Rudolph\u2019s 5-year-old daughter, Nora, attends the Day Nursery in Oak Park, where for the past three years her personality has flourished \u2014 from being shy and \u201chiding behind our legs,\u201d to now being \u201ca social butterfly\u201d who receives goodbye hugs and high fives from friends when she leaves for the day.<\/p>\n
But around 90% of the 42 families whose children attend the Day Nursery rely on federal funding to afford their child care, according to Dr. Catherine L. Eason, executive director of the Day Nursery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t continue receiving the funding from the state, this definitely will be a nightmare for us, and we may have to shut our doors,\u201d Eason said.<\/p>\n
Illinois, Minnesota, New York, California, and Colorado will be cut off from nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps support working parents with child care. They\u2019ll also be cut off from $7 billion in cash assistance for households with children and around $870 million for grants that help children at risk, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n
Late Thursday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced his office along with officials in California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York filed a federal lawsuit challenging the funding freeze. State officials are seeking a court order to immediately halt the freeze and restore funds. <\/p>\n
\u201cCongress enacted this critical funding to support families and help working parents access child care, and the president does not have the authority to withhold it in this way,\u201d said Raoul in a statement. \u201cThis move comes with zero justification, and in the administration\u2019s own words, targets only Democrat-led states. This unlawful action will hurt families and harm state economies.\u201d<\/p>\n
About $1 billion in funding across those programs is being frozen in Illinois, impacting around 152,000 children, Gov. JB Pritzker\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Dion Warr and her husband, of Washington Park, rely on the Child Care and Development Fund program so their 4-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter can attend Educare Chicago in Grand Boulevard. The funding lapse could force them to pull their kids out of care, but that\u2019s a last resort option because Warr\u2019s husband works full time and she is actively seeking out employment so they can \u201chave a roof over our head.\u201d<\/p>\n
She prefers her children stay at Educare Chicago, where her son has greatly improved his speech \u2014 from speaking at below his age level to now speaking \u201ca little bit beyond his age.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program doesn\u2019t just house children,\u201d said Warr, 28. \u201cThey help them learn skills that they need to be in school and be prepared to be able to write, and even the social skills that they need so that when they are more on their own in school, they\u2019re able to self regulate and communicate very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Child care providers across the Chicago area vehemently agree that the freeze would cause \u201cdevastating\u201d ripple effects for businesses, their employees and the families they serve. The child care system has already been operating on thin margins, including underfunding, workforce shortages, low wages and rising operating costs, they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRolling back policies that provided stability and predictability risks accelerating closures, reducing access for working families, and destabilizing care for young children \u2014 particularly infants and toddlers, who are the most expensive to serve,\u201d said Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of Illinois Head Start Association, which provides services to low-income families.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration over the past year also has targeted the Head Start program for restrictions and potential elimination.<\/p>\n
Trump administration cites alleged fraud<\/b><\/p>\n
The funding freeze comes about a week after HHS said it was freezing child care funds in Minnesota and asking for an audit of day care centers amid allegations of fraud by day care centers run by Somali residents.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Pritzker, HHS Assistant Secretary Alex Adams said the federal government is concerned by potential \u201csystemic fraud in Illinois Child Care and Development Fund services.\u201d And he claimed the Trump administration \u201chas reason to believe\u201d the state is \u201cillicitly providing\u201d CCDF benefits to people without legal status in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than making life easier and more affordable for our families, Donald Trump is stripping away child care from Illinois families who are just trying to go to work,\u201d Pritzker said in a statement. \u201c…This is wrong, it is cruel, and we will take every step possible to defend the kids and families depending on all of us right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illinois Action for Children helps administer the state program that uses the federal Child Care and Development Fund. In a statement, the group said it opposes the funding freeze, adding that Illinois has \u201crobust procedures and protocols in place to ensure program integrity and identify potential fraud alongside audits and compliance requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that this funding is being frozen without any stated evidence of wrongdoing is causing this fear and confusion across the sector and for children and families, and that\u2019s really unacceptable,\u201d Angela Farwig, vice president of public policy, advocacy and research for Illinois Action for Children, told the Sun-Times. \u201cFraud at any level is also unacceptable, but this sort of broad, sweeping actions that have not been backed up with any specific data or evidence behind them, that\u2019s really unacceptable to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018What do we gain by taking it away?\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Rudolph finds the possible conversation with his daughter difficult because she wouldn\u2019t understand why she wouldn\u2019t be able to attend day care.<\/p>\n
She was recently crushed to hear that a friend moved away, knowing she might never see them again. Without any cousins or immediate family in the area, Rudolph\u2019s daughter has found a community of friends at the Day Nursery.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething that\u2019s beyond her understanding \u2014 it\u2019s not just a friend going away, it\u2019s the place you love is closing because of things you don\u2019t understand, I don\u2019t even know where to begin navigating that,\u201d Rudolph said.<\/p>\n
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