care providers for low income families.
Governor J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday the state is pumping an additional $20 million into efforts to help daycare centers in the Child Care Assistance Program to stay open and to provide a place for parents to take their kids during work hours: “The State will cover all eligible days of CCAP payments for December, January, and February no matter what your attendance looks like. All that’s required is for providers just to submit to us a simple waiver form.”
Pritzker says the assistance will be used to cover all eligible days of payments for the Child Care Assistance Program from now through February, regardless of their attendance numbers. He says it’s about providing stability: “The challenges that child care services are seeing are staff calling in sick or staying home to take care of their own families, concerns about community transmission, [and] families pulling their kids out of care.”
As of last month, 98,000 children were enrolled in CCAP.
Support for eligible child care providers also includes, the Department of Children and Family Services will return all licensed family child care providers to full capacity in December and licensed child care centers will return to full capacity in early January, if the COVID-19 rolling positivity rate remains below 9%.
DCFS will also assist with the purchase and distribution of PPE to child care providers across the state. More information can be found on the Illinois Department of Human Services website.