Compensation and Quality Contracts to CCDF Providers: Payment Policies to Improve Equitable Access to High Quality Child Care

Through a $1.6 million grant funded by the Administration for Children and Families-OPRE, Professor Julia Henly, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS),
Illinois Action for Children, the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity, and the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA), will investigate how three child care policy levers in Illinois concerning provider payment and parent copayment mechanisms can support efforts to improve subsidized and subsidy-eligible families’ access to high quality child care. The research will examine how these efforts can meet parents’ needs, support child development, is affordable, is attainable with reasonable effort, and is equitable. 

Policy levers related to the structure and implementation of payment and copayment policies and procedures represent an important piece of this multidimensional access equation.  Provider revenue needs to be adequate and stable to build and sustain the system capacity necessary to ensure high quality care that is delivered in an accessible fashion. Parent child care expenses must not be overly burdensome so families can afford child care that meets their needs without compromising their ability to pay for other critical needs.