State Child Care Assistance Policies 2010: Illinois

•    Income eligibility limit: In 2010, a family of three in Illinois could qualify for child care assistance with an annual income up to $36,624 (200 percent of poverty, 56 percent of state median income).

•    Waiting list: Illinois had no waiting list for child care assistance as of February 2010.     

•    Parent copayments: In 2010, a family of three with an income at 100 percent of poverty ($18,310 a year) receiving child care assistance paid $87 per month, or 6 percent of its income in copayments. A family of three with an income at 150 percent of poverty ($27,465 a year) receiving child care assistance paid $186 per month, or 8 percent of its income in copayments.

•    Reimbursement rates: In 2010, Illinois’s reimbursement rates for child care providers serving families receiving child care assistance were below the federally recommended level—the 75th percentile of current market rates, which is the level designed to give families access to 75 percent of the providers in their community.¹ 
o    Illinois’s monthly reimbursement rate for center care for a four-year-old in the Metropolitan Region²  was $195, or 21 percent, below the 75th percentile of current market rates for this type of care.
o    Illinois’s monthly reimbursement rate for center care for a one-year-old in the Metropolitan Region was $166, or 14 percent, below the 75th percentile of current market rates for this type of care.

•    Tiered reimbursement rates: In 2010, Illinois paid higher reimbursement rates for higher-quality care.
o    The reimbursement rate for center care for a four-year-old in the Metropolitan Region at the highest quality tier was 20 percent higher than the rate at the lowest quality tier.
o    The reimbursement rate for center care for a four-year-old in the Metropolitan Region at the highest quality tier was still below the 75th percentile of current market rates.

•    Eligibility for parents searching for a job: In 2010, Illinois allowed parents to continue receiving child care for up to 90 days while searching for a job.³   However, Illinois did not allow parents to qualify for child care assistance while searching for a job. 

¹Rates generally range from below the 25th percentile to above the 50th percentile of market rates, but in some areas of the state, exceed the 100th percentile.
²Reimbursement rates are reported for the Metropolitan Region (referred to as Group 1A), which includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, and McHenry Counties.
³The state is using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to increase the amount of time parents can continue to receive child care assistance while searching or a job from 30 days to 90 days. This policy went into effect November 1, 2009, and will continue until September 2011, or as long as funds are available. When ARRA expires, the state will revert to the previous policy of limiting the time parents can receive child care assistance while searching for a job to 30 days.

Source: Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2010: New Federal Funds Help States Weather the Storm (Washington, DC: National Women’s Law Center, 2010). These data reflect policies as of February 2010, unless otherwise indicated.