Chambana Sun

Illinois is launching a grant program that will provide aid to child-care services as the state tries to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The program, announced by Illinois state Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign), will put $270 million from the Coronavirus Urgent Remediation Emergency (CURE) Fund to child-care providers in Illinois, according to WCIA. The CURE Fund was designed to help businesses suffering from revenue loss due to the pandemic. 

“Every time when you think about hospital workers or first-line responders that obviously have never gotten sent home, they’ve got to have someplace that’s reliable and safe to take their kids,” Bennett told WCIA.

With Illinois reopening and more people returning to work, child-care services will be essential. 

“Yes, it’s important that every business be on good financial footing,” Bennett told WCIA. "But this has a much bigger ripple because every time a child-care provider closes down, there are many other businesses that are unable to get employees to come into work as a result.”

Child-care providers will need to fill out a survey to qualify for consideration for a grant. The first installments to providers will be handed out later in the summer. 

“We’re trying to get it in people’s hands as quickly as possible, but it’s taxpayer money and we’re not trying to waste it and send it someplace that really isn’t helping the people it’s trying to help,” Bennett said. “Child-care services are an essential service to support families as they return to work, and it is critical to our state’s economic recovery. This grant program will focus on helping child-care providers stay in business.”