Illinois has over 10,000 registered daycares, whether in-home or center-based, caring for thousands of children. On Tuesday, President Trump announced a freeze on federal child care and family assistance funds, but only for five states: Illinois, Minnesota, California, Colorado, and New York.
The departments affected include the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Administration for Children and Families (a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), and Social Services Block Grants. The government claims the reasoning is fraud-based, citing incidents in Minnesota, but there is no evidence of fraud in Illinois.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker stated that $1 billion in funding will be frozen, affecting 100,000 low-income working families in Illinois.
Beth Conner, co-owner of Little Sprouts in Carmi, finally received word from IDHS about the situation on Wednesday afternoon. An email states that, “as of January 7, 2026, we do not anticipate that funding will be impacted immediately.” The email doesn’t specify when “immediately” begins, but it offers Conner some optimism.
About 70% of families with children attending Little Sprouts rely on state support. When asked if the center would have to turn away incoming state-based families because of the situation at hand, Conner said,
“Probably not, because I’m just a glass half-full kind of person and I just don’t believe that the ramifications of all of this are just so broad that I just don’t see, I mean, this may mean that we have a couple of months where I’m having to, you know, use my own personal funds or go to the bank and take a short-term loan or something like that to continue to run the center. I’m not ready to throw in the towel; I just don’t think it’s going to be a long-term thing. There’s no way it can be, not in America.”
If this situation becomes long-term, Conner explained that cuts would have to be made within the center.
“If this goes on for several months, I’m going to have to probably close down some rooms. The rooms that are maybe least profitable because they’re lower ratios. I mean, I’ve got two teachers in every room, but there’s only six babies in the nursery with two teachers. Nurseries are not super profitable, but they lead people into a long-term relationship with your center.”
If funding does not return and families have to pull children out, only 30% of Little Sprouts’ children would be able to stay. This would not be enough for the center to survive. Conner said if that situation were to happen, rooms would have to be combined, and staff would have to be laid off, but she is hoping that would not have to be the case.
Families should sit tight, though. The situation could blow over within a couple of months, as the SNAP benefits did, but until then, Conner recommends making multiple phone calls to the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for our Representative Mike Bost, and Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. You will be connected to a staff member in each department who can help you leave a message about how the IDHS benefits freeze is affecting your family.