EVALUATING CHILD CARE REFORM IN ILLINOIS

Illinois Dept Of Human Services, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This project will evaluate important statutory changes that resulted from the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 in the state of Illinois. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) will continue its existing partnership with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to implement an evaluation of three of these changes to the Child Care and Development (CCDF) program:1) extending the redetermination period for child care subsidy benefits2) the health, safety and child development training of license-exempt providers3) the new monitoring of those license-exempt providers.We will analyze the impact on children, their families, and the workforce, specifically outcomes around parental employment, continuity of care, and child outcomes. In addition, we will assess the impact of training on both providers of license-exempt care and on the monitors of that care. We anticipate that the results from these studies will have an impact not only on policymakers and administrators in Illinois, but also for the field more broadly. These decision-makers must make tough choices around funding, must implement new programmatic features, must ensure access to families, and must achieve positive outcomes for children and their parents. They must also build the workforce and improve the quality of subsidized child care. Evidence to inform this decision-making is essential. This project takes advantage of a rare set of integrated datasets in Illinois. The existing data resources will be augmented with new sources of administrative data generated by the CCDF program changes. Beyond the three specified CCDBG implementation questions, additional lessons will be learned about the use of administrative data for building evidence.The IDHS and Chapin Hall partnership builds on the resources and deliverables from the prior planning grant to conduct this child care evaluation research. The work that has been done to identify rigorous possible research designs, inventory data sources, review the literature and what other states have done and to elicit the priorities of policymakers increases the potential for a successful implementation of the evaluation.