* One Illinois…

On July 1, 2015, Rauner implemented new restrictions to [the Child Care Assistance Program] that cut the eligibility level from 185 percent of the federal poverty line to 50 percent and required new copay amounts for program recipients, among other changes. After a bipartisan outcry and a threat from the General Assembly to override the changes, Rauner in fall 2015 changed the eligibility level again, this time raising it to 162 percent of the federal poverty line. But the changes had already caused a massive scrubbing of the CCAP rolls.

In the year following Rauner’s action, over 32,000 fewer children were enrolled in CCAP-assisted day-care services, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. Nearly 19,000 fewer families received child-care assistance due to the changes. From July 2015 to June 2016, 831 fewer licensed child-care providers received assistance from the state, which has caused providers to make painful choices on how they operate, including accepting fewer low-income parents in favor of those who can pay up front, experts said. […]

There was also good news in last week’s state budget plan, the first signed by Rauner. The Service Employees International Union Healthcare in Illinois cheered what it said was a 4.26 percent raise for CCAP workers included in the budget. “Illinois legislators stepped in where Gov. Rauner has failed by passing a budget that includes a raise for child-care providers,” said Maricarmen Macias, just one such provider.

But if the original eligibility has been reinstated and funding preserved, why are only a quarter of the state’s CCAP-eligible families receiving aid? Experts say the state is doing virtually nothing to market that the program has been expanded, and that the governor is doing even less to ensure the program’s future vitality.