Bill Title: Amends the Department of Human Services Act. Requires the Department of Human Services to implement a Child Care Collaboration Program by no later than July 1, 2024 to facilitate high quality collaborative programming between child care and other early care and education providers and funding streams in order to increase, through collaboration, the quality and quantity of early care and education for families in Illinois who are eligible to receive child care assistance under the Department's Child Care Assistance Program. Provides that to be eligible to participate in the Child Care Collaboration Program a provider must meet certain eligibility requirements, including: (i) be a profit or nonprofit early childhood center or licensed family child care home; (ii) receive or be eligible to receive child care assistance funding; and (iii) be a part of an existing or pending collaborative arrangement with a Head Start or Early Head Start Program or with a pre-kindergarten program funded by the Illinois State Board of Education through the Early Childhood Block Grant. Sets forth approvable models of collaboration and application requirements for providers seeking approval of their existing or proposed child care collaboration program. Provides that each eligible provider that receives Department approval of its existing or proposed child care collaboration program shall receive an annual contract from the Department that allows for the advance payment of child care services at a rate that is based on the license capacity of the program. Provides that a family's eligibility for collaboration services under the approved child care collaboration program shall be determined in accordance with all current child care rules, with certain exceptions, including, but not limited to: (1) a family's eligibility period for collaboration services shall be up to 36 months to coincide with the family's eligibility for a Head Start or Early Head Start Program or an early childhood or preschool program funded through the Early Childhood Block Grant; and (2) no child care co-payments shall be assigned or collected from the family. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-19 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB4728 Detail]

Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

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Sponsors

Name	Type	Sponsorship	District	Financial	Encyclopedia	Biography
Representative LaShawn Ford [D]	Primary	Sponsored Bills	HD-008	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative William Davis [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-030	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Joyce Mason [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-061	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Debbie Meyers-Martin [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-038	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Maura Hirschauer [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-049	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Will Guzzardi [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-039	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Elizabeth Hernandez [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-002	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Laura Faver Dias [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-062	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart
Representative Mary Canty [D]	Cosponsor	Sponsored Bills	HD-054	FollowTheMoney	Ballotpedia	VoteSmart

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