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Home Daycare License Requirements in Illinois (2026)

Opening a home daycare in Illinois means getting a family child care home license from the ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD (IDEC). Here is exactly what that takes in 2026 — your capacity limit and ratios, the training and background checks, the application steps, and the postings and enrollment forms you need — sourced to the state’s own rules and dated.

Who needs a license — home types in Illinois

Before anything else about Illinois, two things you almost certainly believe are now wrong, and both of them changed in 2026. First, the agency: child care licensing left the Department of Children and Family Services on July 1, 2026 and now sits with the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) under Public Act 103-594. Second, and worse for anyone who memorised citations, the rule you are looking for is no longer at 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406. Open the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules index for 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 today and the Part is EMPTY except for its source note, which ends: "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832." The live rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, Title 23 (Education and Cultural Resources), Subtitle A, Chapter XI (Department of Early Childhood), whose authority line now reads "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]" and whose source line reads "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917." The same thing happened to the two neighbouring Parts: 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407 (day care centers) is now 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008, transferred at 50 Ill. Reg. 9834, and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 (group day care homes) is now 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009, transferred at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838. If you file a variance request, an appeal, or a written correction plan citing "Part 406," you are citing a shell.

Cite Part 2007. The statutory definition moved too — not its location, its WORDS. The Child Care Act of 1969 no longer contains a section called "day care homes." Section 2.18 of the Act, as amended by Public Act 104-480 (HB3595, signed June 26, 2026, effective July 1, 2026), now reads in full: "Sec. 2.18. 'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. The term does not include locations that receive only children from a single household." (225 ILCS 10/2.18.) The companion definition at 225 ILCS 10/2.20 reads: "Sec. 2.20. 'Group early care and education home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12." And 225 ILCS 10/2.09 reads: "Sec. 2.09. 'Early care and education center' means any early care and education provider that regularly provides early care and education for (1) more than 8 children in a family home, or (2) more than 3 children in a location other than a family home, including senior citizen buildings."

Section 2.10, the old free-standing "day care center" definition, was repealed outright by P.A. 104-480 effective July 1, 2026, and so was Section 2.11, "day care agency," repealed by P.A. 103-594 on the same date. So Illinois now has a live terminology fracture, and it is the single most expensive thing on this page. The STATUTE says "early care and education home." The RULE you must actually comply with — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 — still says "day care home" in its title, in every section heading, and in every operative sentence, because P.A. 104-480 changed the words in the statute on July 1, 2026 and IDEC has not yet rewritten the recodified rule text to match. Worse, Section 2007.2 of the rule still quotes the OLD statutory definition as though it were current: "'Day care homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The maximum of 12 children includes the family's natural, foster, or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. The term does not include facilities which receive only children from a single household. (Section 2.18 of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10])."

Read that against the real 2.18 above and three differences pop out: the rule says "facilities," the statute now says "locations"; the rule inserts the word "foster" into the list of the family's own children (that word is the agency's addition, not the legislature's, and it is unitalicised in the codified text precisely to mark it as an agency gloss); and the rule's heading word "day care" no longer exists in the Act. None of this changes the arithmetic — more than 3, up to 12, under 24 hours, one household excluded — but it means you will find the same rule described under two different names on the same week, and it means a licensing representative's checklist and the Act's text will not use the same nouns. When you write to IDEC, name both: "day care home (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) / early care and education home (225 ILCS 10/2.18)." Now the count that triggers licensure, which is where Illinois applicants actually lose money. The threshold is not "four unrelated children." It is FOUR CHILDREN UNDER TWELVE, PERIOD, AND YOUR OWN ARE IN THE COUNT. The exemption lives in Section 3(d-5)(1) of the Child Care Act and reads verbatim: "In-home early care and education provided for no more than 3 children under the age of 12, including the provider's natural or adopted children and any other persons under the age of 12 whether related or unrelated to the operator of the early care and education home. A provider may care for up to 6 children if all such children are from the same household. A provider of non-licensed in-home early care and education must notify the parent or guardian of each child that the program is operating pursuant to an exemption from licensure."

The rule side says the same thing at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2005.3(d) — Part 2005 is FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS EXEMPT FROM LICENSURE, itself transferred from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 377 and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9896 — which reads: "Family homes that care for no more than 3 children under the age of 12 or that receive only children from a single household, for less than 24 hours per day, are exempt from licensure as day care homes. The three children to whom this exemption applies includes the family's natural or adopted children and any other persons under the age of 12 whether related or unrelated to the operator of the day care home." Do the arithmetic on your own house before you advertise. A provider with two children of her own aged 4 and 9 has ONE exempt slot. She takes a second paying child and she is operating an unlicensed day care home. That is not a technicality Illinois waves through: Section 3(a) makes operating without a license or permit unlawful, and Section 3(g) provides that a provider who refuses to register or correct non-compliance "shall be required to apply for full licensure under this Act and may be referred to the appropriate State's Attorney and the Attorney General in accordance with Section 11." Note the notification duty buried in the exemption, because almost nobody does it: if you are running under the three-child exemption you MUST tell every parent, in so many words, that your program "is operating pursuant to an exemption from licensure."

That sentence was added by P.A. 104-480 and it took effect July 1, 2026. It is now the cheapest thing an unlicensed provider can get caught not doing. Inside licensure, the counting rules change again, and the number that governs your day is 8, not 12. Section 2007.13(a) reads: "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a day care home by a caregiver alone shall be 8. The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home." Section 2007.13(b) gives the three lawful shapes for a caregiver working alone: a mixed group of "Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which Up to 5 children may be under the age of 5, of which Up to 3 children may be under 24 months of age"; or a mixed group of "Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which Up to 6 children may be under the age of 5, of which Up to 2 children may be under 30 months of age"; or "a school age group consisting of 8 school age children." The statutory maximum of 12 is reached only through the extended school-age addendum: under Section 2007.13(d), a caregiver plus an assistant aged 18 or over may take one of the subsection (b) groupings "and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time," or "Eight children under 5 years of age, of which up to 5 children may be under 24 months of age, and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time."

And the trap inside the trap: 2007.13(d)(2) says that once the extended addendum is granted in writing, "a caregiver's own full-time school age children SHALL be counted in the additional 4 school-age children provided that, when there are more than 8 children in care, a qualified assistant is present." Your own school-age children stop being invisible the moment you take the addendum. Two more counting rules that catch Illinois applicants who assumed household children are neutral. Section 2007.13(f): "Any children under age 12 living in the home who are receiving home schooling shall be counted in the maximum of 8 children in subsections (b), (c), and (d), unless another parent or caregiver is providing the schooling apart from the day care area and the caregiver has no responsibility for care or supervision or schooling of the children during the hours home day care is provided." If you homeschool your own 7-year-old while you provide care, that child occupies a slot. And Section 2007.13(g) gives the only elastic in the system: "In the event of a brief unforeseen school closing, the caregiver may accept one additional school-age child and still be considered in compliance with the capacity requirements, as long as the total number of children under age 12 in the home does not exceed the maximum of 12 children.

The caregiver shall maintain a record of the dates, names and ages of the children for whom this care was provided." One child, unforeseen closure only, and only if you write it down. There is a genuine internal contradiction in the rule about whether your own children are in or out, and you should know which way it cuts. The defined term "Licensed capacity" in Section 2007.2 says: "'Licensed capacity' means the number of children the Department has determined the day care home can care for at any one time IN ADDITION TO any children living in the home who are under the age of 12 years. Children age 12 and over on the premises are not considered in determining licensed capacity." Read alone, that sounds like your own under-twelves sit outside the number. Read with Section 2007.13(a), which says the maximum of 8 "includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home," the reconciliation is this: the FIGURE PRINTED ON YOUR LICENSE is the number of outside children you may enrol, arrived at by subtracting your resident under-twelves from the age-grouping ceiling; the CEILING ITSELF is a whole-house count.

Never plan on the licensed-capacity figure as though it were the ceiling. And note the one clean piece of good news in both sentences: children aged 12 and over — your own teenagers, an older sibling waiting for pickup — do not count at all. Age 12 is the line, not age 13; the age-13 line in Illinois is a different rule entirely, the background-check rule. The boundary upward, to a group day care home, is Part 2009 and it is a different licence, not a bigger version of yours. Section 2009.5 quotes the statute: "'Group day care home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to 16 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural, foster, or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. (Section 2.20 of the Child Care Act of 1969)." Section 2009.65 sets the staffing that unlocks the numbers: a caregiver alone in a group home is still capped at 8 under-twelves (or up to 12 school-age children, or up to 8 preschoolers "if no child is under age 3"); "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a group day care home by a caregiver and one assistant 18 years of age or older ... shall be 12"; and extended capacity to 16 requires "A caregiver and two assistants," with 2009.65(c)(1) stating flatly that "A caregiver and two assistants shall be present at all times when there are more than 12 children in the home."

Group homes also carry a square-footage test that the ordinary day care home does not, at Section 2009.30(c), cross-referenced from every capacity subsection. Moving from a day care home to a group day care home is a new application under a new Part, not an amendment to your existing licence. The boundary sideways, to a day care center, is Part 2008, and Illinois draws it by PREMISES rather than by headcount alone. Section 2008.45 quotes the definition: "'Day care center' means any child care facility which regularly provides day care for less than 24 hours per day for more than 8 children in a family home or more than 3 children in a facility other than a family home, including senior citizen buildings," followed by the list of exclusions for school-operated and State-Board-recognised programs serving children who have attained the age of 3. Statutorily this is now 225 ILCS 10/2.09 in its shortened P.A. 104-480 form. Read literally, a family home serving 9 to 16 children satisfies BOTH the center definition (more than 8 in a family home) and the group home definition (up to 16 in a family home) — the overlap is real and it is old.

In practice IDEC licenses homes in that band under Part 2009 as group day care homes, and the practical significance of the center prong is the OTHER half of the sentence: "more than 3 children in a facility other than a family home." Move your operation out of the residence you live in — into the empty storefront next door, into a church basement, into the unattached coach house at the back of your lot — and you have left the home rules entirely and landed in the center rules at a threshold of FOUR children, not nine. That is the single most common way an Illinois home provider accidentally becomes an unlicensed center. Which brings you to the requirement that the care happen in YOUR OWN family residence, stated four separate ways so that there is no wriggle room. Section 2007.2 defines the place: "'Family home' or 'family residence' means the location or portion of a location where the applicant and his or her family reside, and may include basements and attics. It does not include other structures that are separate from the home but are considered part of the overall premises, such as adjacent apartments, unattached basements in multi-unit buildings, unattached garages, and other unattached buildings."

The same section defines the person: "'Applicant' means a person living in the residence to be licensed who will be the primary caregiver in the day care home." Section 2007.6(a) states: "The licensees shall be a primary caregiver or caregivers who reside in the family home and meet the requirements of this Part. If there are joint licensees, they must be related and both must live in the family home." And Sections 2007.6(e), (f) and (g) lock the licence to the address: "Child care may be provided only in those areas specified on the license"; "The license is valid only for the family residence of the licensee and shall not be transferred to another person or other legal entity"; "The license shall not be valid for a name or location other than the name and location on the license." Section 2007.9(i) closes the loop on absence: "The licensee shall be present in the home when day care children are in attendance unless a qualified substitute caregiver per Section 2007.11 is present." Now the second-household question, which Illinois answers harshly and in several places at once. There is no such thing in Illinois as two unrelated women jointly holding one day care home licence: 2007.6(a) permits joint licensees only if "they must be related and both must live in the family home." A person who does not live in the residence cannot be a licensee; the only lawful role for a non-resident adult is assistant (Section 2007.10) or substitute (Section 2007.11), both of which are subordinate to a resident primary caregiver.

If a second family shares your building, the "family home" definition already tells you their space is not yours — "adjacent apartments, unattached basements in multi-unit buildings, unattached garages, and other unattached buildings" are excluded — so you cannot spread the children across two units in a two-flat and call it one home; the second unit is either outside the licence entirely or, if children are cared for there, an unlicensed second facility. If a second family MOVES IN with you, they become members of your household and the background-check net closes over them: Section 2007.2 defines "Member of the household" as "a person who resides in a family home as evidenced by factors including, but not limited to, maintaining clothing and personal effects at the household address, or receiving mail at the household address, or using identification with the household address," and the definition of "Persons subject to background checks" states: "If the child care facility operates in a family home, the license applicants and all members of the household age 13 and over are subject to background checks, as appropriate, EVEN IF these members of the household are not usually present in the home during the hours the child care facility is in operation."

Section 2007.9(a) makes the consequence licence-fatal: no licence issues where "the applicant, a member of the household age 13 and over, or any individual who has access to the children cared for in a day care home, or any employee of the day care home, has not authorized the background check required by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 (Background Checks) and been cleared." A boyfriend who moves in, an adult son who returns home, a lodger who gets his mail at your address — each is a household member at 13 and over, each must clear, and Section 2007.9(c) bars from household membership anyone with the abuse, neglect or criminal history listed in Appendix C of Part 2007. Your application also has to disclose them up front: Section 2007.4(b)(1)(B) requires "a list of persons who will be working in the day care home, including any substitutes and assistants, and members of the household age 13 and over," and (C) requires signed background-check authorisations for each of them. What falls outside licensure altogether, precisely. Care by a relative is outside because the Act's gateway definition is relational: 225 ILCS 10/2.05 defines "child care facility" as one that "receives or arranges for care or placement of one or more children, UNRELATED TO THE OPERATOR of the facility, apart from the parents."

IDEC states the operational consequence on its own Child Care Licensure page: "No background check is required for a child care home that is license exempt because children are cared for by a relative." "Related" is a closed list at 225 ILCS 10/2.04 — parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, great-uncle, great-aunt, brother, sister, stepgrandparent, stepparent, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, fictive kin as defined in Section 7 of the Children and Family Services Act, or first cousin or second cousin — and Part 2007's own version at Section 2007.2 is a shorter list that omits second cousins and fictive kin. Where they differ, the Act governs; but do not build a business plan on the gap. Care of children from a single household is outside because 2.18 says the term "does not include locations that receive only children from a single household," and Section 3(d-5)(1) adds a ceiling the definition does not contain: "A provider may care for up to 6 children if all such children are from the same household." The statute defines the household for this purpose: "'children from the same household' means children that are blood-related, adopted, or stepchildren or children that were placed in a home through foster care that are under the age of 12 years and living in the same home."

Note the honest tension — 2.18's single-household carve-out has no numeric limit, while 3(d-5)(1)'s same-household exemption stops at 6. Treat 6 as your working ceiling and get an exemption letter in writing before you take a seventh sibling. Occasional and drop-in care is outside licensure only on tight conditions. Section 3(d-5)(2) exempts "Supplementary early care and education operations for facilities that provide activities, including, but not limited to, retail shopping, exercise, or religious activities, as long as children are in care for no longer than 2 hours per day and the provider does not refer to itself as an early care and education center or pre-school. The parent or guardian of the child must remain on the same premises as the child and be readily available. Providers must obtain emergency contact information for each parent or guardian. Providers must notify the parent or guardian that the program is operating pursuant to an exemption from licensure." Two hours, parent on the premises, and no calling yourself a preschool. This is the gym-crèche and church-nursery exemption; it is not a drop-in daycare exemption, and it does not travel to a residence.

Section 3(d-5)(3) exempts single-skill extracurricular programmes for children 3 and older, capped at a cumulative hour a day for 3- and 4-year-olds, with the express warning that "Extracurricular activities shall not act as an alternative to full-day school or care" and that programmes using this exemption "are not eligible to receive Child Care Assistance Program payments." Section 3(d-5)(4) exempts school-operated and school-premises programmes for children at least 3; Section 3(d-5)(5) exempts care conducted on federal government premises, including homes and group homes on a military base "certified as a child development program by a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Coast Guard"; Sections 3(d-5)(6) and (7) exempt park-district and municipal special-activities programmes on seven cumulative conditions including background investigations, a CANTS name check, an emergency plan, and a bar on advertising as "licensed child care" or "licensed day care." Care in the CHILD'S own home — a nanny, an au pair, a sitter who comes to the family's house — is outside the day care home regime for a structural reason worth stating plainly: 2.18 licenses "family homes," and Section 2007.2 defines the family home as "where the APPLICANT and his or her family reside." A caregiver working in someone else's house is not operating in her own family residence, cannot be an "applicant" for that address, and in any event serves "only children from a single household," which 2.18 excludes by its own terms.

Illinois has no household-employee licence. It also has no partial credit: you cannot hold a day care home licence at your address and also count children you mind at their address. Two boundaries of time close the definition. Everything above turns on "less than 24 hours per day"; care at or beyond 24 hours is not day care at all under this Act but foster or residential care under other definitions. Within the day, Section 2007.6(h) is absolute: "No day care home provider shall be licensed to provide care for more than 18 hours within a 24-hour period." Overnight care is permitted and regulated as night care at Section 2007.23, with Section 2007.13(e) capping it: "The maximum number of children receiving night care shall be 8 children and the groupings shall be consistent with subsections (b) and (c)." Finally, four procedural facts about the day care home licence that follow from the definition and that people get wrong. You do not file directly with the State: Section 2007.4(a) says "A complete application shall be filed with the Department by the SUPERVISING AGENCY on forms prescribed and provided by the Department," and "Supervising agency" is defined in 2007.2 as "a licensed child welfare agency, a licensed day care agency, or the Department" — in practice your regional Child Care Resource & Referral agency.

The licence runs three years, not one: Section 2007.6(b), "A day care home license is valid for 3 years unless revoked by the Department or voluntarily surrendered by the licensee." It costs nothing: Section 2007.6(j), "There shall be no fee or charge for the license," and Section 2007.7(i) says the same of the permit. And the two-month permit under Section 2007.7 is not renewable (2007.7(e)) and is never issued retroactively (2007.7(b)), so the clock on your fire-safety approval, your background check results and your first-aid/CPR certification starts before the permit, not during it. One last stale-citation warning, because it is in the live rule as served today: Section 2005.3(c) of the exemption Part still cross-references "Section 377.2 of this Part" and "89 Ill. Adm. Code 407 (Licensing Standards for Day Care Centers)" — both dead references left behind by the recodification. Part 377 is now Part 2005 and Part 407 is now Part 2008. The rule text has not caught up with its own new address, which is a fair summary of the state of Illinois child care law in August 2026.

How many children you can care for in Illinois

Before you read a single number, correct the citation you were almost certainly given: as of today the Illinois family child care capacity rules are NOT at 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 and 408, and they are no longer administered by the Department of Children and Family Services. The JCAR text of 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 now consists of nothing but its source note, which ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832"; the source note of 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838". The live rules are 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009, LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES, both sitting under TITLE 23: EDUCATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES, SUBTITLE A: EDUCATION, CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD, and every section of both parts closes with a recodification note reading "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)" or "(Source: Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 (Department of Children and Family Services) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183)". Section 2007.2 now defines "Department" as "the Illinois Department of Early Childhood" and attributes that definition to "(Section 1-15 of the Early Childhood Act)".

The numbers below did not change in the move, but the citation did, and a licensing packet, a parent handbook, a lease addendum or a lawyer's letter that still cites "Rule 406" is citing a part that has been emptied. Almost every free Illinois "daycare rules" PDF still in circulation, including the ones hosted on dcfs.illinois.gov and on resource-and-referral sites, is a Rule 406 or Rule 408 artifact from before the transfer. Add a second correction on top of it: Public Act 104-0480, effective 7/1/2026, rewrote the underlying definitions in the Child Care Act of 1969 so that the words "day care home" and "group day care home" no longer appear in the statute. 225 ILCS 10/2.18 now reads, in the text served today by the General Assembly, "Sec. 2.18. 'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. The term does not include locations that receive only children from a single household. (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" And 225 ILCS 10/2.20 now reads "Sec. 2.20. 'Group early care and education home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children for less than 24 hours per day.

The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" The enrolled act shows the change as pure terminology on the capacity front: the struck-and-inserted text of P.A. 104-0480 reads "Early care and education Day care homes" and "Group early care and education day care home" while leaving "more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children" and "up to a maximum of 16 children" untouched. So the ceilings are 12 and 16, they have been 12 and 16 for decades, and the only thing that moved on 1 July 2026 was the label and the agency. The administrative rules have not yet caught up with the statutory renaming: Part 2007 and Part 2009 still say "day care home" and "group day care home" throughout, and Section 2007.2 still quotes the old statutory definition, "'Day care homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The maximum of 12 children includes the family's natural, foster, or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. The term does not include facilities which receive only children from a single household. (Section 2.18 of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10])".

Note that the rule's version inserts "foster" into a statutory sentence that says only "natural or adopted"; the agency has read foster children into the count for years and counts them in practice, and you should plan on your foster placements counting. Section 2009.5 carries the parallel quote, "'Group day care home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to 16 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural, foster, or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. (Section 2.20 of the Child Care Act of 1969)". Now the operative rule, and this is where applicants lose money. The statutory 12 is an outer boundary, not a business plan. The number that actually governs your day is Section 2007.13(a): "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a day care home by a caregiver alone shall be 8. The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home." Read that second sentence three times. Your own children under 12 who live in the house occupy seats.

Your niece who lives with you occupies a seat. Any unrelated child under 12 living in the home occupies a seat. Nothing about whether you are paid for them, nothing about whether they are enrolled, nothing about whether they are asleep upstairs. The cut-off is the twelfth birthday and it is absolute in both directions: Section 2007.2 defines "Licensed capacity" as "the number of children the Department has determined the day care home can care for at any one time in addition to any children living in the home who are under the age of 12 years. Children age 12 and over on the premises are not considered in determining licensed capacity." So a 13-year-old of yours is invisible to the count, an 11-year-old of yours is not, and the day your 11-year-old turns 12 a seat frees up. Within the 8, Section 2007.13(b) gives a caregiver alone exactly three lawful shapes and no others. Shape one: "A mixed age group consisting of: A) Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which B) Up to 5 children may be under the age of 5, of which C) Up to 3 children may be under 24 months of age." Shape two: "A mixed age group consisting of: A) Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which B) Up to 6 children may be under the age of 5, of which C) Up to 2 children may be under 30 months of age."

Shape three: "A school age group consisting of 8 school age children, as defined in Section 2007.2." Those are nested caps, not alternatives you may mix and match: taking a third child under 24 months forces you into shape one and therefore caps your under-fives at five, and taking a sixth child under five forces you into shape two and therefore caps your under-thirty-months at two. There is no shape in which a lone caregiver in a day care home may have four children under 24 months. Understand also what "under 2" means here, because Part 2007 does not use that phrase and does not contain a separate limit at twelve months. The infant-side brackets in a day care home are 24 months and 30 months, both counted from the child's date of birth, and the rule's only use of the twelve-month line is definitional: Section 2007.2 says "'Infant' means a child through 12 months of age", which drives the meal-pattern chart in Appendix A and the safe-sleep duties of Section 2007.22, not capacity. If you have been told Illinois caps a family home at some number of children under twelve months, that is a group-home number leaking into the wrong part, and the real one is fifteen months, not twelve: Section 2009.65(b)(2) is the only place in either part with a sub-twenty-four-month bracket, and it reads "No more than 12 children under 12 years of age of which B) No more than 6 children may be under 30 months of age, of which C) No more than 4 children may be under 15 months of age."

Now the school-age arithmetic that gets a day care home from 8 to 12, and the addendum most applicants have never heard of. Section 2007.2 defines "'School age'" as "children from 6 to 12 years of age and 5 year olds who are in full-day kindergarten", and defines "'Preschool age'" as "children under 5 years of age and children 5 years old who do not attend full day kindergarten", so a five-year-old in half-day kindergarten is still preschool age and still eats into your under-five bracket. Section 2007.13(d) provides that "A caregiver and an assistant 18 years of age or older may care for: A) The groupings in subsection (b), and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time; or B) Eight children under 5 years of age, of which up to 5 children may be under 24 months of age, and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time." Section 2007.13(c) gives the under-eighteen assistant a narrower version: "A caregiver and an assistant under age 18 may care for: A) One of the groupings in subsection (b) and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time; or B) A total of 8 children under 5 years of age, of which up to 5 children may be under 24 months of age."

