The year ending June 30, 2016 saw several significant shocks occur to child care services in Cook County. An unprecedented restriction of eligibility in the Illinois Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) imposed a period of great uncertainty on parents and child care providers alike. This challenge — and the state’s continuing budget crisis — reversed Illinois’ long-term trend of increasing investments in a robust system of early care and education. In just the second year of the state’s efforts to improve child care quality through its ExceleRate Illinois quality rating and improvement system, child care providers faced falling enrollments, unpaid bills and staff layoffs.
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