Welcome to Project CHILD! Our Mission: Project CHILD is committed to advancing the quality, affordability, and accessibility of child care. Our staff and specialists work to help providers, families, and our community better care for children. We believe that quality child care and education enable children to develop to their fullest potential.
-> Current Events <-
NEW 9/21/22
Child Care Work Force – The FY23 Applications for Individual Professional Development Funds and the Quality Improvement Funds are available now! License Exempt Child Care Funding is also available. Contact us for more information.
8/24/22
There is a new program available designed to assist child care providers in attaining higher education goals. Our Higher Education Navigator can help you find the program that best fits your needs. We are also introducing the ECACE Scholarship. Check out the flier below and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission link for more information.
6/14/22 –
Starting with payments issued in late May, SOME providers that have been receiving child care payments as paper checks may suddenly find their payments were issued to the Illinois Child Care Debit Master Card.DHS recently sent a report to The Office of the Comptroller to add new providers that had recently signed up for the card; however, that list erroneously included providers who had been previously been paid by debit card in the past but had not requested to return to debit card payment. Providers affected have recently been paid through paper check.
If a providers payment is issued, or will be issued as a debit card payment, and they did not recently sign up for the card, they need to do the following:
- If the provider still has their card, and it’s not expired, the payment(s) should be on that card.
- If the provider no longer has the card, or if the card has expired, they will need to call the debit card company and request a new card.
- The debit card company is available 24/7. Their Customer Service number is: 1-866-338-2944. The automated system will ask callers for their card number. If they know the card number, do not put it in. Next, the message will go through some options. The caller should always choose Option 4, which is for lost, stolen or damage cards.. Next they will be asked for their Social Security Number, Zip Code, and PIN Number. Callers should only enter their Social Security Number and Zip Code. At that point, a Customer Service Representative should come on the line to assist. The provider then tells the representative that they were just paid on the card, and need a new card. The representative will have a new card mailed. The card should arrive in 5-7 business days. A card can be expedited in 2-3 days for a $15.00 charge.
Future payments will also go to the card. If a provider wants to shut off the debit card option, and return to paper checks, they need to complete Section 2 of The Illinois Debit Master Card Payment Option Form. The forms are available on most CCR&R web sites, or the Illinois Department of Human Services web site:https://www.dhs.state.il.us , or call your CCR&R, or DHS Child Care.
7/31/20 Check out our drop box outside of our front doors at 327 Potomac Blvd. Now you can drop off your paperwork any time of day. Please be sure to staple all paperwork together or put it in an envelope.
Project CHILD provides services to the following counties:
- Clay County
- Crawford County
- Edwards County
- Effingham County
- Fayette County
- Jasper County
- Jefferson County
- Lawrence County
- Marion County
- Richland County
- Wabash County
- Wayne County
We provide families
- Child Care Referrals
- Online Child Care Search
- Information on evaluating child care options
- Assistance in paying for child care
- Free child car seat checks
We offer child care providers
- Access to valuable training
- A Quality Consultant Team
- Information regarding Quality Improvement and assistance in obtaining funding to support participating ExceleRate IL programs
- Access to Professional Development and funding opportunities
- Support for the Child Care Assistance Program