Note the asymmetry, because it is worth money: with a minor assistant the option-B all-under-five group stops at 8, while with an adult assistant option B is 8 under-fives PLUS 4 full-time school-age children, which is the only route to a lawful 12 in a day care home. The assistant is not optional at the top of the range. Both subsections say the extended seats require the assistant, and both add, in the addendum paragraph, "provided that when there are more than 8 children in care, a qualified assistant is present". The addendum itself is a separate written grant you must ask for. Section 2007.13(c)(2) reads "When a licensee or permitholder has been granted the extended 4 school-age capacity addendum in writing, a caregiver's own full-time school age children may be counted in the additional 4 school-age children provided that when there are more than 8 children in care, a qualified assistant is present", and Section 2007.13(d)(2) repeats it with one word changed: "a caregiver's own full-time school age children shall be counted in the additional 4 school-age children". Read that as the whole point of the addendum.

Without the extended 4 school-age capacity addendum in writing, your own school-age children are not parked in the extra four seats; with it, they are placed there, and with an adult assistant the rule says they shall be. If you have three school-age children of your own and no addendum, you are running a five-child business inside an eight-child licence. The four extra seats are also time-boxed, and this is the short overlap window: Sections 2007.13(c)(3) and 2007.13(d)(3) both say "Care provided for the additional before and after school children is limited to children who attend school full-time and to before and/or after school, holidays, weekends, during unforeseen school closings, when the provider's own children come home sick, and during the summer." You may hold twelve children at 7:30 a.m. and again at 3:30 p.m., and you may hold twelve all day on a holiday, a weekend, an unforeseen closing day or across the summer, but you may not hold twelve at 10:30 on an ordinary Tuesday in October, because at 10:30 the four extra children are in school and any child sitting in one of those seats is not "attending school full-time". A licensing representative who arrives mid-morning and counts twelve heads is counting a violation even though twelve is the statutory maximum.

One more child is forgiven, once, for a reason: Section 2007.13(g) says "In the event of a brief unforeseen school closing, the caregiver may accept one additional school-age child and still be considered in compliance with the capacity requirements, as long as the total number of children under age 12 in the home does not exceed the maximum of 12 children. The caregiver shall maintain a record of the dates, names and ages of the children for whom this care was provided." That is a documented exception, not a verbal one; keep the dates, names and ages or it is simply an overage. Two further counting rules catch people. Home-schooled resident children are in the count unless someone else is teaching them: Section 2007.13(f) provides that "Any children under age 12 living in the home who are receiving home schooling shall be counted in the maximum of 8 children in subsections (b), (c), and (d), unless another parent or caregiver is providing the schooling apart from the day care area and the caregiver has no responsibility for care or supervision or schooling of the children during the hours home day care is provided."

And children with disabilities are counted at functional age, not chronological age: Section 2007.20(c) reads "In determining license capacity, children who have special needs due to physical, mental, and/or emotional disabilities shall be considered at the age level at which they function. The age level at which the child functions for purposes of determining child/staff ratios shall be determined by the supervising agency in consultation with personnel involved in providing care or services for the child." Night care is capped at the lone-caregiver number regardless of staffing: Section 2007.13(e), "The maximum number of children receiving night care shall be 8 children and the groupings shall be consistent with subsections (b) and (c)." Now the group day care home, Part 2009, which is a separate licence and not an upgrade you can talk your way into on a home licence. Section 2009.65(a)(1) sets the floor: "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a group day care home by a caregiver alone shall be 8 except when all the children are school age. The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home.

When determining capacity, the home must meet square footage requirements listed in Section 2009.30(c)." A caregiver alone in a group home may use four groupings under Section 2009.65(a)(2): "A) A mixed age group consisting of: i) Up to 8 children under 12 years of age, of which ii) Up to 5 children may be under 5 years of age, of which iii) Up to 3 children may be under 24 months of age; or B) A mixed age group consisting of: i) Up to 8 children under 12 years of age, of which ii) Up to 6 children may be under 5 years of age, of which iii) Up to 2 children may be under 30 months of age; or C) Up to 8 pre-school children if no child is under age 3; or D) Up to 12 school age children as defined by Section 2009.5." That fourth grouping is the one thing a group home lets one adult do that a family home never does: twelve school-agers, alone. Add one adult and the number moves to twelve across the board. Section 2009.65(b) states "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a group day care home by a caregiver and one assistant 18 years of age or older who meets the qualifications listed in Section 2009.50 shall be 12. The maximum number includes the licensee's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home," and allows either "12 children between 3 and 6 years of age.

The assistant must be present when more than 8 such children are present" or "A mixed age group consisting of: A) No more than 12 children under 12 years of age of which B) No more than 6 children may be under 30 months of age, of which C) No more than 4 children may be under 15 months of age." The statutory 16 requires a third adult and a written extension. Section 2009.65(c) reads "A caregiver and two assistants who meet the qualifications in Section 2009.50 may care for four additional children, for a total capacity of up to 16 children," and then constrains who those four may be: subsection (c)(1) requires that "A caregiver and two assistants shall be present at all times when there are more than 12 children in the home"; subsection (c)(2) allows, "When a caregiver, a full-time assistant (age 18 and older), and a part-time assistant (as described in Section 2009.50 (b)) are present, care may be provided for four additional school-age children. The care of school-age children is limited to children who attend school full-time, before and/or after school, when school is not in session, and when the provider's own school-age children come home sick"; subsection (c)(3) allows, "When a caregiver and two adult assistants (age 18 and older) who meet the requirements listed in Section 2009.50 are present, care may be provided for two additional children who are 30 months of age or older, as well as two additional children who are attending school full-time," and requires that "Both adult assistants shall be present at all times when providing care for two additional children who are 30 months of age or older."

As in the family home, the operator's own school-age children are pulled into the extra seats once the extension is granted: subsection (c)(4) says "When a licensee or permit holder has been granted the extended capacity of four additional children in writing, the licensee's own full-time school-age children shall be counted in the additional school-age children when there are more than 12 children in care, and two qualified assistants are present," and subsection (c)(5) closes the door: "The total capacity of the group home with an approved extended capacity shall not exceed 16 children." Night care in a group home is capped at 12 by Section 2009.65(d), and the brief-closing forgiveness in Section 2009.65(e) mirrors the family-home version with 16 as the ceiling. Appendix H to Part 2009, headed "Chart of Number and Ages of Children Served", restates all of this in a grid and is the single most useful page to print and tape inside a cupboard door, because it shows the totals column ending at 8, 8, 8, 12, 12, 12 and 16. Square footage is the quiet capacity constraint and it works differently in the two parts.

In a family home, Section 2007.8(k) applies the measurement only above eight: "The licensee shall identify those areas in the home used for child care. The identified areas minus any special use areas shall be measured to calculate the square footage available for child care. When the licensed capacity of the home exceeds 8 children, there shall be: 1) A minimum of 35 square feet of floor space per each child in care; and 2) An additional 20 square feet of floor space for each child under 30 months of age when the play area is the same as the sleep area." In a group home, Section 2009.30(c) applies it to every child from the first: "There shall be: 1) A minimum of 35 square feet of floor space for each child in care; and 2) An additional 20 square feet of floor space for each child under 30 months of age when the play area is the same as the sleep area." Both parts let you get the 20 back with portable bedding, on the same condition, that the representative "shall approve the use of only 35 square feet of space for each child if the applicant/licensee has adequate storage space for the bedding materials and the bedding materials are removed before and after nap time," and both parts exclude "Special use areas", defined in Section 2007.2 as "areas of the home that may not be included in the measurements of the area used for child care.

Special use areas include, but are not limited to, laundry rooms, furnace rooms, bathrooms, hazardous areas, and areas off-limits to children." A sixteen-child group home therefore needs at least 560 usable square feet of measured child care space before a single toddler is added to the arithmetic, and hallways, bathrooms and the laundry room do not count toward it. Everything above is the rule maximum. What you will actually be allowed to serve is the number the Department writes on your licence, and it can be lower. Section 2007.6(c) provides that "The number and age of children under age 12 cared for in the day care home at any one time shall be in compliance with provision in Section 2007.13. Increases in the license capacity or the ages of children served shall be with written approval of the supervising agency," and Section 2007.6(d) that "The age limits specified on the license shall be observed, unless the licensee has submitted a transition plan to the Department in accordance with Section 2007.13(h) in order to keep members of a sibling group together and the Department has approved the plan."

Section 2009.20(c) and (d) say the same for group homes against Section 2009.65. Two consequences follow. First, the licence carries both a number and an age band, and exceeding either is the same violation; a licence that says eight with no child under two is not a licence for eight children. Second, you cannot grow into the rule maximum quietly. Adding a seat, adding an age group, or activating the extended school-age seats all require written approval before the child walks in, and in a family home the square-footage measurement in Section 2007.8(k) is triggered the moment your licensed capacity passes eight, which means the request for a ninth seat is also a request to have your rooms measured. The transition plan is the one lawful way to be temporarily out of the age groupings, and it is narrow. Section 2007.13(h) allows it only "When the acceptance of siblings of children who are already in care will place the licensee out of compliance with the established age groupings," and only if "1) The licensee is not currently operating under a transition plan and is in full compliance with all the licensing standards; 2) At least one of the siblings has been in care for 30 days or more; and 3) The transition plan will bring the home back into compliance with the established age groupings within 6 months after the date the plan is approved."

Section 2009.65(f) is word-for-word the same for group homes. It buys you six months to age a group back into shape for a sibling; it does not raise your total and it cannot be run back to back. What an inspector counts is a moment, not a roster, and the rules say so in the definitions. Section 2007.2 and Section 2009.5 both define "'Attendance'" as "the total number of children under the age of 12 present at any one time." Section 2007.6(c) and Section 2009.20(c) both regulate the children cared for "at any one time." Section 2007.2's "Licensed capacity" is "the number of children the Department has determined the day care home can care for at any one time". Enrolment is irrelevant to the count. You may have twenty families on your books and be in compliance provided that at no instant are more than the licensed number of under-twelves present, and you may have nine children enrolled and be in violation because two part-timers overlapped for twenty minutes at pick-up. The representative does not need an appointment: Section 2007.26(a) provides that "Authorized representatives of the supervising agency or the Department shall be admitted to the facility during the facility's hours of operation for the purpose of determining compliance with the Child Care Act of 1969 and standards set forth in this Part," and Section 2007.26(b) adds that "Licensed providers are subject to periodic monitoring as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided."

Section 2009.130 repeats both. Group homes must be able to reconstruct the moment on paper as well: Section 2009.120(b) requires that "A facility shall maintain accurate daily attendance records on all children enrolled. If a child attends on a part-time or irregular basis, this shall be recorded in the attendance record." Part 2007 imposes no equivalent daily attendance log on family homes, which means in a family home the count is whatever the representative sees when the door opens, and you have no record to argue with. Keep a sign-in sheet anyway; it is the only evidence that will exist. The trap that costs applicants the most money in Illinois is planning a twelve-child business on a day care home licence. Twelve is the statutory ceiling in 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and it appears in Section 2007.13(g), so it reads like a target, and prospective providers sign leases, buy cribs, price out twelve tuitions and build a website around twelve slots. Section 2007.13 will not give them to you. A day care home reaches twelve only as 8 plus 4, only when the 4 are children "attending school full-time", only while an assistant is present, only within the before-and-after-school, holiday, weekend, unforeseen-closing, own-child-home-sick and summer window of Section 2007.13(c)(3) and (d)(3), and only once the extended 4 school-age capacity addendum has been granted in writing.

The twelve full-day preschool slots people budget for do not exist under Part 2007 at any staffing level; they exist only under Part 2009, which is a different application, requires an assistant aged 18 or older who meets Section 2009.50, and imposes 35 square feet per child from the first child rather than from the ninth. The second-most expensive trap is the resident-child arithmetic. Applicants routinely present a business plan for eight paying children while three of their own children under twelve live in the house, and discover at the licensing study that Section 2007.13(a) has already spent three of the eight seats, that Section 2007.13(f) will spend them even if those children are home-schooled unless another adult teaches them away from the day care area, and that the extended-capacity addendum in Section 2007.13(d)(2) will place their own full-time school-age children into the four extra seats rather than freeing the eight. The third trap is procedural and it is the reason to distrust every secondary source you find: the rules moved to the Department of Early Childhood under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2009, the statutory vocabulary changed to "early care and education home" and "group early care and education home" on 1 July 2026 under P.A. 104-0480, and a great deal of the material still being handed to Illinois applicants, including agency-branded PDFs, names DCFS and Rule 406. The capacity numbers in those documents happen to still be right. The agency, the part number, the section numbers and the words you will need to use on a form are not.

Adult-to-child ratios

Before you read a single number, correct the citation you are almost certainly carrying: there is no longer any such thing as 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 or 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408. The JCAR index of Title 89 now lists "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)" and "PART 408 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", and the SOURCE note left behind at Part 406 ends with the words "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832", the note at Part 408 ending identically but pointing to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838. The live rules are 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes) and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Licensing Standards for Group Day Care Homes), both in TITLE 23, CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD, each carrying the authority line "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]." Every section of Part 2007 closes "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)", and Part 2009 with the equivalent note citing 50 Ill. Reg. 10183. The statute moved too.

Section 3(a) of the Child Care Act of 1969 now reads that no one may operate "without a license or permit issued by the Department of Children and Family Services before July 1, 2026 or issued by the Department of Early Childhood on and after July 1, 2026", and Public Act 104-0480 (HB3595), effective 7/1/2026, rewrote the two definitions that bound you: 225 ILCS 10/2.18 now says "'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12", and 225 ILCS 10/2.20 now says "'Group early care and education home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12." So the statute calls your business an early care and education home while the rule you will be inspected against still calls it a day care home; both are current law, and the rule text has not caught up to the renaming.

Illinois does not express the adult-to-child constraint as a ratio. It expresses it as a composed capacity table keyed to age bands, and the proof is in the section headings: the operative section in the family home rule is "Section 2007.13 Number and Ages of Children Served" and the operative section in the group home rule is "Section 2009.65 Number and Ages of Children Served", which opens with the sentence "Appendix H includes a chart of the number and ages of children who can be served." Part 2009 ships the constraint as a chart, "Section 2009.APPENDIX H Chart of Number and Ages of Children Served", whose columns are headed "Caregiver Alone", "Caregiver & Assistant (Assistant must be 18 or older)", "Extended Capacity (2 Assistants must be present)" and "Total". Nowhere in either Part will you find a numeral-to-numeral ratio of the 1:4, 1:8 form that most states publish. Where the word "ratio" does appear it is only ever a pointer back to the table: Section 2007.18(a) says "Children may be transported only when the child/adult ratios in accordance with Section 2007.13 are maintained", Section 2007.20(c) speaks of "determining child/staff ratios", and Section 2009.35(k) refers to "the staff-to-child ratio required by Section 2009.65" — and Section 2009.65 is a table.

There is no ratio you can carry in your head and apply to any mix; there is a short list of permitted groupings, and a group not on the list is not permitted even if another state's arithmetic would allow it. For a day care home, Section 2007.13(a) fixes the ceiling: "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a day care home by a caregiver alone shall be 8. The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home." Section 2007.13(b), "A Caregiver Alone", then gives exactly three permitted shapes. The first is "A mixed age group consisting of: Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which Up to 5 children may be under the age of 5, of which Up to 3 children may be under 24 months of age." The second is "A mixed age group consisting of: Up to 8 children under the age of 12, of which Up to 6 children may be under the age of 5, of which Up to 2 children may be under 30 months of age." The third is "A school age group consisting of 8 school age children, as defined in Section 2007.2", and "School age" is defined in Section 2007.2 as "children from 6 to 12 years of age and 5 year olds who are in full-day kindergarten".

Read the nesting carefully, because it is where applicants lose money: you choose one shape and the infant sub-band is then fixed. Under shape one you may hold three children under 24 months but only five under five; under shape two, six under five but only two under 30 months. There is no blending, so a caregiver alone with three under 24 months and six under five is out of compliance under both shapes at once. A second adult becomes mandatory at the ninth child, and Illinois splits the answer on whether that second person has turned eighteen. Section 2007.13(c), "Caregiver and an Assistant under 18 Years of Age", lets a caregiver plus a minor assistant care for "One of the groupings in subsection (b) and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time; or A total of 8 children under 5 years of age, of which up to 5 children may be under 24 months of age." Section 2007.13(d), "A Caregiver and an Assistant 18 Years of Age or Older", allows "The groupings in subsection (b), and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time; or Eight children under 5 years of age, of which up to 5 children may be under 24 months of age, and 4 additional children who are attending school full-time."

The difference is four children: with a minor assistant the eight-under-five configuration stops at eight; with an adult assistant it carries four school-agers on top, which is how a licensed day care home reaches the statutory maximum of twelve. Both subsections then attach the same condition, at 2007.13(c)(2) and 2007.13(d)(2): "When a licensee or permitholder has been granted the extended 4 school-age capacity addendum in writing, a caregiver's own full-time school age children may be counted in the additional 4 school-age children provided that when there are more than 8 children in care, a qualified assistant is present." That written addendum is a separate grant, not an automatic consequence of hiring someone. Both subsections also limit those four extra children to "children who attend school full-time and to before and/or after school, holidays, weekends, during unforeseen school closings, when the provider's own children come home sick, and during the summer." What the assistant must be qualified as is set out in Section 2007.10, "Qualifications for Assistants": a low bar with one hard tether.

Subsection (a) requires the background check in Section 2007.9(a). Subsection (b): "Assistants shall be at least 14 years of age and at least 5 years older than the oldest child they supervise. Minor assistants shall be employed in accordance with 56 Ill. Adm. Code 250 (Illinois Child Labor Law)." Subsection (c) is the tether: "Assistants under age 18 shall work under the direct personal supervision of the caregiver at all times. Direct personal supervision means the caregiver maintains audible or visual contact with the assistant and children on the premises at all times." Subsection (d) permits only an assistant "18 years of age or older" to "accompany children playing outdoors" or transport them, and then only with a valid licence and insurance. Note what is absent: no credential, no coursework, no Gateways level is required of a day care home assistant to be counted in the grouping. What is required is that a fourteen-year-old never has custody of a group out of the caregiver's sight or earshot, so a minor assistant cannot be your answer to splitting children between two rooms. The caregiver, by contrast, must be an adult: Section 2007.9(k) states "The caregivers in a day care home shall be at least 18 years of age", Section 2007.9(i) states "The licensee shall be present in the home when day care children are in attendance unless a qualified substitute caregiver per Section 2007.11 is present", and Section 2007.9(s) states "The caregiver shall be awake, alert, and able to supervise the children when providing care, except as allowed by Section 2007.23(h)."

Substitutes are rationed by the clock, not by qualification alone. Section 2007.11(a): "A substitute caregiver may be used in the home up to 25 child care hours per month and for an additional period of up to 2 weeks in a 12 month period", with more time only as the supervising agency approves for family emergencies, medical reasons and continuing education. Section 2007.11(b) requires that "A substitute caregiver shall be at least 18 years of age", and Section 2007.11(c) that "A person who functions as a substitute caregiver on a regular or scheduled basis shall be qualified as a caregiver in accordance with Section 2007.9." Twenty-five hours a month is about an hour a working day; a plan that assumes a friend covers your afternoons is unlicensable as written. For a group day care home the table gets a third column. Section 2009.65(a)(1): "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a group day care home by a caregiver alone shall be 8 except when all the children are school age. The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home."

Section 2009.65(a)(2) gives four shapes for a caregiver alone: the same two mixed-age nests as the family home ("Up to 8 children under 12 years of age, of which Up to 5 children may be under 5 years of age, of which Up to 3 children may be under 24 months of age" and "Up to 8 children under 12 years of age, of which Up to 6 children may be under 5 years of age, of which Up to 2 children may be under 30 months of age"), plus "Up to 8 pre-school children if no child is under age 3", plus "Up to 12 school age children as defined by Section 2009.5." That last one is the only place in Illinois family child care where one adult may lawfully hold twelve children, and only if every one of them is school age. Section 2009.65(b), "A Caregiver and an Assistant 18 Years of Age or Older", states: "The maximum number of children under the age of 12 cared for in a group day care home by a caregiver and one assistant 18 years of age or older who meets the qualifications listed in Section 2009.50 shall be 12. The maximum number includes the licensee's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home."

The two permitted twelve-child shapes are "12 children between 3 and 6 years of age. The assistant must be present when more than 8 such children are present" and "A mixed age group consisting of: No more than 12 children under 12 years of age of which No more than 6 children may be under 30 months of age, of which No more than 4 children may be under 15 months of age." Read the first one twice: it is the only place in either Part where the rule names the exact headcount at which a second body must physically be in the room, and it names eight. Section 2009.65(c), "Extended Capacity", is the route to sixteen: "A caregiver and two assistants who meet the qualifications in Section 2009.50 may care for four additional children, for a total capacity of up to 16 children." Its first condition is absolute — "A caregiver and two assistants shall be present at all times when there are more than 12 children in the home" — and its two shapes are narrow. Under 2009.65(c)(2), "When a caregiver, a full-time assistant (age 18 and older), and a part-time assistant (as described in Section 2009.50 (b)) are present, care may be provided for four additional school-age children", again limited to full-time students before and after school, when school is not in session, and when the provider's own school-age children come home sick.

Under 2009.65(c)(3), "When a caregiver and two adult assistants (age 18 and older) who meet the requirements listed in Section 2009.50 are present, care may be provided for two additional children who are 30 months of age or older, as well as two additional children who are attending school full-time", and subparagraph (B) adds that "Both adult assistants shall be present at all times when providing care for two additional children who are 30 months of age or older." Four extra school-agers can therefore be carried with one adult assistant and one fourteen-year-old; two extra toddlers cannot — those cost you a second adult, continuously. Section 2009.65(c)(5) closes it: "The total capacity of the group home with an approved extended capacity shall not exceed 16 children." Group home staff are qualified more heavily, and this is where applicants underbudget. Section 2009.45(c) and (d): "The caregivers in a group day care home shall be at least 21 years of age" and "The caregivers shall have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate." Section 2009.45(e) then demands a year of child development experience plus six semester hours of relevant coursework, a full year of college credit including those six hours, or "Completion of a credentialing program approved in accordance with Appendix F". The assistant is qualified almost exactly as in a family home, and Part 2009 adds the vocabulary the capacity table depends on.

Section 2009.50(b): "Part-time assistants shall be at least 14 years of age and 5 years older than the oldest child they supervise." Section 2009.50(c): "Full-time assistants shall be at least 18 years of age." Section 2009.50(d) repeats the family home tether: "Assistants under age 18 shall work under the direct, personal supervision of the caregiver at all times." Section 2009.45(b) states the presence rule: "The caregiver or a designated child care assistant meeting the requirements of this Section shall be at the group day care home at all times that the group day care home is in operation, except when transporting children or accompanying them on field trips", and Section 2009.35(c) requires the licensee to be present unless a qualified substitute is. The group home substitute must be older: Section 2009.55(b), "A substitute caregiver shall be at least 21 years of age", under the same twenty-five-hour cap. On what counts as an adult in the count, the group home rule says something the family home rule does not, and it is the most consequential sentence in either Part. Section 2009.35(k): "Persons, including members of the household, counted in the staff-to-child ratio required by Section 2009.65 must be present, awake and free from responsibilities other than those directly related to the care and supervision of children when children are present, except as allowed by Section 2009.115 for night care.

