Across Illinois, high prices and gaps in child care twill
In some of those places, costs are too high for middle class families to afford. In others, day cares have had to cut staff, limiting the number of available placements. Some areas, especially rural ones, have just one or two licensed day care centers for a population of hundreds of children.
Licensed day care providers have an average capacity of about 31 children in Illinois. This includes day care centers, in-home day care providers and some Head Start programs among others. Yearslong recruitment, retention issues To begin improving child care accessibility, the state needs to expand the number of seats at existing centers and preschools and also build new ones. But to do that, the industry needs adequate staff to be able to run them.
April Janney is the CEO of Illinois Action for Children, a group that researches and advocates for child care issues in the state. It also operates early learning programs in some Cook County suburbs as well as serving as a referral agency to help families find care. Even where available, care often too expensive The price of child care is also prohibitive for many seeking it, as prices have increased significantly in the last decade.
To qualify for for assistance, a family's income must be below 225% of the federal poverty level. This means that a family of four would have a household income less than $62,438 in 2022, per the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Yockey said Effingham's program will benefit families with incomes from 225% t0 250% of the poverty line, just above the current assistance program income limits. He said middle-class and lower-middle class families are struggling the most to pay for child care in Effingham.
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