Responsibilities that are directly related to the care and supervision of children may include light housekeeping to maintain the areas wherein child care is provided." Part 2007 has no equivalent clause anywhere in its text; the closest it comes is the single-person duty at Section 2007.9(s) that "The caregiver shall be awake, alert, and able to supervise the children when providing care." Do not assume a family home escapes it in practice, because the family home rule reaches the same place by a different route: Section 2007.16(b)(8) states flatly "Children shall not be left unattended and supervision shall be provided at all times", and Section 2009.85(i) says "Children shall not be left unattended and adult supervision shall be provided at all times." At nap time Illinois writes a duty, not a number: neither Part reduces the required adult presence during sleep and neither sets a separate sleeping ratio. The group home rule alone imposes a schedule: Section 2009.85(c)(7) requires "A supervised nap period for children under six years of age who remain five or more hours. This nap period for the group should not normally exceed two and one-half hours.

Children who remain for as long as four consecutive hours shall have a supervised rest period." Part 2007 contains no such provision at all; a family home's nap obligation runs through the general Section 2007.16(b)(3) requirement of "Regularity in routines such as, but not limited to, eating, napping, and toileting." Sleep supervision is a duty on the person, not a headcount, and Sections 2007.22(a) and 2009.105(a) both bar children under 30 months from "bathrooms, kitchens, or other hazardous areas without the caregiver or assistant present." Night care is the one moment Illinois lets the responsible adult stop watching. Section 2007.23(h): "the caregiver may sleep while children are present if the caregiver and the children sleep on the same floor (level) of the residence and the children's bedrooms are within hearing distance of the caregiver's bedroom to provide for the needs of the children and to respond immediately in an emergency." Section 2009.35(m) says the same for group homes. The capacity does not grow at night and the cross-references are narrower than you expect: Section 2007.13(e) provides "The maximum number of children receiving night care shall be 8 children and the groupings shall be consistent with subsections (b) and (c)" — it names (b) and (c) and omits (d), so the adult-assistant configurations are not written into the night-care cross-reference — and Section 2009.65(d) provides "The maximum number of children receiving night care shall be 12 children and groupings shall be consistent with subsections (a) and (b)", which excludes the sixteen-child extended capacity from night care altogether.

Outdoors, the adult who may hold the group changes. Section 2007.8(m)(1) requires that "Space shall be provided for play in yards, nearby parks or playgrounds under adult supervision", Section 2007.8(m)(6) that "Children shall be closely supervised by the caregiver when public parks or playgrounds are used for play, during play and while traveling to and from the area", and Section 2007.8(m)(7) that "Supervision shall be provided during outdoor play by caregivers who meet the requirements of Section 2007.9" — that is, by someone qualified as a caregiver — while Section 2007.10(d) separately permits that "An assistant 18 years of age or older may accompany children playing outdoors." The sentences sit in tension; the safe reading is conservative — never send the group off the premises with anyone under eighteen. The group home rule quantifies the space and repeats the escort rule: Section 2009.30(m) states "There shall be a minimum of 75 square feet of outdoor space per child for the total number of children using the area at any one time. At least 25% of the required space shall be on the premises of the group day care home.

The remainder may be a public park, playground or other outdoor recreation area within walking distance (1000 feet) of the group day care home provided the caregiver or an adult assistant accompanies children to this outdoor area." In transport the table travels with the vehicle. Section 2007.18(a): "Children may be transported only when the child/adult ratios in accordance with Section 2007.13 are maintained and the person transporting is 18 years of age or older and has a valid driver's license for the vehicle classification being used." Section 2009.90(a) is word-for-word the same pointing at Section 2009.65. Section 2007.18(e) and Section 2009.90(e) both state "No child shall be left unattended in a vehicle", and Section 2009.45(b) exempts the caregiver from the presence requirement only "when transporting children or accompanying them on field trips" — which is the rule that tells you the home cannot be running with children in it while the caregiver drives, unless a qualified person is holding the home. In water Illinois writes its only second-adult trigger that is not about headcount.

Section 2007.19 reads in full: "a) Swimming activities shall be supervised for safety. b) All children must be directly supervised (caregiver physically present with the children) at all times when children are wading or swimming. c) A second adult shall be available to supervise any children not swimming." Section 2009.95 says the same at (a) and (b), then adds a requirement the family home rule does not carry: "Child(ren) shall be permitted to use a swimming pool only under the direct supervision of a person currently certified as a water safety instructor or lifeguard by the American Red Cross or an equivalent water safety program." A group day care home with a pool therefore needs a certified lifeguard or water safety instructor in addition to a second adult for the dry children; a day care home needs only the second adult. The word "wading" carries the rule into a paddling pool in the yard, so a plastic pool plus a caregiver alone with a mixed group is a citation waiting to happen. When the provider is momentarily alone, Illinois grants no grace period, no ten-minute exception, no bathroom allowance.

The moment is governed by the presence rules — Sections 2007.9(i), 2009.35(c), 2009.45(b) — and by the flat prohibitions at 2007.16(b)(8) and 2009.85(i) that children "shall not be left unattended". The only textual softening anywhere is the night-care sleeping permission and the under-18 assistant standard, which sets adequate oversight at audible or visual contact rather than line of sight. Practically: if your grouping requires a second adult and that adult steps out, the lawful group reverts instantly to whatever a caregiver alone may hold, and if the children present exceed that you are out of compliance from that second, not from some later threshold. The two amendment histories differ and you must not read across them. The transferred Part 406 record ends "amended at 44 Ill. Reg. 16116, effective September 18, 2020", while Part 408 continues "amended at 48 Ill. Reg. 5963, effective April 3, 2024; amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 8928, effective July 1, 2025." The group home standards have been reworked twice since the family home standards last moved, and the extended-capacity-to-sixteen architecture with its two-assistant conditions is that recent work; a chart or training deck showing a group day care home capped at twelve predates it.

Now the traps that cost applicants money. The first is the citation itself. Search the web for Illinois family child care rules today and you land on dcfs.illinois.gov, where rules-406.pdf is still served, still returns HTTP 200, and still opens with the header "TITLE 89: SOCIAL SERVICES / CHAPTER III: DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES / SUBCHAPTER e: REQUIREMENTS FOR LICENSURE / PART 406 / LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES." Policies, handbooks and grant applications citing "89 Ill. Adm. Code 406.13" cite a section that no longer exists at that address, and rewriting a policy set after an inspector flags it is time you pay for twice. Cite 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.13 and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.65. The licensing agency itself publishes the crosswalk, so confusion is not a defence: IDEC's licensure page at idec.illinois.gov carries a table headed "Child Care Licensure Rules", introduced "As a result of the transition to the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, the rules regarding Child Care Licensure have been transferred", whose "DCFS Rule" and "IDEC Rule" columns map Part 406 to Part 2007 and Part 408 to Part 2009. One divergence matters before you quote a definition at anyone: Section 2007.2 still reproduces the old Section 2.18 as "the family's natural, foster, or adopted children", and Section 2009.5 the old Section 2.20, while the current 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and 2.20 drop the word foster.

Quote the operative sections, 2007.13 and 2009.65. The second trap actually empties bank accounts: your own children are inside the number, not on top of it. Section 2007.13(a) is unambiguous — "The maximum number includes the caregiver's own children, related children and unrelated children under age 12 living in the home" — and Sections 2009.65(a)(1) and (b) repeat it. But "Licensed capacity" at Section 2007.2 reads "'Licensed capacity' means the number of children the Department has determined the day care home can care for at any one time in addition to any children living in the home who are under the age of 12 years. Children age 12 and over on the premises are not considered in determining licensed capacity." Those two sentences pull in opposite directions, and providers who read only the definition build a business on eight paying enrollments plus their own three toddlers. The operative section governs, and the difference is three fee-paying slots you sold and cannot lawfully fill. Home-schooled children are swept in the same way: Section 2007.13(f) counts "Any children under age 12 living in the home who are receiving home schooling ... in the maximum of 8 children in subsections (b), (c), and (d), unless another parent or caregiver is providing the schooling apart from the day care area and the caregiver has no responsibility for care or supervision or schooling", and Section 2009.35(p) does the same against the group home's maximum of 12. The third trap is treating the license as a number when it is a number plus a set of age limits.

Section 2007.6(c): "The number and age of children under age 12 cared for in the day care home at any one time shall be in compliance with provision in Section 2007.13. Increases in the license capacity or the ages of children served shall be with written approval of the supervising agency." Section 2007.6(d) adds that "The age limits specified on the license shall be observed", and Sections 2009.20(c) and (d) mirror both. A home licensed for eight with an age floor of two years cannot take a six-month-old and stay compliant merely because it is still under eight. The relief valve is narrow and slow: Section 2007.13(h) allows a sibling transition plan only where the licensee "is not currently operating under a transition plan and is in full compliance with all the licensing standards", one sibling "has been in care for 30 days or more", and the plan "will bring the home back into compliance with the established age groupings within 6 months after the date the plan is approved." The only carve-out for a surprise is Section 2007.13(g): "In the event of a brief unforeseen school closing, the caregiver may accept one additional school-age child and still be considered in compliance with the capacity requirements, as long as the total number of children under age 12 in the home does not exceed the maximum of 12 children.

The caregiver shall maintain a record of the dates, names and ages of the children for whom this care was provided." Section 2009.65(e) grants the same against a ceiling of sixteen. The fourth trap is buying capacity you have not been granted. The four extra school-agers in a day care home exist only "When a licensee or permitholder has been granted the extended 4 school-age capacity addendum in writing" (Sections 2007.13(c)(2) and 2007.13(d)(2)), and the group home's sixteen exists only where the home has "an approved extended capacity" (Section 2009.65(c)(5)) with two assistants "present at all times when there are more than 12 children in the home" (Section 2009.65(c)(1)). Hiring the second assistant before the addendum issues buys payroll against a capacity you do not hold. The fifth trap is square footage, which silently overrides the table. Section 2009.65 says twice "When determining capacity, the home must meet square footage requirements listed in Section 2009.30(c)", and Section 2009.30(c) requires "A minimum of 35 square feet of floor space for each child in care" plus "An additional 20 square feet of floor space for each child under 30 months of age when the play area is the same as the sleep area", relieved only where "portable bedding is used for napping, then removed" and there is adequate storage.

Sixteen children at 35 square feet is 560 square feet of measured child care space before you count a single crib, and it is the licensee who nominates the rooms: "The licensee shall identify those areas in the home used for child care. The identified areas minus any special use areas shall be measured to calculate the square footage available for child care." Furnish, equip and staff for sixteen and then measure at twelve, and you have bought four children's worth of everything. Two smaller cautions. Section 2009.20(d) directs you to "a transition plan to the Department in accordance with Section 2009.65 (e)", but Section 2009.65(e) is the unforeseen-school-closing provision and the transition plan actually lives at Section 2009.65(f); the cross-reference in the codified text is wrong, and you should file under (f). And do not import 225 ILCS 10/2.41, added by P.A. 104-480, which defines "Supervisor of children" as "an individual on site who is tasked with being aware of and being responsible for the ongoing safety and activity of each child, including requiring all children to be within the individual's vision and auditory range".

It reads like a supervision standard for your home, but in the Child Care Act it operates on background-check duties for Recognized Alternative Providers under Section 3, not on licensed homes. Your standard is the one written into your Part: audible or visual contact for minor assistants, physical presence in the water, never unattended, awake and alert.

Training you must complete before licensure

START WITH THE CITATION, BECAUSE IN ILLINOIS THE RULE NUMBER IN EVERY GUIDE YOU WILL READ IS DEAD (verified 26 August 2026 against the JCAR index of parts in effect, not a pinned PDF). If your paperwork, your consultant, your CCR&R handout or your training vendor cites "89 Ill. Adm. Code 406, Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes", they are quoting a Part the General Assembly's own administrative-code database now lists as "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)". The closing line of its SOURCE note reads, verbatim: "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832." The operative text today is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, Chapter XI, Department of Early Childhood, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917; former Part 408 is likewise 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (50 Ill. Reg. 10183) and former Part 407 is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 (50 Ill. Reg. 9834). The Illinois Department of Early Childhood publishes the same crosswalk on its Child Care Licensure page and states, in its own words, "Starting July 1, 2026, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood will officially become the lead agency for Child Care Licensing."

DCFS nevertheless still serves, at a live URL returning HTTP 200 today, "LICENSING PROCEDURES FOR DAY CARE HOMES, March 31, 2014" on its own letterhead, keyed section by section to "Rule 406"; Eastern Illinois University's CCR&R still serves Rules_406.pdf; Justia and Cornell's LII still index "Ill. Admin. Code tit. 89, pt. 406". The substance of the training and qualification requirements did not change in the recodification — the text was moved, not rewritten — but the citation did. THE SECOND STALENESS IS IN THE STATUTE AND IT RUNS THE OTHER WAY. Public Act 104-0480, approved 26 June 2026 effective 1 July 2026, rewrote the vocabulary of the Child Care Act of 1969. As compiled today, Section 2.18 defines "Early care and education homes" as "family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day" and Section 2.20 defines "Group early care and education home" as "a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children for less than 24 hours per day". The phrase "day care home" has been struck out of the definitions of the statute that authorises your licence, while the rule that actually governs you, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, is still titled "Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes" and uses it in every operative sentence.

The licence itself issues under 225 ILCS 10/3(a), which now provides that no person may operate an early care and education home "without a license or permit issued by the Department of Children and Family Services before July 1, 2026 or issued by the Department of Early Childhood on and after July 1, 2026". THE FIRST DOCUMENT YOU RECEIVE IS NOT A LICENCE, IT IS A TWO-MONTH PERMIT, AND THAT IS WHERE THE PRE-SERVICE GATE ACTUALLY BITES. Section 2007.7(a) is a closed list of eight conditions opening "A permit shall not be issued until". Four are the subject of this field. Section 2007.7(a)(2): the background checks required by Section 2007.9 completed and the results received for the operator. Section 2007.7(a)(3): "Medical reports as required in Section 2007.24(i) have been received by the Department for all caregivers and assistants". Section 2007.7(a)(4): "The applicant who is the primary caregiver has been certified in first-aid, the Heimlich maneuver, and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in accordance with Section 2007.9(n)". Section 2007.7(a)(8): "A written fire safety inspection and approval of the home has been completed in accordance with Section 2007.4(d)".

Section 2007.7(a)(6) allows exactly three things to be finished during the permit window and no others: the remaining character references, remaining medical examination reports, and well water tests. Training is not on that list, because the 15 pre-service hours are part of the application itself under Section 2007.4, not a permit condition. Group day care homes get a six-month permit period (Section 2009.25(g)), but their gate at Section 2009.25(a) adds conditions the day care home does not face, including public liability insurance "in the single limit minimum amount of $100,000 per occurrence" (Section 2009.35(j)). THE QUALIFICATION FLOOR FOR A DAY CARE HOME IS LOW AND IS STATED IN FOUR SENTENCES. Section 2007.9(k): "The caregivers in a day care home shall be at least 18 years of age." Section 2007.9(l): "Caregivers licensed after January 1, 2011 shall have proof of a high school diploma, equivalent certificate, or degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education or vocational institution." Section 2007.4(b)(1)(G) requires that diploma or certificate to be a physical attachment to the application, not an assertion.

There is no experience, college credit or credential requirement for a plain day care home licence in Illinois. Section 2007.10(b): "Assistants shall be at least 14 years of age and at least 5 years older than the oldest child they supervise", and under Section 2007.10(c) "Assistants under age 18 shall work under the direct personal supervision of the caregiver at all times", defined as audible or visual contact at all times; only an assistant of 18 or older may accompany children outdoors alone or transport them. Substitutes must be at least 18 (Section 2007.11(b)) and are usable "up to 25 child care hours per month and for an additional period of up to 2 weeks in a 12 month period" (Section 2007.11(a)); and then the sentence that catches people who plan to work part-time, Section 2007.11(c), "A person who functions as a substitute caregiver on a regular or scheduled basis shall be qualified as a caregiver in accordance with Section 2007.9", which pulls that person into the whole caregiver package including the pre-service topics, the medical and the CPR. THE GROUP DAY CARE HOME FLOOR IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL AND THIS IS WHERE ILLINOIS APPLICANTS MOST OFTEN BUDGET WRONG.

Section 2009.45(c): "The caregivers in a group day care home shall be at least 21 years of age." Section 2009.45(d): high school diploma or equivalency certificate. Then Section 2009.45(e), which has no counterpart in the day care home Part: "In addition to meeting the requirements of Sections 2009.35 and 2009.40 the caregiver in a group day home shall have achieved: 1) One year (1560 clock hours) child development experience in a licensed day care home, nursery school, kindergarten, or licensed day care center plus 6 semester or equivalent quarter hours in courses related directly to child care and/or child development from an accredited college or university; 2) One year (30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours) of credit from an accredited college or university with 6 semester or equivalent quarter hours related directly to child care and/or child development; or 3) Completion of a credentialing program approved in accordance with Appendix F." Appendix F sets the criteria for approved credentialing programmes — "a minimum of 640 clock hours of documented experience within the past 5 years working with children ages zero to 6", "a minimum of 120 clock hours of broad based training", a portfolio, an impartial assessment, renewal every five years with 20 further clock hours — and names the Child Development Associate Credential and the Certified Childcare Professional by title.

Section 2009.10(b)(1)(E) requires documentation of that qualification with the application; group day care home substitutes must be at least 21 (Section 2009.55(b)) and full-time assistants at least 18 (Section 2009.50(c)). THE PRE-SERVICE TRAINING REQUIREMENT IS FIFTEEN HOURS AND IT HAS A ONE-YEAR SHELF LIFE. Section 2007.4(b)(2), quoted in full because every word is load-bearing: "The applicants shall have completed, not more than one year prior to the application date, at least 15 hours of pre-service training listed in Appendix D, which shall include the following topics for applicants and assistants who will care for infants: A) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); B) Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID); C) Safe sleep recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics; D) Shaken Baby Syndrome; and E) Department approved Mandated Reporter Training for all licensees and assistants, regardless of the age of children in care." Section 2009.10(b)(2) is the same requirement, word for word, for group day care homes, pointing at Appendix G. Read the shelf life twice: hours earned eighteen months ago do not count, and the representative measures the year backwards from the application date, so hours taken at the front of a long stall on fingerprints or on a household member's medical can age out before the file is complete.

Read subparagraph (E) twice as well. SIDS, SUID, AAP safe sleep and Shaken Baby are conditioned on caring for infants; Mandated Reporter Training is conditioned on nothing, being owed by every licensee and assistant "regardless of the age of children in care", so a school-age-only home still owes it before the licence issues. Section 2007.4(b)(3) adds a separate deliverable, not counted in the fifteen and not optional: "Applicants shall submit with their initial application a certificate of completion of lead safety training consisting of instruction in the following topics: A) Mitigation plan for test results of 2.01 ppb or above; and B) Impact of lead exposure." Section 2009.10(b)(3) is identical. NOW THE DRAFTING DEFECT THAT COSTS PEOPLE MONEY, BECAUSE THE RULE SENDS YOU TO A LIST THAT DOES NOT EXIST. Section 2007.4(b)(2) says the fifteen hours are "listed in Appendix D". Appendix D is headed "Pre-Service and In-Service Training", but its topic list at subsection (b) opens with the words "Topics or courses to meet the in-service training requirements include, but are not limited to", and the sixteen items that follow are in-service topics — child care and child development, guidance and discipline, first aid and CPR, common childhood illness, nutrition, health and sanitation, small business management, child abuse and neglect, working with families, children with disabilities, asthma management, SIDS, the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Mandated Reporter Training and SUID.

There is nowhere in Part 2007 an enumerated curriculum of fifteen pre-service hours. The consequence is that the fifteen hours is a quantity requirement satisfiable from the open menu in Appendix D(b), inside which five named topics are compulsory in the circumstances Section 2007.4(b)(2) sets, plus the lead safety certificate. Do not pay a vendor for a proprietary "Illinois 15-hour pre-service curriculum" on the belief that a state-mandated syllabus exists and only their version satisfies it. What exists is an hour count, five named topics, a one-year window and a documentation standard. WHO IS ALLOWED TO TEACH IT IS A CLOSED-ENDED-BUT-NOT-EXCLUSIVE LIST, AND HOW YOU PROVE IT IS STRICTER THAN WHAT YOU TOOK. Appendix D(a) provides that entities that may deliver pre-service and in-service training "include, but are not limited to" eleven categories: colleges and universities; child care resource and referral agencies; IDPH or local health departments; the Office of the State Fire Marshal or local fire department; DCFS; the Department of Human Services; child care or child advocacy organisations; family day care home associations; CACFP sponsors; Healthy Child Care Illinois nurses; and "American Red Cross, American Heart Association and other providers of first aid and CPR training that have been approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health".

Appendix D(c)(1) then lists the acceptable delivery modes with their documentation conditions attached: classroom courses, where "clock hours spent in the classroom are counted"; conferences or workshops, where "certificate or other proof of attendance, clock hours and subject matter is required"; association meetings, but only "when a specific training program is provided by a guest speaker or group member"; "self-study materials provided by a child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agency (certificate of clock hours must be secured from the CCR&R)"; "internet home study programs if the internet site provides documentation of use and number of clock hours"; and Mandated Reporter Training through the Department's own website at https://www.dcfstraining.org/manrep/index.jsp. Appendix D(c)(2) fixes who may sign: the instructor, speaker or president of the sponsoring organisation, except that "The child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agency must sign and provide documentation of completion for self-study materials, and the internet site must provide documentation for home study programs."

Self-study done on your own, without a CCR&R certificate, is not documentable and therefore is not fifteen hours. THE REGISTRY IS THE PART PEOPLE FORGET, AND IT IS AN APPLICATION CONTENT REQUIREMENT, NOT A COURTESY. Section 2007.4(b)(1)(H) requires, as a component of a complete application, "proof of membership in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry by the primary caregiver and assistants in the home with all educational credentials and pre-service training entered into the Registry"; Section 2009.10(b)(1)(I) says the same for group day care homes. The Registry is operated by INCCRRA at registry.ilgateways.com. Your certificates have to reach it, not merely your own file, before the application is complete — the agency's procedures state that "The licensing representative may verify these credit hours through observation of the applicant's professional development record from Gateways to Opportunity Registry", and a representative who cannot see the hours there will treat the application as incomplete. The practical Illinois inventory of compliant courses is the licensing-required catalogue INCCRRA runs on its i-learning platform, whose current listing includes Day Care Home Licensing Orientation Training at 3 contact hours, Mandated Reporter Training at 1, Child Development, Health, and Safety Basics at 4 (covering SIDS/SUID and Shaken Baby), stand-alone Shaken Baby Syndrome and SIDS/SUID/AAP Safe Sleep courses at 1 each, Lead in Water: Protecting Illinois Children at 1, Welcoming Each and Every Child at 7, and Trauma-Informed Practice for Child Care Providers at 2, with Spanish equivalents for several.

Note the arithmetic: the five mandatory named topics plus lead safety and orientation come to roughly ten of your fifteen hours, and the balance is yours to choose from Appendix D(b). FIRST AID AND CPR ARE A PERMIT GATE, PERSONAL TO THE PRIMARY CAREGIVER, AND THE ONLINE-ONLY CERTIFICATE IS THE COMMONEST REJECTION. Section 2007.9(n): "The licensee who is the primary caregiver shall be certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association or other entity approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health." Section 2007.9(o) adds that during operating hours "there shall be at least one person on the premises certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)" and that "The caregivers shall have on file current certificates attesting to the training". Section 2009.35(i) is the group day care home equivalent and adds one clause the home rule lacks: "CPR certification shall be for the age range of children in care." The accepting bodies are therefore the Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or an entity approved by IDPH — the rule names no other certifier.

On the in-person question the rule is silent and the procedures manual is explicit: it states flatly "Online CPR certifications are not accepted", requires that "When there are Applicants A and B, both individuals shall obtain the required first aid, CPR, and Heimlich maneuver certifications", extends the requirement to substitutes, and prints the age-band tables — Red Cross Infant for 0–1, Child for 1–11, Adult for 12 and over; American Heart Infant for 0–1, Child for 1–8, Adult for 8 and over. Treat "hands-on skills check, in person, from Red Cross or AHA, covering the infant band if you take infants" as the operating standard, while noting its source is the manual rather than the rule. Because Section 2007.7(a)(4) makes the primary caregiver's certification a permit condition, schedule it first: a card that arrives after the home visit holds the whole file. THERE IS A STATUTORY CPR CHANGE COMING AND THE AGENCY HAS ALREADY SAID IT IS DRAFTED WRONG. Public Act 104-0583, House Bill 2190, was approved by the Governor on 24 July 2026 with an effective date of 1 January 2027. It amends Section 7(a)(4) of the Child Care Act so that "The standards shall provide that each child care institution, maternity center, day care center, group home, day care home, and group day care home shall have on its premises during its hours of operation at least 2 non-administrative staff members certified in first aid, in the Heimlich maneuver, and in cardiopulmonary resuscitation by the American Red Cross or other organizations approved by rule of the Department no later than 90 days after employment."

On its face that names day care homes and doubles the on-premises requirement from one certified adult to two, which for a one-woman family home would be structural. Two facts cut against reading it that way. The version of Section 7 that P.A. 104-0583 amended is the one the compiled statute labels "(Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 103-594)", and on and after 1 July 2026 the standards for day care centers, day care homes and group day care homes are set instead by Section 7.01, "Minimum standards for licensing; Department of Early Childhood", whose paragraph (a)(4) still reads "at least one staff member certified in first aid, in the Heimlich maneuver and in cardiopulmonary resuscitation" and which P.A. 104-0583 did not touch. And IDEC has posted a statement on HB 2190 saying the requirement "only applies to child care center settings", that "The law does not take effect until January 1, 2027", and that it "is working with the sponsor to correct the language before it goes into effect". Plan accordingly: the enforceable floor for a licensed day care home today is one certified person on the premises, which in a solo home is you; a second certified adult is cheap insurance against both the trailer bill and your own sick days.

THE MEDICAL AND TUBERCULOSIS REQUIREMENT REACHES YOUR WHOLE HOUSEHOLD AND IS DATED FROM THE APPLICATION, NOT FROM THE LICENCE. Section 2007.24(i): "Members of the household, regular substitutes, and assistants shall have a complete physical examination." Subparagraph (i)(1) fixes the window and the TB rule: "The report shall be based on an examination that occurred no earlier than 6 months prior to application, with a tuberculin test to be included in the initial exam only. If the skin test is positive, a chest x-ray is required." Section 2007.24(j) makes that report valid for three years, and Section 2007.9(m) adds, for caregivers only, freedom from "physical or mental conditions that could interfere with the child care responsibilities". The manual names the instruments: CFS 602, Medical Report on an Adult in a Child Care Facility, and CFS 600, Certificate of Child Health Examination for each child in the household, with the direction that "All adults shall have the Mantoux TB test results documented on the CFS 602". The group day care home Part states the TB rule without the "initial exam only" limitation: Section 2009.35(g) provides that "Caregivers and members of the household shall have a tuberculin skin test administered by the Mantoux method in accordance with the rules of the Department of Public Health (77 Ill. Adm. Code 690.720)". Because Section 2007.7(a)(3) makes receipt of those medicals a permit condition for "all caregivers and assistants", the household member who will not go to the doctor is a live cause of application failure, and the six-month look-back means a physical done too early has to be redone.

MANDATED REPORTER STATUS IS TWO SEPARATE OBLIGATIONS AND THE LICENSING RULE IS THE STRICTER OF THE TWO. The training obligation is the pre-service one already quoted, per Section 2007.4(b)(2)(E). The acknowledgement obligation is separate, at Section 2007.24(m): the licensee and each staff person must sign a Department-prescribed statement acknowledging mandated reporter status under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, "signed and dated by the staff person prior to employment, and shall be maintained by the licensee", mirroring 325 ILCS 5/4(i). The Act's own training deadline is looser than the rule's: 325 ILCS 5/4(j) gives mandated reporters "an initial mandated reporter training, including a section on implicit bias, within 3 months of their date of engagement in a professional or official capacity as a mandated reporter, or within the time frame of any other applicable State law that governs training requirements for a specific profession, and at least every 3 years thereafter", and accepts either format — "The mandated reporter trainings shall be in-person or web-based".

That "or within the time frame of any other applicable State law" clause is exactly what the licensing rule occupies: for a day care home applicant the three-month grace period is replaced by a hard pre-application deadline. Section 2007.24(l) prints the hotline: 1-800-252-2873. SAFE SLEEP, SIDS AND SHAKEN BABY ARE PRE-SERVICE ONLY IF YOU TAKE INFANTS, AND THE THREE-YEAR CYCLE AFTERWARDS IS STATUTORY. The pre-service trigger is the "for applicants and assistants who will care for infants" clause in Section 2007.4(b)(2). Appendix D(b)(12), (14) and (16) then set the repeat cycle, each parenthetical reading that training "is required for new applicants and assistants licensed to care for newborns and infants, and every three years thereafter for the life of the license". That cycle is now also statutory: 225 ILCS 10/7.01(a)(16) requires standards "requiring all licensed child care facility employees who care for newborns and infants to complete training every 3 years on the nature of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and the safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics".

The training exists to make you comply with Section 2007.22(b): "To minimize the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, children shall be placed on their backs when put down to sleep", with a physician's signed instructions required for any alternative position and no infant put to sleep "on a sofa, soft mattress, car seat or swing". THERE IS A STATUTORY TRAINING REQUIREMENT THAT IS NOT IN THE RULE AT ALL, AND YOU WILL NOT FIND IT BY READING PART 2007. The flush paragraph closing 225 ILCS 10/7.01(a), added by P.A. 103-594 effective 1 July 2026, provides: "All licensed day care home providers, licensed group day care home providers, and licensed day care center directors and classroom staff shall participate in at least one training that includes the topics of early childhood social emotional learning, infant and early childhood mental health, early childhood trauma, or adverse childhood experiences... at least once every 3 years." Neither Part 2007 nor Part 2009 has been amended to carry it — a live example of the Illinois pattern, the statute moving while the recodified rule text lags.

The corresponding Registry course is Trauma-Informed Practice for Child Care Providers at 2 contact hours; take it inside your fifteen and you satisfy a statutory duty at no marginal cost. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS IN ILLINOIS IS A WRITTEN PLAN, NOT A COURSE, AND ONE OF THE PLANS IS DUE WITH THE APPLICATION. Do not buy an "emergency preparedness training" to satisfy this. Section 2007.4(b)(1)(F) makes a component of the complete application "a written hazard protection plan identifying potential hazards within the home and outdoor area accessible to the children in care", its named example conditions being "traffic construction, bodies of water accessible to the children, open stairwells, and neighborhood dogs". Section 2007.8(a)(19) then requires that "Written emergency preparedness plans shall be developed and shall specify the actions to be taken in the event of a fire, tornado or other emergency", among their enumerated components "Specific procedures for evacuating children who are less than 30 months of age and/or for evacuating special needs children when applicable". The fire safety inspection is a hard permit gate: Section 2007.4(d)(3) provides that "Prior to the Department issuance of a permit or a license, the day care home shall have written approval by OSFM or staff trained by OSFM, indicating the home meets fire safety requirements".

TRANSPORTATION CARRIES NO TRAINING REQUIREMENT IN ILLINOIS AND THAT IS WORTH KNOWING BEFORE YOU PAY FOR ONE. Section 2007.18 imposes conditions, not coursework: children may be transported "only when the child/adult ratios in accordance with Section 2007.13 are maintained and the person transporting is 18 years of age or older and has a valid driver's license for the vehicle classification being used", each child in a federally approved restraint, and — the paperwork item people miss — "Evidence of compliance regarding vehicle liability and medical insurance shall be on file with the home records". ONE SIX-HOUR COURSE THAT LOOKS LIKE PRE-SERVICE IS NOT PRE-SERVICE. Section 2007.9(p) requires "a Department approved basic training course of 6 or more clock hours in providing care to children with disabilities", but Section 2007.9(p)(1) sets the deadline as "within 36 months from the issue date of the initial license", and Section 2009.35(o) puts group day care home licensees on the same clock. The Registry course that satisfies it, Welcoming Each and Every Child, runs 7 contact hours.

You may take it early and count it toward your fifteen pre-service hours, since "caring for children with disabilities" is Appendix D(b)(10); you may not be required to have it before the licence issues. WHAT THE LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE ACTUALLY ASKS FOR IS A LIST OF PAPER, AND MOST OF IT IS ON DCFS-NUMBERED FORMS THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN RENUMBERED. From Section 2007.4(b)(1) the complete application is: the signed Application for Home License; the list of everyone who will work in the home including substitutes and assistants and every household member aged 13 and over; signed background check authorisations for the applicants, every employee, and every household member aged 13 and over; a signed Child Support Certification; "the names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least 3 adults not related to the applicants, nor living in the household, who can attest to their character and suitability to provide child care"; the written hazard protection plan; the diploma or degree; Gateways Registry membership with credentials and pre-service hours entered; radon test results from within the last three years, under 225 ILCS 10/5.8 and 32 Ill. Adm. Code 422; and lead testing results and mitigation plans where Section 2007.8(e) and (f) require them.

Section 2007.4(c) sets a reference threshold higher for the licence than the permit: "A license may not be recommended without the receipt of at least 3 positive, written references", where Section 2007.7(a)(5) needs only two. The still-published DCFS procedures name the instruments: CFS 597-DCI, Application for Day Care; CFS 560, Child Support Certification; CFS 602, Medical Report on an Adult in a Child Care Facility; CFS 600, Certificate of Child Health Examination; CFS 599-1, Reference Letter; CFS 718, the background check authorisation; CFS 674-3, Certificate of Training. That manual is dated 31 March 2014, sits on the letterhead of an agency that no longer holds the function, and is keyed to a rule Part that no longer exists — verify every form number with your representative or your CCR&R. It is also overtaken on substance: it describes the fifteen pre-service hours as requiring only SIDS/SUID, Shaken Baby and Mandated Reporter, with no mention of AAP safe sleep and none of the lead safety certificate now required. On orientation it settles a question people pay to get wrong: "Day care home orientation training is not required for licensure", though completing it yields 3 clock hours of pre-service training creditable in the Registry.

Illinois has no compulsory pre-licensure orientation course; it has a free, strongly recommended one worth a fifth of your hour count. FINALLY, KEEP THE PRE-SERVICE AND ANNUAL OBLIGATIONS IN SEPARATE COLUMNS, BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SAME NUMBER AND THAT IS WHY PEOPLE MERGE THEM. Fifteen hours before the licence, under Section 2007.4(b)(2), earned within the twelve months before the application date, entered in the Gateways Registry, containing the five named topics where they apply, plus a lead safety certificate. Fifteen clock hours afterwards, every licensing year, under Section 2007.9(t) — "The caregivers shall complete 15 clock hours of in-service training per licensing year in accordance with the requirements in Appendix D" — with up to five hours carried forward and a renewal gate at Section 2007.5(e) requiring the licensee to be "current with the annual 15 hours of required training". The pre-service fifteen does not discharge the first annual fifteen, and the annual cycle is another writer's subject. What ends here is the moment the permit converts: background checks cleared, medicals with the Mantoux on file for you and everyone in your household, a hands-on Red Cross or AHA card in infant/child CPR, first aid and the Heimlich in your own name, OSFM's written fire safety approval, three positive written references, the hazard protection plan filed, and fifteen documented, Registry-visible, year-fresh hours behind you.

Ongoing (annual) training

Illinois measures ongoing training in CLOCK HOURS PER LICENSING YEAR, not per license term, and the number is fifteen. For the day care home the rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(t): "The caregivers shall complete 15 clock hours of in-service training per licensing year in accordance with the requirements in Appendix D." For the group day care home the rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.45(f), word for word the same but pointing at its own appendix: "The caregivers shall complete 15 clock hours of in-service training per licensing year in accordance with the requirements in Appendix G." Both appendices restate it in their closing subsection — Appendix D(d), "Licensed providers shall complete 15 clock hours of in-service training per period of the licensing year", and Appendix G(d), "Licensed providers shall meet the 15 clock hour requirements for in-service training per period of licensing year". Before you look for these Parts under the old citation, know that they have moved. Every search result and agency PDF you will find points at 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 (day care homes) and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 (group day care homes).

Read today, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules index of rules in effect for Title 89 lists "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)" and "PART 408 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", while the Title 23 index lists "PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES" and "PART 2009 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES" under Subtitle A, Chapter XI: Department of Early Childhood. The authority note on Part 2007 reads "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]" and its source note reads "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917"; Part 2009 carries the identical note at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183. Neither Part has been amended since recodification, so the hour count is unchanged — what changed is who audits it and where the text lives. The word that decides how much training you actually owe is "licensing year", and both Parts define it. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.2 says: "'Licensing year' often called the anniversary year, means the period of time from the date a day care home license is issued until the same date of the following year." 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.5 says the same for the group home.

Your license, however, is not annual. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(b) provides that "A day care home license is valid for 3 years unless revoked by the Department or voluntarily surrendered by the licensee", 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.20(b) says the group home license "is valid for three years", and the statute behind them, 225 ILCS 10/5.01(d), says licenses "shall be valid for 3 years from the date issued". That mismatch is where Illinois home providers lose their license. Fifteen hours is not the price of a license term: over three years you owe forty-five clock hours, fifteen in each anniversary year, and a provider who does nothing for two years then crams thirty-plus hours in before renewal has not complied — the first two licensing years are already delinquent and nothing in the rule backfills them. The only relief the rule gives runs forward, not backward, and it is small: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(t)(4) allows that "Caregivers obtaining clock hours in excess of the required 15 clock hours per year may apply up to 5 clock hours to the next year's training requirements", repeated verbatim at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.45(g) and again in Appendix D(d) and Appendix G(d).

Five hours, carried one year forward only, from a surplus you actually earned. There is no borrowing from a future year to cure a past one. Renewal is the checkpoint where the anniversary-year arithmetic gets read back to you. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.5(e) provides that "Prior to renewal, the licensee shall be current with the annual 15 hours of required training in accordance with Appendix D that, for applicants and assistants licensed to care for newborns and infants, shall include the following topics: 1) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and safe sleep recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics; and 2) Shaken Baby Syndrome." 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.15(e) says the same for the group home against Appendix G. Note the phrase "shall be CURRENT with the ANNUAL 15 hours" — the drafters wrote the renewal condition in terms of every year of the term, not of the renewal year alone. And note the timing squeeze that follows from the rest of the renewal section: under 2007.5(a) and 2009.15(a) renewal forms go out six months before expiration, and under 2007.5(b) and 2009.15(b) "The completed application shall be signed by the licensees and submitted ... at least 3 months prior to expiration of the current license, in order to be considered timely and sufficient".

Your file must therefore be defensible three months before the license ends, even though your final licensing year has not finished running. The thirty-day holdover in 2007.5(d) and 2009.15(d), quoted from 225 ILCS 10/5(d) — "the existing license shall continue in full force and effect for up to 30 days until the final Department decision has been made", extendable "for up to 30 days, if good cause is shown" — buys the Department time to decide, not you time to train. Under 2007.5(h) and 2009.15(h) the licensing representative then "shall conduct a license study in order to determine that the ... home continues to meet licensing standards", in writing and signed by the representative and the supervisor; that study is where the training records are read. The file is not opened only at renewal. 225 ILCS 10/5.01(h), in force since 1 July 2026, states that "Early care and education centers, early care and education homes, and group early care and education homes shall be monitored at least annually by a licensing representative from the Department of Early Childhood that recommended licensure", and 5.01(g) authorises representatives to "without notice visit the provider's location for the purpose of determining its continuing compliance". 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.26(b) adds a line worth memorising: "Licensed providers are subject to periodic monitoring as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided." A home that closed its doors for a year still owed its fifteen hours for that licensing year.

No single subject carries a fixed hour allocation. Appendix D(b) and Appendix G(b) open with "Topics or courses to meet the in-service training requirements include, but are not limited to" and then list sixteen items, among them child care and child development, guidance and discipline, first aid and CPR, symptoms of common childhood illness, food preparation and nutrition, health and sanitation, small business management, child abuse and neglect, caring for children with disabilities, asthma and its management, SIDS education, obligations under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Department-approved Mandated Reporter Training, and Sudden Unexpected Infant Death. What the appendices do impose is FREQUENCY on four of them, in parentheses easy to skim past. Appendix D(b)(12) qualifies SIDS education with "(training is required for new applicants and assistants to care for newborns and infants, and every three years thereafter for the life of the license)"; D(b)(14) attaches the same three-year cycle to Shaken Baby Syndrome; D(b)(16) attaches it to SUID; and D(b)(15) says Mandated Reporter Training "is required for new applicants and assistants".

The group home's Appendix G(b) is textually not identical — G(b)(12) reads "(training is required for new applicants to care for newborns and infants, and every three years thereafter for the life of the license)", dropping the word "assistants" that appears in the day care home version, while G(b)(14), (15) and (16) match. That is a drafting inconsistency between two Parts recodified in the same Illinois Register issue, and it is no licence to leave a group home assistant untrained: 2009.15(e) independently requires the infant topics of "applicants and assistants licensed to care for newborns and infants" prior to renewal. Two recurring topics that a great many Illinois home providers miss are not in Appendix D or Appendix G at all. They are in the statute, in the section that tells the Department what to put in its rules, and they bind you directly. 225 ILCS 10/7.01(a)(16) requires standards containing "Provisions requiring all licensed child care facility employees who care for newborns and infants to complete training every 3 years on the nature of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and the safe sleep recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics."

Then, in an unnumbered paragraph immediately after the enumerated list, Section 7.01(a) provides: "All licensed day care home providers, licensed group day care home providers, and licensed day care center directors and classroom staff shall participate in at least one training that includes the topics of early childhood social emotional learning, infant and early childhood mental health, early childhood trauma, or adverse childhood experiences. Current licensed providers, directors, and classroom staff shall complete training and shall participate in training that includes the above topics at least once every 3 years." Nothing in Part 2007 or Part 2009 repeats that social-emotional and trauma requirement and no appendix line names it, so a provider working only from the licensing standards will never see it. It is nonetheless a live statutory obligation on every licensed home and group home provider, on a three-year cycle running alongside your license term.

Build it in deliberately rather than hoping it is inferred from Appendix D(b)(1). Two more statutory duties sit outside the fifteen hours. 225 ILCS 10/4.5(a) provides that "An owner or operator of a licensed early care and education home or group early care and education home or the onsite executive director of a licensed early care and education center must successfully complete a basic training course in providing care to children with disabilities", and the rules implement it as a one-time, front-loaded course, not an annual one: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(p) requires "a Department approved basic training course of 6 or more clock hours in providing care to children with disabilities", with 2007.9(p)(1) giving a new licensee thirty-six months "from the issue date of the initial license" to finish it, and requiring that "The licensee shall have on file a certificate attesting to the successful completion of the training." The group home equivalent is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.35(o) with the same six-hour minimum and the same thirty-six-month window for new licensees. Appendix D(e) and Appendix G(e) fix the syllabus: the approved course "must include the following components: Introduction to Inclusive Child Care; Understanding Child Development in Relation to Disabilities; Building Relationships with Families; Preparing for and Including Young Children in the Child Care Setting; Community Services for Young Children with Disabilities (including Early Intervention services)".

Because it is expressed in clock hours and listed as an in-service topic at Appendix D(b)(10), those six hours can be counted inside a licensing year's fifteen — but only in the year you take them, and the certificate must be on file regardless. Separately, 225 ILCS 10/5.11 requires every licensed home and group home to hold an anaphylactic shock plan and adds an ongoing staffing condition in its final sentence: "Each licensed early care and education center, early care and education home, and group early care and education home shall have at least one staff member present at all times who has taken a training course in recognizing and responding to anaphylaxis." That is a coverage requirement, not an hour count, and it is not written into Part 2007 or Part 2009. Lead safety training is the third of these standing obligations: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(t)(5) — sitting inside the in-service subsection itself — requires that "Licensees shall submit to the local licensing office a certificate of completion of lead safety training consisting of instruction in the following topics: A) Mitigation plan strategies for test results of 2.01 ppb or above; and B) Impact of lead exposure", with the same text at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.45(f)(3). The certificate goes to the licensing office; it is not enough to file it at home.

First aid and CPR do count toward the fifteen, and Illinois says so twice in the text. Appendix D(a)(11) and Appendix G(a)(11) list among the approved providers "American Red Cross, American Heart Association and other providers of first aid and CPR training that have been approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health", and Appendix D(b)(3) and G(b)(3) list "first aid and CPR" as an in-service topic. So the clock hours you spend recertifying are creditable. What is NOT satisfied by counting hours is CURRENCY, which is a separate, standing condition of operating. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(n) requires that "The licensee who is the primary caregiver shall be certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association or other entity approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health", and 2007.9(o) requires that "During the hours of operation of the day care home, there shall be at least one person on the premises certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) ...

The caregivers shall have on file current certificates attesting to the training." The group home version, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.35(i), adds a requirement the day care home text omits: "CPR certification shall be for the age range of children in care." If your group home takes infants, an adult-only CPR card does not comply no matter how many clock hours it earned you. A lapsed card is a violation on the day it lapses, in the middle of a licensing year, whether or not your fifteen hours are on track; under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.7(a)(4) even a permit cannot issue without that certification. Who else must train is the sharpest home-versus-group difference, and it runs opposite to what most applicants expect. In the DAY CARE HOME, the annual fifteen-hour duty in 2007.9(t) is written on "The caregivers". Section 2007.10, "Qualifications for Assistants", imposes background clearance, a minimum age of fourteen and at least five years older than the oldest child supervised, direct personal supervision for assistants under eighteen, and medical evidence — and states no annual training hour count for assistants at all.

In the GROUP DAY CARE HOME, by contrast, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.45(j) puts the assistants' training on the caregiver personally: the caregivers are responsible for "orienting child care assistants and substitutes to the operation of the group day care home; on-site supervision of child care assistants; and in-service training totaling a minimum of 15 clock hours per year for the child care assistants. Orientation and training may be provided by the primary caregivers or outside resource persons and shall include recognizing and reporting child abuse or neglect, licensing standards prescribed by this Part, first aid, health and sanitation, fire prevention and safety procedures, special health, developmental, or nutritional needs of children cared for in the group day care home." That is a second, parallel fifteen hours per assistant per year that the group home licensee must both deliver (or arrange) and evidence, with a mandated content list the licensee's own fifteen hours do not have. Section 2009.50, the assistants section, is silent on hours precisely because 2009.45(j) carries them.

Budget for it: a group home running two assistants documents forty-five clock hours a year, not fifteen. Substitutes inherit training obligations by qualification rather than by hour count. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.11(c) provides that "A person who functions as a substitute caregiver on a regular or scheduled basis shall be qualified as a caregiver in accordance with Section 2007.9" — and Section 2007.9 is the section that contains subsection (t). 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.55(c) routes group home regular substitutes to Sections 2009.35 and 2009.40. An occasional substitute stays within the ceiling in 2007.11(a) and 2009.55(a): "up to 25 child care hours per month and for an additional period of up to 2 weeks in a 12 month period", and both subsections expressly let the supervising agency "approve additional time for family emergencies, medical reasons, and CONTINUING EDUCATION, when the substitute to be used during these periods meets the qualifications for the caregiver" — the rule anticipates that you leave the home to train and tells you how to be covered while you do. "The substitute caregiver's work time shall be documented", and 2007.24(r) requires a record of the dates and hours the substitute worked while the licensee was absent.

Household members, finally, owe no training. Members of the household aged thirteen and over are swept into the background check regime under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(a) and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010, and under 2007.9(m) they must supply medical evidence that they are free of reportable communicable disease; no rule in either Part assigns them in-service hours. Do not spend money training a spouse who is not a caregiver on the theory that the licence requires it. Every hour has to land in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry, and registry membership is itself a licensing condition with its own clock. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(k) provides: "By September 1, 2012, the primary caregivers and assistants employed by the day care home shall become members of and participate in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry, with all educational and training credentials entered into the registry verified in accordance with procedures and requirements adopted by the Department of Human Services (see 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G). Newly hired staff serving children shall be members of the Gateways to Opportunity Registry within 30 days after hire." 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.20(k) says the same for the group home.

At initial application, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(H) already demands "proof of membership in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry by the primary caregiver and assistants in the home with all educational credentials and pre-service training entered into the Registry", and 2007.2 defines the registry as "a program administered by the Department of Human Services to track and maintain education and training credentials of primary caregivers and assistants". Both the definition and the cross-reference are now WRONG on their face, and you need to know where the live text is. Read today, the Title 89 index of rules in effect shows "PART 50 CHILD CARE (TRANSFERRED)". The Gateways rules were recodified into Title 23 alongside the licensing standards and now sit at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060, Subpart G, "Gateways to Opportunity Credentials", each section closing "(Source: Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50 (Department of Human Services) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10370)". Under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.710(a), "Subject to the availability of funds, the Department, through its agents, shall administer Gateways to Opportunity" — and in Chapter XI "the Department" is the Department of Early Childhood, not Human Services. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.760(a) provides that "The Gateways to Opportunity Registry is a tool that tracks the characteristics and ongoing professional development of the workforces identified in this subsection (a), recognizes those attainments and identifies approved courses/training and trainers", covering Early Childhood Care and Education, School Age, and Youth Development.

Subsection (b)(2) is the sentence that catches people: "Membership is renewed ANNUALLY in order to keep workforce data current." Your license runs three years; your registry membership runs one. Let the membership lapse and your fifteen hours stop posting to the record the licensing representative will ask to see. Subsection (c) explains that record: "The Professional Development Record (PDR) reports an individual Registry member's education, credentials/certificates, and trainings attended in the reporting period", printable at any time "from a secure website by the Registry member only" — nobody can pull it for you. The web addresses printed inside these rules are dead. Opened today, the registry-membership URL written into 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.760(b)(1), http://www.ilgateways.com/registry-membership, returns 404; the training calendar URL in 2060.760(d)(2), http://www.ilgateways.com/en/statewide-online-training-calendar, returns 404; and the Mandated Reporter Training URL at Appendix D(c)(1)(G) and G(c)(1)(G), https://www.dcfstraining.org/manrep/index.jsp, returns "HTTP Status 404 – Not Found".

The live equivalents, verified today, are these. The registry lives on its own host at registry.ilgateways.com, whose membership page states that "With a free Gateways Registry Membership, your education, credentials, and all Registry trainings you have attended will be tracked in the Registry database", and warns that an online account can take up to two business days to approve while a mailed application takes up to thirty days for login details to arrive — plan around that against the thirty-day new-hire window in 2007.6(k). The training calendar is at registry.ilgateways.com/be-a-member/find-trainings, searchable by keyword, date, trainer and by whether an event "May Meet Requirements For" Gateways Registry-Verified or Registry-Approved status. Mandated Reporter Training has moved twice: the old mr.dcfstraining.org site now carries only the notice "The Training for Mandated Reporters Has MOVED!" and points to the DCFS Learning and Development Center Mandated Reporter Portal at mandatedreporter.dcfs.illinois.gov, which is live. The registry's footer now reads "Gateways to Opportunity is funded by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood and the McCormick Foundation" — confirmation from the operator that the Human Services reference in your licensing standard is stale.

Which sources count is written openly. Appendix D(a) and Appendix G(a) provide that "Entities that may provide pre-service and in-service training to meet the requirements of this Part include, but are not limited to" eleven listed bodies: colleges and universities; child care resource and referral agencies; IDPH or local health departments; the Office of the State Fire Marshal or local fire department; the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services; the Illinois Department of Human Services; state or national child care or child advocacy organizations; family day care home associations; Child and Adult Care Food Program sponsors; Healthy Child Care Illinois nurses; and IDPH-approved first aid and CPR providers. That list still names DCFS and DHS and does NOT name the Department of Early Childhood, an artefact of a Part that was moved without being rewritten; because the list is expressly open-ended, IDEC-delivered training obviously qualifies, and nothing in the text lets a licensing representative refuse a course merely because its provider is unlisted.

Appendix D(c)(1) and G(c)(1) then say how you may acquire the hours: college, university or vocational classes, where "clock hours spent in the classroom are counted"; conferences or workshops, where a "certificate or other proof of attendance, clock hours and subject matter is required"; child care association meetings, but only "when a specific training program is provided by a guest speaker or group member"; in-home training by a CACFP sponsor representative or nurse, where "documentation must include the topic and the clock hours"; CCR&R self-study materials, where a "certificate of clock hours must be secured from the CCR&R"; internet home study programs, but only "if the internet site provides documentation of use and number of clock hours"; Mandated Reporter Training through the Department's site; and viewing the National Institutes of Health Back to Sleep Campaign video. Appendix D(c)(2) fixes who signs: "The training instructor, speaker or president of the child care organization sponsoring the training may sign the documentation of completion. The child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agency must sign and provide documentation of completion for self-study materials, and the internet site must provide documentation for home study programs." A self-study packet you worked through without a CCR&R signature is not fifteen minutes of credit.

The registry itself sorts what you submit into four categories, published on the registry site: Registry-Approved Trainings, verified by the trainer submitting the sign-in sheet, which "show up automatically on your PDR"; Registry-Verified Conferences, credited when you submit a certificate carrying session bar codes; Attendance-Verified Conferences and Trainings, currently those delivered by local CCR&Rs; and Self-Reported Conferences and Trainings, which you enter yourself and where, in the registry's own words, "Even after you self-report these conferences and trainings, you must keep the certificates from these events to verify your attendance". Self-reported hours are the ones that fail an audit. What you must be able to hand over is documentation, and the rules put the burden squarely on your own files. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(t)(3) provides that "The records of the day care home shall document the training in which the caregiver has participated, and these records shall be available for review by the Department", and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.45(h) says "The records of the group day care home shall document the continuing education in which the caregiver has participated, and these records shall be available for review by the Department." 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(a) states the general rule that "Records as required by this Part shall be maintained and available for review by the Department", and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.26(a) requires that authorised representatives "shall be admitted to the facility during the facility's hours of operation for the purpose of determining compliance".

In practice the renewal packet has to show, at minimum, a printed Professional Development Record covering each licensing year of the term; certificates for anything self-reported; a current first aid, Heimlich and infant/child CPR card matching the age range you serve; the certificate for the six-or-more-hour disabilities course under 2007.9(p) or 2009.35(o); the lead safety training certificate that 2007.9(t)(5) says goes to the local licensing office; evidence of Mandated Reporter Training; and, if you take infants, evidence of SIDS, SUID, safe sleep and Shaken Baby Syndrome training inside the three-year cycle. Group home licensees add the assistants' fifteen-hour records and the 2009.45(j) content list. One further obligation rides along with the training file: under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, 325 ILCS 5/4(j), a mandated reporter — a category that expressly includes a "child care worker" under 325 ILCS 5/4(a) — "must complete an initial mandated reporter training, including a section on implicit bias, within 3 months of their date of engagement in a professional or official capacity as a mandated reporter ... and at least every 3 years thereafter", with the further duty that "The mandated reporter shall maintain records of completion."

Appendix D only requires Mandated Reporter Training of "new applicants and assistants"; the RECURRING three-year cycle comes from ANCRA, not from your licensing standard, and it binds you anyway. Two last traps. First, do not import the four-hour annual standard you will find in Part 2060: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.830 does require that "Staff members are required to complete at least 4 hours of training annually, after their first year of employment", but 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.810 limits Subpart H expressly — "The staff qualifications and training standards contained in this Subpart shall only apply to school-age programs or portions of programs that do not receive State or federal funds pursuant to Section 2.09 of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10]." A licensed home or group home owes fifteen, not four. Second, be ready for the vocabulary to disagree with itself while you search. Public Act 104-0480, effective 1 July 2026, renamed the statutory categories: 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and 2.20 now read "early care and education home" and "group early care and education home", and Sections 4.5, 5.01 and 5.11 quoted above use those names.

But 225 ILCS 10/7.01 — the very section carrying the SUID and social-emotional training mandates — is sourced to "P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26" alone and still says "day care home" and "group day care home", and Parts 2007 and 2009 are still captioned "LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES" and "... GROUP DAY CARE HOMES". No rulemaking conforming the Parts to the new statutory vocabulary appears in the source notes as served today. Searching only for "early care and education home training hours" misses the rule that governs you; searching only for "day care home" surfaces the withdrawn Title 89 PDFs DCFS still publishes. Work from the Title 23 index of rules in effect, take the number from 2007.9(t) or 2009.45(f), count it against the anniversary date on your license, and keep every certificate.

Background checks

THE AGENCY CHANGED, AND SO DID THE RULE NUMBERS (verified 26 August 2026 against the JCAR index of rules in effect, not against a pinned PDF). Everything most people believe about the Illinois day care home background check is out of date. Public Act 103-594 created the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3], and on 1 July 2026 the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) became the lead agency for child care licensing; DCFS's own site now carries the banner "As of July 1, 2026, child care licensure is managed by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood" and routes licensure questions to Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules index of Title 89 now shows PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED), with the source note ending "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832", and the day care home standards are now published as 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917. The background check rule split in two: 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 was rewritten and restructured into Subparts A through G, "amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445, effective April 24, 2026", and then "89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Subpart B transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9831", recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293. Subpart B was the day care subpart.

So the rule that now governs who gets checked in your home is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010, while the definitions, the authorisation-form rules, the child abuse assessment, the conviction bars, the appeal and the records rules stay behind in 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 under DCFS. You must read both Titles to read one regime. The first trap, is that dcfs.illinois.gov still serves rules-385.pdf footered "October 29, 2021 - P.T. 2021.08" and rules-406.pdf footered "October 25, 2020", and mirrors such as Cornell's LII still print the pre-2026 text. Those documents describe a regime that no longer exists: old Section 385.30(c)(4) sent fingerprints to the FBI only for foster homes, relative caregivers and non-licensed service providers, which would have told you, wrongly, that a day care home applicant needs no FBI check at all. WHO GETS CHECKED IS DECIDED BY AGE AND BY ROLE AT THE SAME TIME, and applicants routinely get one of the two wrong.

Section 2010.10(a) makes subject to a partial background check "Household members in a day care home or group day care home ages 13 through 17 who are not employees or volunteers, even if these members of the household are not usually present in the home during the hours the child care facility is in operation", and adds that "Parent or guardian authorization is required for any individual under the age of 18." Section 2010.10(c) makes subject to a comprehensive criminal background check "All applicants for licensure of a day care facility", "All employees of a day care facility ages 18 years and older", "All volunteers of a day care facility ages 18 years and older", "All persons 14 through 17 years of age who are employed or serve as a volunteer at a day care facility, with authorization from a parent or guardian", "all members of the household ages 18 years and older, even if these members of the household are not usually present in the home during the hours the child care facility is in operation", "All replacement or supplemental staff (as defined in Section 385.20)", and "Any person who has access to children (as defined in Section 385.20)", which expressly includes contracted security, meal-service and housekeeping staff and "All interns."

Read the two lists together: your teenager who merely lives in the house gets the partial check at 13; the same teenager, the day you count him as an assistant, gets the full fingerprint check at 14. Since Section 2007.10(b) allows that "Assistants shall be at least 14 years of age and at least 5 years older than the oldest child they supervise", Illinois fingerprints fourteen-year-olds. The Section 385.20 definition of household member is deliberately wide - "a person of any age whose legal residence is at a licensed... day care home or group day care home, or any adult who stays in the home on a regular or part-time basis, including paramours" - so a partner who sleeps over regularly is a household member and gets fingerprinted; concealing that person is the fastest route to revocation.

Substitutes are caught twice over: Section 2007.11(c) says "A person who functions as a substitute caregiver on a regular or scheduled basis shall be qualified as a caregiver in accordance with Section 2007.9". Section 2007.9(a) ties it together: "No individual may receive a license from the Department when the applicant, a member of the household age 13 and over, or any individual who has access to the children cared for in a day care home, or any employee of the day care home, has not authorized the background check required by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 (Background Checks) and been cleared in accordance with the requirements of Part 2010." A short and closed list is not checked: Section 2010.30 provides that "Parental involvement in a day care facility does not require a background check", and Section 385.40(h) exempts special-event visitors, outside resource personnel and "Students engaged in a practicum or classroom observation" - but that subsection opens "In all instances the following persons may not be left alone with children in a child care facility, other than their own child."

Leaving a practicum student alone with the children is a supervision violation, not a paperwork error. WHICH CHECKS RUN IS NOW SPELLED OUT COMPONENT BY COMPONENT. Section 2010.10(b) makes the partial check a search of "the Department of Children and Family Services State Central Register (SCR) to determine whether an individual is currently alleged or has been indicated as a perpetrator of child abuse or neglect", of "the Illinois Sex Offender Registry (SOR) and the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW)", and of the child abuse and neglect registry and sex offender registry "in any state where the individual resided during the preceding five years". Section 2010.10(e) makes the comprehensive check three blocks. In-state: "Fingerprints submitted to the Illinois State Police (ISP) for comparison to individual criminal history records", the SCR search, and the Illinois SOR plus NSOPW search. National: "Fingerprints submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) using Next Generation Identification for comparison to their national crime information databases" and "A search of the National Crime Information Center National Sex Offender Registry (NCIC/NSOR)."

Interstate: a search of the criminal registry or repository, the child abuse and neglect registry and the sex offender registry "in the state where an individual resides, and each state where the individual resided during the preceding five years", with "A fingerprint-based background check... required in the state where the staff member resides but... optional in other states". The out-of-state child abuse registry check is therefore not discretionary and not limited to the applicant: it follows every person on the comprehensive list who has lived anywhere else in the last five years, and DCFS publishes "Adam Walsh State Contacts and Procedures for Out of State Child Abuse Registry Checks" because each state has its own form, fee and queue. Two corrections. First, the register is now the State Central Register in the rules - Section 385.20 defines it as "a central register of all cases of suspected child abuse or neglect reported and maintained by the Department under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act [325 ILCS 5/7]" - while the Sunshine site, the CFS 718-B-DC form and every licensing representative still say CANTS.

Second, the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth registry is not part of the day care home check. IDEC's licensure page separates the regimes: it is the Illinois School Code that "requires background checks including criminal history from the ISP and FBI as well as the sex offender registry and the statewide Murder and Violent Offender Against Youth Database, but not CANTS", and that applies to ISBE-recognised preschool programmes, not to your home. If a consultant tells you to run that search for your licence, they have handed you a school rule. THE MECHANICS RUN THROUGH THE DCFS BACKGROUND CHECK UNIT, one form and one vendor. The form is CFS 718-B-DC, "AUTHORIZATION FOR BACKGROUND CHECK for Day Care", "Rev 5/2023", four pages, instructing "READ INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 2. PRINT ALL INFORMATION ON PAGE 1. SIGN PAGES 1, 3 AND 4". Its coverage note is the cleanest statement of the who question in the system: it "must be completed by every person age 13 or older as part of an application to operate or reside in a day care home or group day care home, and all employees/volunteers at a day care facility regardless of age."

Two fields sink more forms than all the others: the identity number, because "THIS FORM WILL NOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT A COMPLETE SOCIAL SECURITY, INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION (ITIN) NUMBER OR DEPARTMENT ASSIGNED NUMBER", and the address history, "Current and all addresses, including county, where the person has lived in the past five years", which triggers the interstate checks - omit a state and the Background Check Unit will discover it later and start that state's queue from zero. Page 3 carries the "NOTICE of PROBATIONARY EMPLOYMENT STATUS AT A DAY CARE FACILITY" and page 4 the "ISP/FBI PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT" and the "AUTHORIZATION/CERTIFICATION"; all three signature blocks must be dated. The form is not sent by you to Springfield: it "must be submitted to the licensing worker for completion of Section 4 and for forwarding to the DCFS pertinent Background Check Unit". Section 4 is where your six-digit Provider ID goes, and for an initial application that number does not exist yet - "Initial Applications will be assigned # by Background Check Unit" - which is why you cannot send household members to be printed before your licensing representative has opened your file.

Fingerprints are taken by one vendor: "As of February 10, 2025, Accurate Biometrics is the sole provider for all DCFS fingerprinting in Illinois", offered "as a convenient walk-in service throughout Illinois; no appointments are required". You must arrive with the correct authorisation form (718-B-DC for day care), a DCFS "Search Result Letter" which may be shown as a screenshot, photo identification, and the six-digit provider ID: "You must include your 6-digit provider ID to be fingerprinted." Arriving without the Search Result Letter or the provider ID is the classic wasted trip. Before you print anyone, use the DCFS Fingerprint Look-up at backgroundcheckportal.dcfs.illinois.gov/FingerPrintSearch, which exists "to determine if new hires require printing or are already in the DCFS system and thus only require an update and transfer"; for a home, "your licensing representative will determine if printing is needed and provide you with instructions." Portal access, aimed mainly at centres, requires registration at AccountManagement.dcfs.illinois.gov/Register.aspx plus an access request form sent to DCFS.BCP.ADMIN@illinois.gov; "Approval takes up to five business days".

Do not confuse any of this with form CFS 689, for programs not licensed by DCFS: it "does not include an Illinois criminal background check or an Illinois Sex Abuse Registry check", and it will not clear you. ON MONEY, THE CHECKS ARE FREE TO YOU TODAY AND THE LAW HAS QUIETLY STOPPED GUARANTEEING IT. The old rule said "There is no charge to license applicants or licensed child care facilities for the background checks which are required by this Part"; that subsection did not survive the April 2026 rewrite. What survives is the vendor's statement that "There is NO cost to the individual; the fee is paid by DCFS", the state Sunshine site's statement that "At present Illinois fingerprinting and background checks are free to applicants, household members, and employees of licensed... facilities", and Sections 2007.6(j) and 2007.7(i), under which the licence and permit carry "no fee or charge". Against that, 225 ILCS 10/4.1 as amended now defines a "third-party vendor" as one "licensed by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and regulated by 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1240.600" and provides that a day care home "may authorize the Department or a third-party vendor to collect fingerprints for the investigation.

If a third-party vendor is used for fingerprinting, then the... day care home shall pay the third-party vendor for that service directly", alongside the standing rule that "The Illinois State Police shall charge a fee for conducting the criminal history records check... shall not exceed the actual cost of the records check." Budget nothing today, but read your renewal notice for a fee line: the payer changes when the function moves. THE TIMELINE IS NOW WRITTEN INTO THE RULE, and it is the most useful number in this field. Section 2010.10(f) says, in two sentences, "The comprehensive criminal background check is to be completed at least every five years except for interstate checks. Background checks shall be completed in 45 days or less." Forty-five days is the standard against which you can chase the Background Check Unit; it does not cover the interstate registry checks, which run on other states' clocks and are the usual reason a file sits open for three months. What can happen while a check is pending depends on whether you are the applicant or an employee. For the applicant nothing happens: Section 2007.7(a) provides that a permit shall not be issued until "The background checks required by Section 2007.9 have been completed and the results of the background check have been received for the operator of the day care home".

Your own clearance is a hard gate. For staff, Illinois permits probationary hiring, and the statute is stricter than the licensing rule. Section 2007.9(b) still reads "Employees subject to background checks may begin employment on a conditional basis while awaiting the results of the background check", which on its face lets someone start work before any result at all. The Child Care Act as amended by P.A. 103-594 does not: DCFS "through June 30, 2026, or the Department of Early Childhood, on and after July 1, 2026, shall allow day care centers, day care homes, and group day care homes to hire, on a probationary basis, any employee or volunteer... after receiving a qualifying result... from either: (1) the Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint criminal background check; or (2) the Illinois State Police fingerprint criminal background check and a criminal record check of the criminal repository of each state in which the employee or volunteer resided during the preceding 5 years. Pending full clearance of all background check requirements, the prospective employee or volunteer must be supervised at all times by an individual who received a qualifying result on all background check components."

The CFS 718-B-DC page 3 notice adds "Persons in probationary employment status and volunteers shall not begin employment or volunteer services until notified by the employer of receipt of an initial background check clearance." Follow the statute and the form, not Section 2007.9(b): a first day of work before the initial clearance letter is a violation, and the supervisor must herself be inside a five-year clearance. RENEWAL CADENCE IS WHERE TWO TEXTS OPENLY DISAGREE and where you must do your own arithmetic. The Child Care Act requires that "An employee or volunteer of a day care center, day care home, or group day care home shall authorize an investigation every 5 years, as required under the Child Care and Development Block Grant." The licence term used to make that easy: Section 2007.6(b) still reads "A day care home license is valid for 3 years", and the Sunshine site reasons from it that "Since Illinois license period is three years, the Comprehensive Background Check will take place during the Renewal of license. However, to avoid being out of compliance, Background Clearances should always be within the five-year period."

That reasoning is now broken, because Section 5(d) of the Child Care Act, as amended by P.A. 104-480 effective 1 July 2026, provides that licences "are valid for 4 years from the date issued". A four-year licence and a five-year check no longer align, and the rule that used to protect you at renewal - old Section 385.30(b), under which renewal "shall not be delayed pending receipt of the results of the criminal background check for other persons" once authorisations were signed and prints taken - was in Subpart B and did not survive the transfer; 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 has no equivalent. Keep your own register of clearance dates and re-authorise at four years and nine months rather than waiting to be told. Renewal paperwork runs early: Section 2007.5(a) has renewal forms mailed "6 months prior to the expiration date of the license" and Section 2007.5(b) requires the completed application "at least 3 months prior to expiration of the current license, in order to be considered timely and sufficient" - the phrase that buys the statutory grace of up to thirty days. Two resets catch people.

Under Section 385.40(c), employees "separated from a child care facility licensed by the Department for six months or longer (for reasons other than vacation, sabbatical leave, sick leave, military leave or parental leave) shall no longer be considered current employees" and must authorise again on return. Under Section 385.40(d), a facility hiring someone already cleared elsewhere "shall submit a request for a transfer on a form prescribed by the Department along with a new signed authorization for background check form". And Section 385.40(g) makes non-appearance your problem: failure to appear for fingerprinting without adequate cause "may result in the denial of a license application or refusal to renew or revocation of an existing license", adequate cause being limited to a death in the family, serious illness, or "weather or transportation emergencies". THE DISQUALIFICATIONS COME IN THREE LAYERS AND THE MIDDLE LAYER IS, AT THE MOMENT, UNREADABLE. Section 385.70(a) states the outcome: persons subject to background checks are ineligible for licensure, employment or volunteer service, or to be a household member, if they "Refuse to consent to a background check", "Falsify any information provided in connection with the background check", "Are registered, or is required to be registered, on a state sex offender registry or repository or the National Sex Offender Registry", have a lifetime-bar conviction, or were "indicated in a child abuse or neglect investigation that equates to a presumption of unsuitability" without a waiver.

The lifetime bars in 385.APPENDIX A are non-waivable and reproduce 225 ILCS 10/4.2(b): no one may be licensed or employed "who has been declared a sexually dangerous person under the Sexually Dangerous Persons Act [725 ILCS 205] or convicted of committing or attempting to commit any of the following offenses", the list running from murder through "a sex offense under Article 11, except offenses described in Sections 11-7, 11-8, 11-12, 11-13, 11-35, 11-40, and 11-45", kidnapping, child abduction, aggravated battery of a child, criminal sexual assault, hate crime, stalking, home invasion, child abandonment, "endangering the life or health of a child", and any similar out-of-state offence. Involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and drug-induced homicide sit inside that non-waivable list. A separate discretionary head, "Financial-type Crimes", effective 19 July 2019, allows denial "in its discretion" for identity theft, forgery, deceptive practices and theft, but only "for applicants with access to confidential financial information or who submit documentation to support billing". The waivable tier, "Waivable Bars (Not Including Foster Homes or Host Homes)", bars bodily-harm, weapons, obstruction and drug felonies - felony aggravated assault, felony domestic battery, aggravated battery, "Felony violation of an order of protection", "Felony unlawful use of weapons", obstructing justice, armed violence, possession of more than 30 grams of cannabis and "Felony possession of a controlled substance" - unless the exception in Section 385.60(d) is granted, which requires that "The relevant offense occurred more than 5 years prior to the date of application or renewal, except for drug offenses.

The relevant drug offense must have occurred more than 10 years prior... unless the applicant passed a drug test, arranged and paid for by the child care facility, no less than 5 years after the offense", plus a departmental assessment and every other qualification. Watch one divergence: Appendix A says "Felony unlawful use of weapons", the statute at 225 ILCS 10/4.2(b-1)(II)(1) says "Felony unlawful possession of weapons", and the statute governs. Now the middle layer. Section 385.60(c) provides that no applicant may be licensed to operate a day care home "and no person may reside in a day care home or group day care home licensed by the Department who has been convicted of the offenses listed in Section 385.34", and Section 385.70(a)(4)(A) repeats the pointer. Section 385.34 no longer exists in Part 385; it was transferred and is now Section 2010.50, "Additional Restrictions for Day Care Facilities", which reads in full: "In addition to criminal background check restrictions listed in Appendix A, day care home, group day care home, and day care center applicants/licensees, adult household members, employees, and volunteers shall be ineligible for employment or licensure if the individual: a) has been convicted of any of the following felonies:" - and then stops.

The codified text on the JCAR site carries no list under subsection (a). So the extra tier of day care disqualifiers is, as published, empty, while two sections in another Title still cite it by its old number. If a licensing representative says an offence disqualifies you under Section 385.34, ask in writing which published text carries the list before you spend money on the application. CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT FINDINGS RUN ON A SEPARATE TRACK with their own waiver. Section 385.50 opens: "Identification of an individual as a perpetrator of a single child abuse and neglect report with a 20- or 50-year retention period, or two or more reports each with a five-year retention period shall create a presumption of unsuitability of that individual for the purpose of licensure or employment", while a single five-year-retention report is merely assessed. Below the presumption, the licensing representative's supervisor assesses the finding against eight criteria, including whether "the abuse or neglect resulted in serious injury or death to a child or children", circumstances "that would demonstrate unlikelihood of repetition", elapsed time, evidence of rehabilitation, and "three positive character references."

At or above the presumption, only the Director can clear you: such a finding "shall require a waiver through the Director or the Director's designee in order to be licensed or employed by a licensee", the request "shall be in writing and postmarked within 30 days after notice is received by the licensing entity or employer", and the Department must first obtain written consent to review the child protection records. Thirty days, in writing, postmarked - that deadline kills more waivers than the underlying findings do. Section 2007.APPENDIX C still lists the allegations that trigger the presumption, from Death and head injury through torture, sexual penetration and failure to thrive, then "A single indicated report of child abuse or neglect that resulted in serious injury to the child, regardless of the allegations involved", then "More than one indicated report" involving burns, bone fractures, bruises, "Tying or close confinement", "Substance misuse", "Inadequate supervision", lock-out or environmental neglect. Treat that appendix as a checklist of exposure, not as current law on convictions: its Part B still refers to "the Statewide Child Sex Offender Database" and to "the Criminal Code of 1961", names superseded years ago, and ends by conceding "Refer to Appendix A of 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 for additional convictions that bar licensure of or employment in a child care facility."

It travelled from Part 406 to Part 2007 unamended: a photocopy of 2020, not a statement of 2026. THE APPEAL IS SHORT, NARROW AND MOSTLY ABOUT IDENTITY. Under Section 385.80(a) the supervising agency sends a notice of denial with reasons, and that first notice "shall provide the applicant the opportunity to request a review of the decision by Central Office of Licensing Background Review Committee"; if the Committee refuses, the notice must offer an appeal to "the DCFS Administrative Hearings Unit... in accordance with 89 Ill. Adm. Code 337 (Service Appeal Process)". You may appeal only the denial of an initial licence or of a permit "based upon a background check". You may not appeal a denial resting on a conviction that bars licensure, employment or residence, nor any employment decision - Sections 385.50(c), 385.60(h) and 385.70(c) all repeat "The decision of the employer is final. Employment decisions may not be appealed to the Department." The request goes in writing to the Administrative Hearings Unit, Department of Children and Family Services, 406 E. Monroe St., Station #15, Springfield, Illinois 62701, and "All such requests must be postmarked within 10 days after the date of written notice of the denial" - ten days from the date of the notice, not from your receipt of it.

The notice of denial "shall be prima facie evidence that the Department had a basis for refusing to issue the license or permit"; both sides then have ten business days to file materials, and if the Administrator finds no genuine issue of material fact the appeal is dismissed.If a hearing is held, the evidence is limited by rule to written statements from the child protection administrator, a law enforcement agency or a clerk of the court showing that you are not the person named, were never convicted, were pardoned, or that the record was amended, expunged or erroneous. The standard is severe: the judge must find "clear and convincing evidence that the individual is not the person named in the indicated report/criminal history record or that the individual is suitable for service that allows access to children", and the final decision "is made by the Director after reviewing the recommendation by the administrative law judge, subject to review by a court of competent jurisdiction." In practice this hearing is for mistaken identity and bad records. Rehabilitation arguments belong in the Section 385.50 waiver and the Section 385.60(d) exception, reviewed against 225 ILCS 10/4.2(e) - age at the offence, circumstances, elapsed time, the duties of the licence, references, "a Certificate of Relief from Disabilities or Certificate of Good Conduct", and "anything else that speaks to the individual's character" - not in front of the administrative law judge.

One collateral disqualifier has nothing to do with crime: Section 2007.9(e) requires every licensee and applicant to "certify under penalty of perjury that he or she is current or not more than 30 days delinquent in complying with a child support order", and Section 2007.9(f) requires denial, non-renewal or revocation if the check shows delinquency despite that certification. KEEP THE PAPER, AND WATCH TWO DATES ON THE CALENDAR. Section 385.90 requires the operator to keep the authorisation forms and results "as part of the personnel records of the child care facility for a period of five years from the date of termination of the employment of the employee", with conclusions and recommendations held "in a separate, confidential file apart from other personnel records".

Section 385.100 makes unauthorised disclosure a Class A misdemeanour. P.A. 104-480, the child care licensing redesign signed 26 June 2026 and effective 1 July 2026, has already rewritten the Child Care Act's vocabulary from "day care" to "early care and education" and from "facility" to "provider" - which is why 225 ILCS 10/4.2 now bars employment "by a licensed early care and education provider" while 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2010 still say "day care home" - and IDEC "will implement the new exemption framework by July 1, 2027", park districts and municipalities having until 1 July 2028. P.A. 104-0692, signed 31 July 2026 on HB5099, moves the fingerprint function itself: "beginning July 1, 2027, the authority and responsibility to conduct a fingerprint-based criminal history check on providers of day care at day care centers, part day child care facilities, day care homes, and group day care homes shall transfer to the Department of Early Childhood from the Department of Children and Family Services", with DCFS retaining it "through June 30, 2027", conditional on IDEC obtaining FBI and Illinois State Police approval; it also adds Section 3.4 to the Criminal Identification Act adopting the National Child Protection Act qualified-entity procedure.

Until that day your fingerprints still go to DCFS, on a DCFS form, through the DCFS vendor, into the DCFS Background Check Unit, even though your licence is issued by IDEC. That split is the practical trap of 2026 and 2027: the licensing side answers to Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov, the background check side to DCFS.BCP.ADMIN@illinois.gov, and an applicant who sends the CFS 718-B-DC to the wrong agency loses weeks before anyone says so.

The application, step by step

Work through these in order — the prep packet turns them into a checklist you can tick off:

1. DECIDE FIRST WHETHER YOU NEED A LICENCE AT ALL, AND WHICH ONE. Illinois draws the line at three children, and it counts your own. Since 1 July 2026 the definition that catches you is 225 ILCS 10/2.18, which reads in full: "'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day. The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12. The term does not include locations that receive only children from a single household" (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26). Above twelve and up to sixteen you are a "group early care and education home" under 225 ILCS 10/2.20 and you are inspected against a different Part, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009, not 2007. Below the line you are exempt under 225 ILCS 10/3(d-5)(1), which excuses "In-home early care and education provided for no more than 3 children under the age of 12, including the provider's natural or adopted children and any other persons under the age of 12", permits up to six if every child comes from one household, and obliges you to tell each parent in writing that "the program is operating pursuant to an exemption from licensure". Two traps live in this first decision. The first is arithmetic: your own toddler and your own ten-year-old occupy licensed slots, so a provider with two young children of her own is at the exemption ceiling after one paying family. The second is vocabulary. Public Act 104-0480, whose Section 999 states "This Act takes effect July 1, 2026," renamed every category in the Child Care Act, so the phrase "day care home" no longer appears in the definitional sections of the statute that licenses you — while 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 is still titled "LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES" and uses the old phrase throughout. Searching the Illinois Compiled Statutes for "day care home" and concluding the licence has been abolished is the single most common error the renaming produces. Both phrases describe the same licence, issued by the same department, against the same 2020 rule text. Settle the count and the category before you spend a dollar, because capacity and age range are written onto the licence itself and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(c) allows increases only "with written approval of the supervising agency". Realistic time for this step: one evening.
2. TAKE THE LICENSING ORIENTATION BEFORE YOU CONTACT ANYONE. Illinois gives you a statutory entitlement to it. 225 ILCS 10/7.10(a-5) provides that "the Department or any State agency that assumes early care and education center licensing responsibilities shall host licensing orientation programs to help educate potential early care and education center, early care and education home, and group early care and education home providers about the early care and education licensing process. The programs shall be made available in person and virtually. The Department or its successor shall offer to host licensing orientation programs at least twice annually in each Representative District in the State. Additionally, if one or more persons request that a program be offered in a language other than English, then the Department or its successor must accommodate the request." That is twice a year in each of the 118 Illinois House districts, and a right to your own language on request. In practice the route that exists today is the free self-paced online course, which was reachable and functioning on 26 August 2026 at hdl.dcfstraining.org. Its own welcome text still reads "Welcome to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Day Care Home Licensing Orientation. The purpose of the orientation is to educate potential day care home providers about the rules and procedures that govern day care homes and the license application process." It is DCFS-branded, two months after DCFS stopped licensing you; that does not make it wrong about the rules, because the rules are the same 2020 text, but it tells you how little of the consumer-facing plumbing has actually been rebadged. The course is structured as an eligibility questionnaire of 43 yes/no questions, 60 to 90 minutes of interactive training, a ten-question post-training assessment, a course evaluation, and a certificate of completion. The delay trap is printed on the site itself: the certificate "must be printed at time of completion". There is no reprint. Applicants who close the browser window finish the whole ninety minutes again. Print it, scan it, and keep the file, because your licensing representative will ask for it and because the 43-question eligibility screen will tell you in the first ten minutes whether a household member's history or your building disqualifies you — which is exactly the discovery you want to make before you buy fencing. Realistic time: one to two hours, same week you decide.
3. PROVE THE BUILDING CAN HOLD A LICENCE BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING. An Illinois home licence attaches to your residence and to nothing else. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(a) requires that "The licensees shall be a primary caregiver or caregivers who reside in the family home", subsection (f) that "The license is valid only for the family residence of the licensee and shall not be transferred to another person or other legal entity", and subsection (e) that "Child care may be provided only in those areas specified on the license". The State's own guidance is blunter than the rule: the licensing pages served today say that home licences "are only issued in the family home of the individual(s) applying. This means that the childcare must occur in the home where you and your family live — not in any another location. You may not rent or buy another home or apartment or use an unattached garage, outbuilding, etc. If you wish to use space away from where you and your family live, you must seek licensure as a day care center." The same page carries the sentence that saves the most money in this entire process: "Please phone licensing office to discuss your plans before you sign a lease or contract." Local law is a real veto and Illinois does not shield you from it. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(e) states flatly that "Licensed day care homes that fail to comply with all applicable local, municipal and State regulations may be prohibited from operating," and 225 ILCS 10/7.01 requires premises maintained "as required by any law, regulation or ordinance applicable to the location of such provider". Nothing in the Child Care Act preempts a municipal zoning ordinance, a condominium declaration or a lease clause forbidding a home business. If you rent, get your landlord's written consent now and in writing; if you are in a condominium or a deed-restricted subdivision, read the declaration now. The trap is sequencing. Applicants routinely complete fifteen hours of training, pay for radon and water tests and fingerprints, and then discover at the home visit that the basement they intended to use fails the two-exit rule at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(10) or that their village requires a special use permit that takes a plan-commission hearing. Zoning and landlord clearance are unglamorous and free; do them in week one. Realistic time: one to three weeks, longer if a hearing is required.
4. OPEN A FILE WITH A LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE, AND KNOW WHO YOUR COUNTERPARTY ACTUALLY IS. Since 1 July 2026 your licensor is the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, because 225 ILCS 10/3(a) now bars operating "without a license or permit issued by the Department of Children and Family Services before July 1, 2026 or issued by the Department of Early Childhood on and after July 1, 2026". The person who will actually handle you is the licensing representative, a statutory office: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.2 defines "'Licensing representative'" as "a person authorized by the Department under Section 5 of the Child Care Act of 1969 to examine facilities for licensure", and 225 ILCS 10/5.01(c) bars IDEC from letting anyone examine providers "who has not passed an examination demonstrating that such person is familiar with this Act and with the appropriate standards and regulations of the Department of Early Childhood". The staff did not change; 325 ILCS 3/80-5(b) transferred the inspectors bodily from DCFS with their Personnel Code and collective bargaining status intact. Two things make this step harder than it should be. First, IDEC publishes no regional or field licensing office roster: measured on 26 August 2026 its only published entry points are a central customer service line, (217) 785-9160, and the mailbox Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov, and its licensure page pushes ratio questions out to the local Child Care Resource and Referral agency — which is a contractor, not the licensor, and cannot open your file. DCFS's own forms page now carries the transitional notice: "As of July 1, 2026, child care licensure is managed by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood. For providers, nothing is changing. All licensing representatives and staff remain ready to assist you. If you have questions related to licensure, please reach out to IDEC directly at Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov or your current CCR&R." Second, the rule still routes you through a "supervising agency" that the statute has abolished for homes. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(a) says "A complete application shall be filed with the Department by the supervising agency", and 2007.2 defines that term as "a licensed child welfare agency, a licensed day care agency, or the Department" — but Public Act 103-0594 repealed the statutory definition of "day care agency" at 225 ILCS 10/2.11 and replaced the home application route with 225 ILCS 10/5.01(b): "In respect to early care and education homes, applications may be filed on behalf of such homes by the Department of Early Childhood." Read "supervising agency" as IDEC unless IDEC tells you otherwise. The delay trap: e-mailing a general mailbox and waiting. Ask explicitly, in your first message, for the name and direct contact of the licensing representative assigned to your address, and record the date you asked.
5. ORDER THE RADON TEST EARLY — IT IS THE SLOWEST CHEAP THING. Radon has been a hard condition of an Illinois home licence since 2014 and it is the item applicants most often leave until last. 225 ILCS 10/5.8(a) requires that "Licensed early care and education centers, licensed early care and education homes, and licensed group early care and education homes shall have the provider tested for radon at least once every 3 years pursuant to rules established by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency," and subsection (b) makes proof of it an application document: "As part of an initial application or application for renewal of a license ... the Department of Early Childhood shall require proof the provider has been tested within the last 3 years for radon." The rule repeats it as a listed contents-of-application item at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(I) — "for an initial application effective January 1, 2014 or later, proof that the home has been tested within the last 3 years for radon, as established by rules of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (32 Ill. Adm. Code 422)" — and as a physical-plant standard at 2007.8(a)(29): "Effective January 1, 2013, the home shall be tested for radon at least once every 3 years. The most current radon measurements shall be posted next to the license in the home, on a form provided by the Department." The posting is not optional decoration. 225 ILCS 10/5.8(d) prescribes the exact notice that must accompany the posted report, beginning "Every parent or guardian is notified that this facility has performed radon measurements to ensure the health and safety of the occupants," and reciting that IEMA "recommends that all residential homes be tested and that corrective actions be taken at levels equal to or greater than 4.0 pCi/L" together with the IEMA Radon Program number 800-325-1245. The trap is twofold. First, a short-term radon test requires a closed-house period and then laboratory turnaround, so calendar time runs whether you are working or not; start it the week you decide. Second, a result at or above 4.0 pCi/L does not simply fail you, it starts a mitigation project — sub-slab depressurisation on a typical Illinois basement is a contractor job with a lead time and a retest afterwards. An applicant who tests in week ten instead of week one converts a two-hundred-dollar measurement into a two-month hole in the middle of the licensing study. Realistic time: one to three weeks if the result is clean, six to ten weeks if mitigation is needed.
6. TEST THE WATER FOR LEAD IF YOUR HOUSE IS OLD ENOUGH, AND START THE 120-DAY CLOCK KNOWINGLY. The statutory hook is 225 ILCS 10/5.9, which directs IDEC "in consultation with the Department of Public Health" to prescribe procedures for "assessing levels of lead in water in licensed early care and education centers, early care and education homes, and group early care and education homes constructed on or before January 1, 2000 that serve children under the age of 6" and to require proof of compliance as part of an initial application. The operative rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(f): "Any day care home serving children under 6 years of age and housed in a building constructed on or before January 1, 2000 shall be subject to lead in water testing by an IEPA laboratory or an IEPA-certified laboratory." The construction date is captured on a specific form — 2007.8(e) says "The construction date for new day care home applicants is captured on the CFS 597-DCI form" — and the Department reserves the right under 2007.8(f)(4) to order testing "upon suspicion of the day care home misrepresenting the construction date of the building". The threshold is 2.01 parts per billion. Every result, "at, above or below 2.01 ppb", must be "posted in the home in a visible location and submitted by the applicant or licensee directly to his or her local licensing office" under 2007.8(f)(1), and where a source tests at or above the threshold, "Test results and mitigation plans, when required, shall be submitted to the local licensing office within 120 days after notification of test results". The mitigation plan itself is prescriptive: 2007.8(f)(2) requires interim measures, start and completion dates, each affected drinking-water source with its planned fix, and "Retesting dates, to include one test to occur no later than six months following the completion of a mitigation plan and a second test no later than one year after the completion of a mitigation plan". Only after "two consecutive tests of lower than 2.01 ppb" does routine retesting stop, and it restarts on any change to the water profile — a new hot water heater counts. Two traps. First, "water source" is defined broadly at 2007.2 as "any faucet used to obtain water for drinking or food preparation", expressly including "sinks, bathtubs, hoses, drinking fountains, bubblers, and refrigerator or freezer water or ice dispensers", so the icemaker is a sample point. Second, the rule's own instruction on where to find a certified laboratory points at the Day Care Information Line, 1-877-746-0829, and at a sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov page — a DCFS address embedded in a rule that is now an IDEC rule. It still resolves today; do not assume it will. Realistic time: two to four weeks for sampling and results; add three to six months if mitigation is triggered.
7. IF YOU ARE ON A PRIVATE WELL, TEST IT AND PLAN TO BOIL WATER DURING THE PERMIT. Rural applicants hit a requirement the suburban ones never see. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(d) provides: "A safe and sanitary water supply shall be maintained. If a private water supply is used instead of an approved public water supply, the applicant shall supply written records of current test results indicating the water supply is safe for drinking. New test results must be provided prior to renewal of license. If nitrate content exceeds 10 ppm, bottled water must be used for children under 15 months of age." Nitrate is the specific hazard the rule names because of methaemoglobinaemia in infants, and 10 ppm is the federal drinking-water maximum contaminant level; a well in an Illinois row-crop county can exceed it seasonally, which means a clean spring sample is not a guarantee for the following spring. The interesting part of this requirement is how it interacts with the two-month permit. Well water testing is one of only three things the rule allows you to still be waiting on when a permit issues. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.7(a)(6) permits the licensing representative's home visit to determine compliance "with all the licensing requirements except the requirements for remaining character references, medical examination reports, and well water tests compliance that may be complied with within the 2 month period covered by the permit. However, when well water tests are required, applicants must agree to boil all drinking and cooking water and to provide only bottled water for children under 15 months of age until the test results are received." That is a written undertaking you give in advance, and it is enforceable against you during monitoring. The delay trap is that applicants treat the permit's tolerance as permission to start the test late. It is not: the permit runs two months, it is not renewable under 2007.7(e), and 225 ILCS 10/5.01(e) allows IDEC to issue "one 2-month permit only" to a home. A well sample that goes to the laboratory in week seven of an eight-week permit leaves no room for a bad result, a resample, or a shock chlorination. Draw the sample at the same time you order the radon canister. Realistic time: one to three weeks; add two to six weeks for disinfection and resampling if the sample fails bacteriological screening.
8. COMPLETE FIFTEEN HOURS OF PRE-SERVICE TRAINING, DATED WITHIN THE YEAR BEFORE YOU APPLY. This is the requirement with the most expensive silent deadline in Illinois. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(2) provides: "The applicants shall have completed, not more than one year prior to the application date, at least 15 hours of pre-service training listed in Appendix D, which shall include the following topics for applicants and assistants who will care for infants: A) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); B) Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID); C) Safe sleep recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics; D) Shaken Baby Syndrome; and E) Department approved Mandated Reporter Training for all licensees and assistants, regardless of the age of children in care." Read subparagraph (E) twice: mandated reporter training is required of every applicant whatever the ages served, and it is not optional the way the infant topics are. Appendix D names who may deliver the hours — colleges and universities, child care resource and referral agencies, the Illinois Department of Public Health or local health departments, the Office of the State Fire Marshal or local fire departments, state or national child care organisations, family day care home associations, Child and Adult Care Food Program sponsors, Healthy Child Care Illinois nurses, and the American Red Cross and American Heart Association — and how the hours may be earned, including "self-study materials provided by a child care resource and referral (CCR&R) agency (certificate of clock hours must be secured from the CCR&R)" and "internet home study programs if the internet site provides documentation of use and number of clock hours". Appendix D still points mandated reporter training at dcfstraining.org, another DCFS address surviving inside an IDEC rule. A separate certificate is required on top of the fifteen hours: 2007.4(b)(3) obliges applicants to "submit with their initial application a certificate of completion of lead safety training consisting of instruction in the following topics: A) Mitigation plan for test results of 2.01 ppb or above; and B) Impact of lead exposure." The delay trap is the twelve-month freshness window. Hours you earned two years ago while working in someone else's home do not count toward pre-service, and an application that stalls for other reasons — a slow fingerprint clearance, a failed radon test — can push your application date past the anniversary of your training and force you to redo it. Take the fifteen hours after you have cleared zoning and the building, not before. Realistic time: two to four weeks of evenings.
9. JOIN THE GATEWAYS TO OPPORTUNITY REGISTRY AND GET YOUR CREDENTIALS VERIFIED IN IT. Registry membership is an application document, not an afterthought. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(H) lists among the contents of a complete application "proof of membership in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry by the primary caregiver and assistants in the home with all educational credentials and pre-service training entered into the Registry". The standing obligation is at 2007.6(k): "By September 1, 2012, the primary caregivers and assistants employed by the day care home shall become members of and participate in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry, with all educational and training credentials entered into the registry verified in accordance with procedures and requirements adopted by the Department of Human Services (see 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G). Newly hired staff serving children shall be members of the Gateways to Opportunity Registry within 30 days after hire." Two things about that sentence are now wrong on their face and you should not let them confuse you. The Department of Human Services no longer administers the child care Part it names: 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50 was itself transferred to the Department of Early Childhood and recodified as 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060 in the same 17 July 2026 issue of the Illinois Register that moved your own Part. A cross-reference in the recodified rule points at a Part number the same recodification retired. And the September 2012 date is a legacy compliance deadline, not a hint that the requirement lapsed; it binds every current licensee. The operational point is that "membership" is the easy half and "verified" is the slow half. Entering your name in the Registry takes minutes; having a transcript, a high school diploma, a CPR card and fifteen clock hours of pre-service training reviewed and attached to your Registry record is a document-processing queue with a real backlog, and your licensing representative will look for the verified entries, not the account. The delay trap is applicants who register the week they submit and then wait. Register the day you enrol in pre-service training, and upload each certificate as you earn it rather than in one batch at the end. Realistic time: registration same day; credential verification two to six weeks, and it runs in parallel with everything else if you start it early.
10. GET CERTIFIED IN FIRST AID, THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER AND INFANT/CHILD CPR — AND NOTE IT GATES THE PERMIT. Illinois names three certifications in one breath and accepts a short list of certifying bodies. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(n) requires that "The licensee who is the primary caregiver shall be certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association or other entity approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health." Subsection (o) turns it into a coverage rule for every hour you are open: "During the hours of operation of the day care home, there shall be at least one person on the premises certified in first aid, the Heimlich maneuver and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) ... The caregivers shall have on file current certificates attesting to the training." That second sentence is what makes your substitute caregiver arrangements real: if the only certified adult in the house is you, you cannot leave. This item sits on the critical path in a way the others do not, because it is one of the five conditions the Department must satisfy before it may issue even a two-month permit. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.7(a)(4) provides that a permit shall not be issued until "The applicant who is the primary caregiver has been certified in first-aid, the Heimlich maneuver, and infant/child cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in accordance with Section 2007.9(n)." Unlike medical reports and character references, this one cannot be deferred into the permit period. A related training has a longer fuse and should not be confused with it: 2007.9(p) requires "a Department approved basic training course of 6 or more clock hours in providing care to children with disabilities," and expressly gives new licensees thirty-six months from the issue date of the initial licence to complete it, with the five required components listed in Appendix D — introduction to inclusive child care, child development in relation to disabilities, building relationships with families, preparing for and including young children, and community services including Early Intervention. The delay trap is the online-only card. The rule requires certification by the Red Cross, the American Heart Association or an IDPH-approved entity; a purely online CPR card with no hands-on skills check from an unrecognised vendor is the kind of document a licensing representative rejects at the home visit, after you have paid for it. Realistic time: one day of class, booked one to three weeks out.
11. ASSEMBLE THE APPLICATION PACKET — TEN ITEMS, AND EVERY ONE OF THEM IS NAMED. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(a) says "A complete application shall be filed with the Department by the supervising agency on forms prescribed and provided by the Department," and 2007.4(b)(1) enumerates what complete means: "A) a completed, signed and dated Application for Home License; B) a list of persons who will be working in the day care home, including any substitutes and assistants, and members of the household age 13 and over; C) completed, signed and dated authorizations to conduct the background check for the applicants, each employee or person used to replace or supplement staff, and each member of the household age 13 and over; D) a completed, signed and dated Child Support Certification form; E) the names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least 3 adults not related to the applicants, nor living in the household, who can attest to their character and suitability to provide child care; F) a written hazard protection plan identifying potential hazards within the home and outdoor area accessible to the children in care ... Conditions to be addressed include, but are not limited to, traffic construction, bodies of water accessible to the children, open stairwells, and neighborhood dogs; G) a copy of high school diploma, equivalent certificate, or degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education or vocational institution; H) proof of membership in the Gateways to Opportunity Registry ...; I) ... proof that the home has been tested within the last 3 years for radon ...; and J) lead testing results and mitigation plans when required by Section 2007.8(e) and (f)." Item (G) is a hard bar for anyone licensed after 1 January 2011 — 2007.9(l) requires the diploma — and item (D) has teeth: 2007.9(e) makes each applicant "certify under penalty of perjury that he or she is current or not more than 30 days delinquent in complying with a child support order," and 2007.9(f) requires denial if the background check contradicts the certification, unless payment is arranged. Item (F), the hazard protection plan, is the one applicants under-write; it must "address the specific hazards and the adult supervision and physical means required to minimize the risks", not merely list them, and it is reviewed again at every renewal under 2007.5(f). The delay trap in 2026 is upstream of all of this: IDEC published no forms page and no "become a licensed provider" page as of 26 August 2026 — the URLs return 404 — so the only way to obtain the prescribed forms is to ask your licensing representative for the initial application packet by name. Ask in the same message in which you ask who your representative is. Realistic time: two to three weeks to gather, assuming the tests and training are already running.
12. AUTHORISE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR YOURSELF AND EVERY HOUSEHOLD MEMBER AGE 13 AND OVER. This is the longest pole in the tent and it is not under your control. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(a) is absolute: "No individual may receive a license from the Department when the applicant, a member of the household age 13 and over, or any individual who has access to the children cared for in a day care home, or any employee of the day care home, has not authorized the background check required by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 (Background Checks) and been cleared in accordance with the requirements of Part 2010." Part 2010 splits the population. Under 2010.10(a) household members aged 13 through 17 who are not employees get a partial check — the State Central Register, the Illinois Sex Offender Registry and the National Sex Offender Public Website, plus equivalent registries "in any state where the individual resided during the preceding five years" — and a parent or guardian must sign for them. Under 2010.10(c) every licence applicant, every adult household member "even if these members of the household are not usually present in the home during the hours the child care facility is in operation", every employee and volunteer 18 and over, and every 14- to 17-year-old who works there gets the comprehensive check: fingerprints to the Illinois State Police, fingerprints to the FBI under Next Generation Identification, the State Central Register, the sex offender registries, and interstate checks in every state of residence for the preceding five years. The statutory fingerprint authority is 225 ILCS 10/4.1, and the checks recur: an employee or volunteer "shall authorize an investigation every 5 years, as required under the Child Care and Development Block Grant." The published service standard is at 2010.10(f): "Background checks shall be completed in 45 days or less." Treat that as a floor, not a promise. Two traps. First, non-appearance: 2007.9(d) provides that "Failure of a person subject to criminal background checks to appear for scheduled fingerprinting may result in the denial of a license application," with adequate cause limited to a death in the family, serious illness, or weather and transportation emergencies — an adult son who lives with you and will not go get printed will sink your application. Second, the appeal route did not move. Only Subpart B of the old DCFS background-check Part transferred; the disposition, waiver and appeal machinery remains at 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385, amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445 effective 24 April 2026, and 385.80 still directs a denied applicant to "the DCFS Administrative Hearings Unit ... in accordance with 89 Ill. Adm. Code 337", at 406 E. Monroe St., Station #15, Springfield, Illinois 62701, with requests "postmarked within 10 days after the date of written notice of the denial". Ten days. Realistic time: six to twelve weeks from fingerprinting.
13. BOOK THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS AND TUBERCULIN TESTS FOR THE WHOLE HOUSEHOLD. Illinois does not stop at the provider. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(i) requires that "Members of the household, regular substitutes, and assistants shall have a complete physical examination. The medical reports shall be submitted on forms provided by the Department," and specifies the timing precisely: "The report shall be based on an examination that occurred no earlier than 6 months prior to application, with a tuberculin test to be included in the initial exam only. If the skin test is positive, a chest x-ray is required." Immunisations and the tuberculin test for an infant "shall be given at the discretion of the physician," and the caregivers and assistants "shall be found free of communicable diseases and shall be physically and emotionally fit to care for young children." The substantive standard sits in two other places: 2007.9(m) provides that "The caregivers and all members of the household shall provide medical evidence as required by Section 2007.24(i) that they are free of reportable communicable disease, and, in the case of caregivers, free of physical or mental conditions that could interfere with the child care responsibilities," and 2007.10(e) imposes the same on assistants. Once obtained, "The medical report for caregivers, regular substitutes, and assistants shall be valid for 3 years" under 2007.24(j) — conveniently the same length as the licence — but 2007.24(k) reserves the right to demand fresh evidence of freedom from communicable disease "at any time". Like character references and well water, medical reports are one of the three items 2007.7(a)(6) allows to trail into the two-month permit period; but note the countervailing clause at 2007.7(a)(3), which forbids issuing a permit until "Medical reports as required in Section 2007.24(i) have been received by the Department for all caregivers and assistants". Household members can trail; caregivers and assistants cannot. Two traps. The six-month window runs backwards from your application date, so an exam done a year ago while you were thinking about it is worthless, and a positive tuberculin skin test converts a twenty-minute appointment into a chest radiograph and a physician's clearance letter that can take another fortnight. The other trap is the form: the report must be on the Department's own form, not your doctor's employment-physical letterhead, and getting a busy practice to re-do it on the right paper costs a second appointment. Realistic time: two to five weeks for the household, longer if any skin test reads positive.
14. GET THE FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION AND WRITTEN APPROVAL — IT GATES THE PERMIT ABSOLUTELY. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(d) sets out a two-track scheme and one hard rule. Track one: "The Department shall request the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to perform a fire safety inspection of homes when an initial application is being considered for licensure and when care will be provided on other than ground level and for homes in multi-housing units and submit a written recommendation of the inspection to the supervising agency of the day care home and to the applicant." Track two: "The fire safety inspection on single floor homes, at ground level with no unusual or complex code considerations, shall be completed following the list of items for fire safety inspection in Appendix E by a licensing representative trained by OSFM to conduct that fire prevention inspection." The hard rule: "Prior to the Department issuance of a permit or a license, the day care home shall have written approval by OSFM or staff trained by OSFM, indicating the home meets fire safety requirements," reinforced at 2007.7(a)(8). If you live in an apartment, a condominium, or a two-storey house and intend to use the upper floor or the basement, you are on the OSFM track and you are waiting on a state agency's inspection calendar. Appendix E tells you exactly what will be checked, so pre-check it yourself: escape paths and escape windows clear and operable; smoke detectors "on each level of the home (including basements and second floors even if they are not used for child care) and in any room where children are allowed to nap or sleep"; every detector "less than 10 years old and functioning properly (detected by pushing the test button)"; exit locks and deadbolts operable "without the use of a key, tool or special knowledge"; no more than two releasing devices on any exit door; bathroom doors openable from outside; closet doors openable from inside; lighting on escape paths; protective covers on receptacles; heating sources partitioned; and carbon monoxide detectors installed and operable. The detector rules behind those items are at 2007.8(a)(4) and (5) and they are specific: a detector "installed on the ceiling and at least 6 inches from any wall, or on a wall located between 4 and 6 inches from the ceiling", and a carbon monoxide detector "within 15 feet of rooms where children nap or sleep" for any home with an attached garage or fossil-fuel combustion. The delay trap is the basement. 2007.8(a)(10) requires two exits from any basement used for child care, one of them a door directly outside or a protected stairway no more than eight feet high, the second permitted to be a window with a clear opening "not less than 20 inches in width, 24 inches in height, and 5.7 square feet in area" and a sill no more than 44 inches above the floor. Egress-window retrofits are excavation work. Discover this in week two, not at the inspection. Realistic time: two to six weeks to schedule; ten-year-old detectors are a same-day fix, egress is not.
15. SURVIVE THE LICENSING STUDY — THE ON-SITE VISIT PLUS THREE WRITTEN REFERENCES PLUS A SUPERVISOR'S SIGNATURE. The decision is not the inspector's alone. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(c) provides: "The supervising agency shall study each day care home under its supervision before recommending issuance of a license. The licensing study shall be conducted by a licensing representative and shall be reviewed and approved by his/her supervisor. Supervisory approval indicates recommendation for license or denial of a license and compliance or non-compliance with the standards prescribed by this Part. The study shall be in writing and shall be signed by the licensing representative performing the study and by his/her supervisor. A license may not be recommended without the receipt of at least 3 positive, written references, and a written study signed by the licensing representative and supervisor. The applicant shall receive a copy of the results of the on-site compliance review upon request." Ask for that copy in writing; it is the record you will argue from. The permit-stage version of the visit is described at 2007.7(a)(6): "A personal visit to the home by a licensing representative has been completed. The purpose of this visit is to determine compliance with all the licensing requirements except the requirements for remaining character references, medical examination reports, and well water tests." What the representative physically checks is 2007.8 in full, and it is granular: a first aid kit containing adhesive bandages, scissors, thermometer, non-permeable gloves, the Poison Control number, sterile gauze, adhesive tape, tweezers and mild soap; a kitchen fire extinguisher "rated for Class A, B, and C fires and a flashlight in working order"; covers on every outlet in areas children use; walls "free from lead paint and from chipped or peeling paint"; combustible artwork limited to twenty per cent of any wall; hazardous items and, for infants and toddlers, choking hazards "including but not limited to: coins, balloons, safety pins, marbles" stored inaccessibly; an operable telephone with emergency numbers posted; the "no firearms" sign required by 2007.8(a)(17) and firearms disassembled, unloaded and locked separately from ammunition under (a)(18); gates on stairs where children under 30 months are in care; water hazards fenced, in-ground pools behind "at least 5 feet in height and secured by a locked gate"; hot water at children's hand-washing sinks no more than 115 degrees Fahrenheit; crib certification to 16 CFR 1219 or 1220; and, where capacity exceeds eight children, "A minimum of 35 square feet of floor space per each child in care" plus twenty more for each child under 30 months when play and sleep areas coincide. The delay trap is the three references. They are not yours to control, 2007.4(b)(1)(E) requires them from adults "not related to the applicants, nor living in the household", and a referee who never returns the form stalls a file that is otherwise complete. Nominate five, warn them, and chase them. Realistic time: two to four weeks from a complete file to the visit; a re-visit adds two to three more.
16. HAVE THE POLICIES, PLANS AND RECORD SYSTEMS IN EXISTENCE ON DAY ONE, NOT DAY THIRTY. Illinois requires several written documents that a new provider tends to think of as post-licence housekeeping, and the licensing representative looks for them at the visit. Written emergency preparedness plans are required by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(19), which demands "A fire evacuation plan identifying exits from each area used for child care and specifying the evacuation route" and a plan "identifying a safe assembly area outside of the home", with the tornado and hazard plans reviewed again at every renewal under 2007.5(f). A late-pick-up policy is mandatory and prescriptive: 2007.12(h) requires "a written policy that explains the actions the provider will take if a parent does not retrieve ... his or her child at the designated, agreed upon time," in "the form of a written agreement that shall be signed by the parent", stating the amount of any late fee and when it accrues, "The degree of diligence the provider will use to reach emergency contacts", and "Length of time the facility will keep the child beyond the pick-up time before contacting outside authorities". Written behaviour support and transition policies are required by 2007.12(j) for any home serving infants, toddlers or preschoolers, "in compliance with 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2050.320 (Behavior Support Plans)" — note the recodification updated that cross-reference even though it left the Gateways one stale. A plan for anaphylactic shock is required directly by statute, 225 ILCS 10/5.11, which also obliges every home to "have at least one staff member present at all times who has taken a training course in recognizing and responding to anaphylaxis" and to share the plan with parents at enrolment. Records begin immediately: 2007.24(m) requires that a mandated-reporter acknowledgement "shall be signed and dated by the staff person prior to employment"; 2007.24(f) requires you to hand every parent the Department's summary of the licensing standards at the time the child is accepted and to keep the parent's signed receipt in the child's record; 2007.14(c) requires a medical report for each child "on file for each child, on the first day of care, and ... dated no earlier than 6 months prior to enrollment"; and 2007.8(a)(23) requires a daily escape-route inspection with "A log of these daily inspections ... maintained for at least one year", reflecting "the date and time of each inspection and the full name of the person who conducted it". The trap is the child medical report. Parents are slow, the report must exist on the first day of care, and a provider who opens with three enrolments and one missing physical is out of compliance from the first morning. Realistic time: one to two weeks of drafting, done in parallel with the training.
17. EXPECT A TWO-MONTH PERMIT, THEN THE THREE-YEAR LICENCE — AND BUDGET FOUR TO SEVEN MONTHS END TO END. Homes do not get the six-month runway that centres get. 225 ILCS 10/5.01(e) provides that IDEC "may issue one 6-month permit to a newly established provider for early care and education to allow that provider reasonable time to become eligible for a full license. If the provider for early care and education is an early care and education home, the Department of Early Childhood may issue one 2-month permit only." Two months, once, ever: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.7(e) states "Permits shall not be renewable," and 2007.7(b) that "A permit shall not be issued retroactively." The eight preconditions at 2007.7(a) are the real finish line — completed application filed, background check results received for the operator, medical reports for all caregivers and assistants, the primary caregiver's first aid and CPR certification, at least two favourable character references received, the licensing representative's personal visit completed, a written plan showing you will reach full compliance inside the two months, and written fire safety approval. Clear all eight and 2007.7(g) allows the licence to issue "at any time within the 2 month period covered by the permit". The licence that follows "is valid for 3 years unless revoked by the Department or voluntarily surrendered by the licensee" (2007.6(b), confirmed at 225 ILCS 10/5.01(d)), and it is free: 2007.6(j) says "There shall be no fee or charge for the license," and 2007.7(i) the same for the permit. Display it — 2007.6(i) requires it "prominently displayed in the home at all times" — with the radon report beside it. Now the honest arithmetic. Illinois sets no statutory deadline for deciding an initial home application; the only published benchmark is a reporting metric, 225 ILCS 10/7.10(c)(4)(A), which obliges IDEC to report to the General Assembly each year on "the number and percentage of new applications disposed of within 90 days". Stack the real constraints — background checks nominally 45 days and often longer, radon two to three weeks or two months with mitigation, lead-in-water two to four weeks with a 120-day mitigation window, OSFM scheduling two to six weeks, fifteen hours of pre-service training that must be less than a year old on the application date, three references you cannot hurry — and a well-run Illinois home application takes four to seven months from decision to licence, of which perhaps three weeks is your own paperwork. The final trap is the one nobody warns about: 2007.26(b) provides that "Licensed providers are subject to periodic monitoring as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided," and 225 ILCS 10/5.01(h) requires annual monitoring by a licensing representative. Getting licensed and then not opening does not make you dormant.

What you must post on your walls

• THE LICENCE ITSELF, PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED, AND NOT UNDER THE RULE NUMBER YOUR GUIDEBOOK GIVES YOU. The sentence is eight words long and it is at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(i): "The license shall be prominently displayed in the home at all times." Read the citation twice, because almost every checklist circulating in Illinois still says 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406.6. As the JCAR index of rules in effect serves them on 26 August 2026, Title 23 (Education and Cultural Resources), Subtitle A, Chapter XI, is headed DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD and contains PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, together with 2005 (exemptions), 2006 (day care information line), 2008 (centers), 2009 (group day care homes) and 2010 (background checks). Part 2007 carries its own provenance in the SOURCE note: "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917," and its AUTHORITY note reads "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]." Every section closes with the parenthetical "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)". Your licence is issued by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, because 2007.2 defines "Department" as "the Illinois Department of Early Childhood." WHERE: inside the home, in a place a parent or an inspector sees without asking — the rule says "in the home," not "in the file," and it says "at all times," which includes the hours you are not operating. TERM AND COST: 2007.6(b), "A day care home license is valid for 3 years unless revoked by the Department or voluntarily surrendered by the licensee," and 2007.6(j), "There shall be no fee or charge for the license." Anyone quoting you a licence fee for an Illinois day care home is selling you something else. THE LIMITS TRAVEL WITH THE PAPER: 2007.6(c) ties capacity and ages to Section 2007.13; 2007.6(d), "The age limits specified on the license shall be observed"; 2007.6(e), "Child care may be provided only in those areas specified on the license"; 2007.6(f) and (g), the licence is valid only for the licensee's family residence and "shall not be valid for a name or location other than the name and location on the license." The displayed document is therefore also the enforceable statement of what you may do, which is precisely why the inspector wants to see it on the wall rather than in a drawer. WHO CHECKS: 2007.26(a), "Authorized representatives of the supervising agency or the Department shall be admitted to the facility during the facility's hours of operation for the purpose of determining compliance," and 2007.26(b), "Licensed providers are subject to periodic monitoring as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided." "Supervising agency" is defined at 2007.2 as "a licensed child welfare agency, a licensed day care agency, or the Department" — in much of Illinois the person at your door works for a delegate agency, not for the State.
• THE PERMIT, DISPLAYED THE SAME WAY DURING YOUR FIRST TWO MONTHS. Most Illinois day care homes open on a permit, not a licence, and the permit carries its own display duty at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.7(f): "A current permit shall be prominently displayed in the day care home at all times while the home is operating under a permit." Note the word "current." A permit is a two-month instrument — 2007.7(g), "A license shall be issued at any time within the 2 month period covered by the permit provided that the day care home achieves and maintains compliance with the Department's licensing standards" — and 2007.7(e) states flatly, "Permits shall not be renewable." When the permit lapses, taking it down is not enough; without a licence you are operating unlicensed. WHAT MUST ALREADY BE TRUE BEFORE THE PERMIT EXISTS, and therefore what is already in your file on day one, is the checklist at 2007.7(a): a complete signed application; completed background checks under Section 2007.9 with results received for the operator; "Medical reports as required in Section 2007.24(i) have been received by the Department for all caregivers and assistants"; the primary caregiver certified in first aid, the Heimlich manoeuvre and infant/child CPR under 2007.9(n); "Character references have been requested, and at least two favorable references have been received"; a completed personal visit by a licensing representative; "A written plan has been submitted to the licensing representative that indicates that requirements for a license shall be met within the 2 month permit period"; and "A written fire safety inspection and approval of the home has been completed in accordance with Section 2007.4(d)." Three of those eight are documents, and the licensing representative will ask to see your copies during the permit period. THE PERMIT IS NOT A SOFT VERSION OF THE LICENCE. 2007.7(b), "A permit shall not be issued retroactively" — you cannot paper over children already in care. 2007.7(c), permits are not transferable; 2007.7(d), a permit "shall not be valid for a name or location different from the name and location shown on the issued permit"; 2007.7(h), "The day care home shall adhere to the provisions or restrictions specified on the permit." And 2007.7(i) repeats the fee rule: "There shall be no fee or charge for the permit." The trap here is a timing trap rather than a paperwork trap. The three items 2007.7(a)(6) expressly lets you finish inside the permit window are "the requirements for remaining character references, medical examination reports, and well water tests compliance," and the same subsection attaches a condition to the last of those: "when well water tests are required, applicants must agree to boil all drinking and cooking water and to provide only bottled water for children under 15 months of age until the test results are received." Everything else has to be true before the permit is issued, not before it expires. Providers who read the two-month window as a grace period for training, fire safety approval or background checks lose the window and start the whole application again.
• THE RADON REPORT, POSTED NEXT TO THE LICENCE, WITH A STATUTORY PARAGRAPH YOU MAY NOT PARAPHRASE. This is the posting Illinois applicants most often miss, because it is not in the licensing checklist most people read — it is in the physical-facilities section. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(29): "Effective January 1, 2013, the home shall be tested for radon at least once every 3 years. The most current radon measurements shall be posted next to the license in the home, on a form provided by the Department, containing the required informative statement from Section 5.8(d) of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10]." So the licence does not hang alone: it hangs beside a radon report. The statute the rule points to is live and was amended for the transfer. 225 ILCS 10/5.8, now headed "Radon testing of licensed early care and education centers, licensed early care and education homes, and licensed group early care and education homes," provides at subsection (c): "The report of the most current radon measurement shall be posted in the location next to the license issued by the Department of Early Childhood. Copies of the report shall be provided to parents or guardians upon request." Subsection (d) supplies the text you must reproduce with it, verbatim: "Every parent or guardian is notified that this facility has performed radon measurements to ensure the health and safety of the occupants. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) recommends that all residential homes be tested and that corrective actions be taken at levels equal to or greater than 4.0 pCi/L. Radon is a Class A human carcinogen, the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and the second leading cause of lung cancer overall. For additional information about this facility contact the licensee and for additional information regarding radon contact the IEMA Radon Program at 800-325-1245 or on the Internet at www.radon.illinois.gov." The source note on 5.8 reads "(Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26; 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" — two Public Acts, both effective 1 July 2026, one moving the function to the Department of Early Childhood and one renaming your licence category. RETENTION IS BY REPLACEMENT, NOT BY FILING: what must be on the wall is "the most current" measurement, and because the test recurs "at least once every 3 years" the posted report is refreshed on that cycle. The measurement is also an application document — 2007.4(b)(1)(I) requires, "for an initial application effective January 1, 2014 or later, proof that the home has been tested within the last 3 years for radon, as established by rules of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (32 Ill. Adm. Code 422) [225 ILCS 10/5.8]" — and 225 ILCS 10/5.8(b) makes the Department require the same proof at renewal. TWO TRAPS. First, do not summarise subsection (d); it is prescribed text and the reason the Department supplies a form. Second, notice the vocabulary gap you will be reading across all year: the statute now says "early care and education homes" while the rule you are licensed under still says "day care home." They are the same thing, and 2007.8(a)(29) is still the operative posting command.
• THE LEAD-IN-WATER RESULTS, POSTED IN A VISIBLE LOCATION EVEN WHEN THE RESULT IS CLEAN. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(f)(1) is unambiguous about the "even when clean" part: "All lead in water test results (at, above or below 2.01 ppb) shall be posted in the home in a visible location and submitted by the applicant or licensee directly to his or her local licensing office." The parenthesis is the rule. A result of 0.4 ppb is still a result you post. Providers routinely file a clean report and post nothing, and that is a citation. WHO IS CAUGHT: 2007.8(f), "Any day care home serving children under 6 years of age and housed in a building constructed on or before January 1, 2000 shall be subject to lead in water testing by an IEPA laboratory or an IEPA-certified laboratory." Two conditions, both of which must hold — children under six, and construction on or before 1 January 2000. The construction date is itself a filed fact: 2007.8(e) requires any home licensed as of 1 January 2019 to "submit a survey provided by its day care licensing office that includes the construction date of the home," and states that "The construction date for new day care home applicants is captured on the CFS 597-DCI form." The same subsection tells you where to find a laboratory: "A current list of certified laboratories can be obtained by contacting the Day Care Information Line at 1-877-746-0829, or can be accessed online through https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/LeadTesting.aspx." DEADLINE: "Test results and mitigation plans, when required, shall be submitted to the local licensing office within 120 days after notification of test results of 2.01 ppb or above." WHEN THE NUMBER IS BAD, a second document goes to parents. 2007.8(f)(2): "A mitigation plan shall be made available to parents and submitted to the local licensing office if test results indicate the presence of lead for each drinking water source with a result of 2.01 ppb or above," specifying "Interim measures the applicant/licensee will take to ensure a safe drinking water supply during mitigation" and the mitigation itself. Note the verb: made AVAILABLE to parents, not posted. The posted item is the test result; the plan is a produce-on-demand document. HOW LONG IT STAYS UP: until it is superseded. 2007.8(f)(3) ends the testing cycle only conditionally — "Following successful mitigation that results in two consecutive tests of lower than 2.01 ppb, further testing is only required if there has been any change to the water profile of the building, including, but not limited to, replacement of the hot water heater, change in the water source, or change to, or replacement of, the water service lines." Replace a water heater and you have re-opened your own testing obligation, and the new result becomes the posted one. WHO CHECKS: the licensing representative, at the on-site visit, against the copy the local licensing office already holds — you submitted it directly under 2007.8(f)(1), so the posted sheet and the file copy are compared. A related, separate line of paperwork covers private wells: 2007.8(d) requires written records of current test results, "New test results must be provided prior to renewal of license," and "If nitrate content exceeds 10 ppm, bottled water must be used for children under 15 months of age."
• THE "NO FIREARMS" SIGN — FOUR INCHES BY SIX, AT THE PICK-UP DOOR, IN A PRIVATE HOME THE GUN STATUTE ITSELF EXEMPTS. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(17): "Handguns are prohibited on the premises of the day care home except in the possession of peace officers or other adults who must possess a handgun as a condition of employment and who reside in the day care home. The licensee shall post a 'no firearms' sign, as described in Section 65(d) of the Firearm Concealed Carry Act [430 ILCS 66/65(d)], in a visible location where parents pick up children." That is the only posting in Part 2007 with a stated audience and a stated place: parents, at the pick-up point. THE SPECIFICATION IS IN A DIFFERENT ACT AND A DIFFERENT TITLE OF THE CODE. 430 ILCS 66/65(d): "Signs stating that the carrying of firearms is prohibited shall be clearly and conspicuously posted at the entrance of a building, premises, or real property specified in this Section as a prohibited area, unless the building or premises is a private residence. Signs shall be of a uniform design as established by the Illinois State Police and shall be 4 inches by 6 inches in size. The Illinois State Police shall adopt rules for standardized signs to be used under this subsection." The State Police rules are at 20 Ill. Adm. Code 1231.150: (a) "A template for signs required pursuant to Section 65(d) of the Act is provided in Appendix A and is available on the Department's website"; (b) and (c) allow a larger sign only if "the template provided shall be reproduced somewhere on the larger sign no smaller than the 4" x 6" dimension required by the Act." Appendix A describes the artwork exactly: "The background is white, with no text, other than the reference to 403 ILCS 66/65, and no other marking within the one-inch area surrounding the graphic design. The graphic design is a handgun in black ink surrounded by a red circle with a diagonal slash across the handgun. The circle shall be 4 inches in diameter. The black rectangle surrounding the image must measure 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide." Print it at the wrong size and you have posted nothing. HERE IS THE CONTRADICTION YOU MUST NOT TALK YOURSELF OUT OF. Section 65(d) says the sign duty does not reach "a private residence," and Section 65(a)(2) carves you out again: "Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent the operator of a child care facility in a family home from owning or possessing a firearm in the home or license under this Act, if no child under child care at the home is present in the home or the firearm in the home is stored in a locked container when a child under child care at the home is present in the home." Your home is a private residence and the gun law lets you off the sign. The licensing rule does not. 2007.8(a)(17) imposes the posting as a condition of your licence regardless of what the Concealed Carry Act would require of you as a homeowner, and the licensing representative enforces 2007.8, not 430 ILCS 66. A SEPARATE, WRITTEN NOTICE also exists and is not satisfied by the sign: 2007.8(a)(18)(B), tracking Section 7 of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10/7], requires that "The operator of the home shall notify the parents or guardian of any child accepted for care that firearms and ammunition are stored on the premises," and that the arrangements are "locked in storage inaccessible to children," while adding that "The notification need not disclose the location where the firearms and ammunition are stored."
• EMERGENCY TELEPHONE NUMBERS — POSTED WHERE THEY ARE REACHABLE, NOT NEXT TO EVERY HANDSET. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(16), in full: "An operable telephone shall be available on the premises of the licensee. The number of the Poison Control Center (1-800-222-1222 or 1-800-942-5969) and other emergency numbers shall be posted in an area that is readily available in an emergency." Two commands in one sentence, and the second is looser than the equivalent rule in most states. Illinois names exactly one number — Poison Control, in two alternative forms — and then says "and other emergency numbers" without enumerating them. Compare 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008.370(t)(2), which governs day care CENTERS and does enumerate: "A list of emergency telephone numbers, such as the fire department, police department, poison control and emergency medical treatment, along with the full address of the day care center, shall be posted next to each telephone." Homes get neither the enumeration nor the "next to each telephone" placement rule. WHAT THIS MEANS IN PRACTICE. The standard your inspector applies is "readily available in an emergency," which is a functional test, not a location test. One legible list where you would actually stand while calling — by the kitchen phone, inside a cabinet door at eye level, beside the exit you use for drills — satisfies it. A list taped inside a closed binder in the basement does not, because it is not readily available. Since the rule does not restrict you, post 911, your local fire and police non-emergency lines, the child's emergency contacts if you keep them together, and the full street address of the home, which parents' babysitters and substitute caregivers reliably cannot recite under stress. THE POISON CONTROL NUMBER APPEARS TWICE IN PART 2007, AND THE SECOND PLACE IS NOT A WALL. 2007.8(a)(1): "The home shall have a first aid kit consisting of adhesive bandages, scissors, thermometer, non-permeable gloves, Poison Control Center telephone number (1-800-222-1222 or 1-800-942-5969), sterile gauze pads, adhesive tape, tweezers and mild soap." The number is a listed contents item of the kit, on the same footing as the tweezers. An inspector opening your first aid kit is checking against that enumeration, and a kit missing the printed number is an incomplete kit even if the number is posted on the wall three feet away. Post it, and put a card in the box. RELATED EQUIPMENT THAT TRAVELS WITH THIS SECTION: 2007.8(a)(2), "The kitchen shall be equipped with a readily accessible and operable fire extinguisher rated for Class A, B, and C fires and a flashlight in working order"; 2007.8(a)(4), "The home shall be equipped with a minimum of one approved smoke detector in operating condition on every floor level, including basements and occupied attics," with a further detector "within each room where children nap or sleep"; and 2007.8(a)(5)(A), requiring a home with an attached garage or fossil-fuel combustion for heating, ventilation or hot water to have "a minimum of one approved carbon monoxide detector in operating condition within 15 feet of rooms where children nap or sleep." None of those is a posting, but all four are checked at the same visit, in the same walk-through, by the same person reading Appendix E.
• THE WRITTEN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN — REQUIRED IN WRITING, KNOWN BY EVERY ADULT, AND NOWHERE REQUIRED TO BE ON THE WALL. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(19) opens: "Written emergency preparedness plans shall be developed and shall specify the actions to be taken in the event of a fire, tornado or other emergency. Caregivers and assistants in the home shall be familiar with these plans." Then it lists eight mandatory contents, and this is the checklist an inspector reads line by line: "(A) A fire evacuation plan identifying exits from each area used for child care and specifying the evacuation route; (B) A fire evacuation plan identifying a safe assembly area outside of the home. It shall also identify a nearby indoor location for post-evacuation holding if needed; (C) A fire evacuation plan requiring that the home be evacuated immediately and the children's safety insured before calling the local emergency number 911 or attempting to combat the fire; (D) A tornado plan specifying actions that will be taken in the event of tornado or other severe weather warning, including designation of those areas of the home to be used as safe spots; (E) Specific procedures for notifying parents if evacuation is necessary and how they will be reunited with their children; (F) Specific procedures for evacuating children who are less than 30 months of age and/or for evacuating special needs children when applicable; (G) Monthly fire drills to be conducted for the purpose of removing children from the home as quickly as possible; and (H) Monthly tornado drills to be conducted for the purpose of getting children accustomed to moving to a position of safety in the event of a tornado." Item (C) is the one people write backwards: children out first, 911 second, extinguisher last. Item (B)'s "nearby indoor location for post-evacuation holding" is the one people omit entirely, and in an Illinois January it is the item that matters most. WHERE IT LIVES AND WHO ASKS FOR IT. Part 2007 contains no command to POST this plan. It must exist in writing, the adults must be familiar with it, and it must be produced on demand under 2007.24(a): "Records as required by this Part shall be maintained and available for review by the Department." Contrast the centre rule, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008.370(f)(1): "A floor plan shall be posted in every room indicating the following: (A) The building areas that will provide the most structural stability in case of tornado; and (B) The primary and secondary exit routes in case of fire." Day care centres post a diagram in every room. Day care homes do not, and you should not buy laminated room diagrams on the strength of a checklist written for centres. THE CROSS-REFERENCE TRAP. Appendix E to Part 2007, the list the Office of the State Fire Marshal and OSFM-trained licensing representatives work from, item 12, reads: "There is a comprehensive written fire emergency response plan in the home (see Section 2007.8(a)(18))." That citation is wrong on its face — 2007.8(a)(18) is the firearm and ammunition storage rule; the emergency preparedness plan is 2007.8(a)(19). Item 13 similarly cites "(a)(19) and (20)" for the monthly drills, which are in fact (a)(19)(G) and (H). The requirements are real; the pointers inside the State's own appendix are not, and a provider who follows the appendix to the cited subsection will read about locked gun cabinets and conclude the plan is optional.
• THE FIRE AND TORNADO DRILL LOG — TWELVE DRILLS OF EACH KIND A YEAR, DOCUMENTED, KEPT FOR THREE YEARS. Illinois runs both drills monthly in a day care home, which is heavier than most states and heavier than an Illinois day care centre. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(19)(G) requires "Monthly fire drills to be conducted for the purpose of removing children from the home as quickly as possible" and (H) requires "Monthly tornado drills to be conducted for the purpose of getting children accustomed to moving to a position of safety in the event of a tornado." Then 2007.8(a)(21) fixes the paperwork and the retention in one sentence: "Fire and tornado drills shall be documented and that documentation shall be maintained on file for a period of 3 years." Three years, not one — this is the longest retention period in the Part, and it is longer than the licence term of three years is generous, meaning at any renewal visit your drill file should reach back past the previous renewal. THE CENTRE COMPARISON MAKES THE POINT. For day care centres, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008.370(f)(2) says "Drills shall be conducted once a month for fire and twice a year (seasonally) for tornado," and (f)(3) says only "Records shall be maintained of the dates and times that fire and tornado drills are conducted" — no retention period stated. A home does twenty-four drills a year and keeps the evidence three years; a centre does fourteen and the rule is silent on how long. If your training or your template came from a centre-oriented source, you are under-drilling by ten tornado drills a year. WHAT THE ENTRY SHOULD CONTAIN. The rule says "documented" without prescribing fields, so build the entry to answer the questions Appendix E and Section 2007.24 make an inspector ask: the date, the time, whether it was fire or tornado, which route or safe spot was used, how long the evacuation took, how many children participated, and — because 2007.8(a)(19)(F) requires "Specific procedures for evacuating children who are less than 30 months of age and/or for evacuating special needs children when applicable" — whether any infant or special-needs child was present and how they were moved. Appendix E item 13 tells you the inspector is looking for child participation, not a caregiver walkthrough: "There are monthly tornado and fire drills conducted by the caregiver with participation by children." A log showing you rehearsed alone does not meet the item. WHERE IT IS CHECKED AND BY WHOM. 2007.24(s) gathers the fire-safety paperwork into one obligation: "The licensee shall maintain records required for fire safety in accordance with Section 2007.8. Fire safety records include monthly fire drill reports, monthly fire safety inspections conducted by the licensee, and the log of daily inspections by the licensee to ensure that exit routes are kept clear." Appendix E states who works from the list: "The following list of items shall be inspected by OSFM, or by a Department or supervising agency licensing representative trained by OSFM to conduct fire safety inspections for license renewal or annual monitoring visits." So the drill log is read at renewal and at annual monitoring, by the State Fire Marshal's office or by a licensing representative it has trained — and under 2007.26(b) monitoring continues "as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided," which means a quiet month is not a month you skip the drill.
• THE MONTHLY FIRE SAFETY SELF-INSPECTION FILE — ONE YEAR, AND IT IS NOT THE DRILL LOG. Providers merge these two records constantly and lose both. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(20): "The licensee shall hold monthly fire safety inspections of the day care home and maintain documentation on file for a period of 1 year." That is a separate monthly act from the monthly fire drill in 2007.8(a)(19)(G) and it carries a different retention period — one year here, three years for drills under 2007.8(a)(21). A drill moves children out of the building. A fire safety inspection is you walking the house with the checklist and writing down what you found. WHAT YOU INSPECT. The rule does not enumerate, but Appendix E does, and Appendix E is the operative list because it is what the inspector uses: escape paths and doors "kept operable and clear from obstruction"; smoke detectors "provided on each level of the home (including basements and second floors even if they are not used for child care) and in any room where children are allowed to nap or sleep"; "All smoke detectors are less than 10 years old and functioning properly (detected by pushing the test button)"; locks and deadbolts "operable without the use of a key, tool or special knowledge"; no more than two releasing devices on any exit door; bathroom doors openable "by a caregiver from outside the room"; closet doors openable from inside without a key; escape lighting with "light bulbs are in place and functioning"; "Protective covers for all electrical receptacles"; and "Carbon monoxide detectors are installed and operable in areas occupied by children." Item 16 fails homes in winter: "Corridors are clear of clothing and personal effects." Item 17 fails them in December: "Flammable and combustible artwork and teaching materials attached directly to the walls are limited to no more than 20% of the wall area." THE APPENDIX MIS-CITES ITSELF, TWICE, IN WAYS THAT COST YOU. Appendix E item 14 reads "Monthly basic fire safety inspections of the home are conducted by the caregiver or staff members in the home (see Section 2007.8(a)(24))" — but 2007.8(a)(24) is the in-ground swimming pool fencing rule; the monthly inspection duty is 2007.8(a)(20). Item 17 cites "Section 2007.8(a)(11)" for the twenty-per-cent artwork limit, but (a)(11) reads "All walls and surfaces shall be maintained free from lead paint and from chipped or peeling paint"; the artwork limit is (a)(12): "Walls of rooms that children use shall be free of carpeting, fabric or plastic products. Inflammable or combustible artwork attached to the walls shall not exceed 20% of any wall area." Do not resolve these by assuming the appendix is right and the substantive section is wrong. The numbered requirements in Section 2007.8 are the rule; Appendix E is a checklist with stale internal pointers carried over from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 and never renumbered on recodification. WHO CHECKS, AND WHEN. Appendix E's preamble: "The Department shall notify the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) of the name and address of a day care home licensure initial applicant. The following list of items shall be inspected by OSFM, or by a Department or supervising agency licensing representative trained by OSFM to conduct fire safety inspections for license renewal or annual monitoring visits." Items 12 through 18 are labelled "Operating Requirements (renewal and subsequent monitoring visits" — your self-inspection file is in that block.
• THE DAILY EXIT-ROUTE INSPECTION LOG — SIGNED BEFORE THE FIRST CHILD ARRIVES, EVERY DAY YOU OPEN. This is a third fire-safety record, distinct from the monthly drill and the monthly self-inspection, and it is the one with prescribed fields. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(23): "The licensee shall inspect the home daily, prior to arrival of children, ensuring that escape routes are clear and that exit doors and exit windows are operable. A log of these daily inspections shall be maintained for at least one year, and shall be available for review. The log shall reflect, at minimum, the date and time of each inspection and the full name of the person who conducted it." Three data points are mandatory — date, time, full name — and "full name" means the name, not initials. "Prior to arrival of children" fixes the timing: an entry timestamped after the first drop-off is an entry recording a violation. WHAT "CLEAR AND OPERABLE" MEANS IS DEFINED NEXT DOOR. 2007.8(a)(22) governs escape routes: "(A) All corridors and escape routes from the home shall be kept clear of obstructions. (B) Dead-end paths or corridors within the home shall be a maximum of 20 feet in length. (C) All escape routes from the home shall have operable lighting. The lighting shall be activated during any hours of operation when natural lighting is reduced to a level that prohibits visibility within the escape route. (D) Bathroom doors in areas accessible to day care children shall allow a caregiver to open the door from outside of the bathroom if necessary. (E) All closet doors accessible to children shall be able to be opened from inside of the closet without the use of a key. (F) There shall be no more than 2 releasing devices (door knobs, hand-operated deadbolts, thumb-turn locks, etc.) on any exit door or exit window. (G) Exit doors and exit windows shall be operable without the use of a key, a tool or special knowledge to open for exit to the outside. (H) Exit doors and exit windows shall be kept clear of equipment and debris at all times." Subsection (F) is the one that quietly disqualifies an ordinary Illinois front door: a knob lock, a deadbolt and a chain is three releasing devices, and three is one too many. Fix that before the first inspection, not after. RETENTION AND PRODUCTION: "at least one year," and "available for review" — the log is a produce-on-demand document, not a posted one, and the phrase "available for review" in 2007.8(a)(23) is the same standard as the general records rule at 2007.24(a), "Records as required by this Part shall be maintained and available for review by the Department." WHO CHECKS: Appendix E item 15, "Daily fire safety inspections are done by the caregiver to ensure that escape paths are clear and exit doors and escape windows are operable (see Section 2007.8(a)(23))" — one of the few Appendix E cross-references that is correct. The reviewer is OSFM or an OSFM-trained licensing representative at renewal or annual monitoring. THE PRACTICAL TRAP is backfilling. A log completed in one sitting the night before a monitoring visit is visibly a single sitting — same ink, same spacing, implausible clock times — and it converts a paperwork lapse into a credibility problem under 2007.9(u), "Licensees or applicants shall not provide false or misleading information regarding their compliance with the applicable regulations." Keep the sheet by the door you check and sign it as you go.
• THE DAILY LIST OF CHILDREN IN CARE — ATTENDANCE AS AN EVACUATION TOOL, NOT AS A BILLING RECORD. Illinois does not impose a general attendance-register rule on a day care home the way it does on a centre. What it imposes is a placement rule, at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.12(i): "The daily list of children in care shall be readily accessible in case of emergency evacuations and fire drills." The purpose clause is the whole standard. The list has to be where you can grab it on the way out of the door, which in practice means clipped by the exit you use in drills or carried in the bag that goes out with you — not in a kitchen drawer. Pair it with the drill log: an inspector who sees a drill log with no head-count and an attendance list stored in the office reads that as a plan that has never been executed. THE NUMBER ON THAT LIST IS ITSELF REGULATED. 2007.2 defines "Attendance" as "the total number of children under the age of 12 present at any one time," and 2007.6(c) makes it a licence condition: "The number and age of children under age 12 cared for in the day care home at any one time shall be in compliance with provision in Section 2007.13. Increases in the license capacity or the ages of children served shall be with written approval of the supervising agency." Your own and adopted children under twelve count. The list you carry out of a burning house is therefore also the document that proves or disproves your compliance with capacity, which is why it is worth writing accurately rather than approximately. A NARROW EXCEPTION CREATES ITS OWN RECORD. 2007.13(g): "In the event of a brief unforeseen school closing, the caregiver may accept one additional school-age child and still be considered in compliance with the capacity requirements, as long as the total number of children under age 12 in the home does not exceed the maximum of 12 children. The caregiver shall maintain a record of the dates, names and ages of the children for whom this care was provided." A snow day is the one time you may go one over, and the price of the exception is a separate written record of dates, names and ages. Keep it with the attendance sheets; it is the first thing asked about if a monitoring visit lands on a day you are one child high. RELEASE LISTS ARE THE COMPANION DOCUMENT. 2007.12(f): "The facility shall maintain a list of persons designated, in writing, by the parents, or guardian to whom the facility can be expected to discharge the child at least once per week... In addition, the facility shall maintain a contingency list of persons, designated in writing by the parents, to whom the child may be released less frequently than once per week. When the child is released to a person on the contingency list, the facility shall maintain a record of the person to whom the child was released, the date and time that the child was released, and the manner that the child left the facility (whether on foot, by passenger car, by taxicab, or by other means of transportation)." Two lists, and a per-event log for the second one, including the mode of transport. 2007.12(e) supplies the identity check: persons not known to the caregiver "shall be required to provide a driver's license (with photo) or photo identification card issued by the Illinois Secretary of State to establish their identity prior to a child's release to them." None of this is posted. All of it is produced on demand under 2007.24(a).
• THE VIOLATIONS LIST AND CORRECTIVE PLAN — THE POSTING NOBODY BUDGETS FOR, BECAUSE IT ONLY APPEARS WHEN YOU FAIL. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(g), verbatim: "When the licensed day care home is cited for one or more substantiated violations of licensing standards by the supervising agency, the caregiver shall prominently display in the home the list of violations and the corrective plan, on a form provided by the supervising agency. The caregiver shall keep the form posted until a licensing representative has verified in writing that every violation on that form has been corrected." Read the last clause slowly. The posting does not come down when you fix the problem. It comes down when a licensing representative has verified IN WRITING that every violation on that form has been corrected — every one, not most, and the verification is a document you should keep, because it is your authority for removing the notice. Providers take the form down after the repair and are cited a second time for removing it. THE STANDARD IS "SUBSTANTIATED," AND THE POSTER IS "THE SUPERVISING AGENCY." "Supervising agency" is defined at 2007.2 as "a licensed child welfare agency, a licensed day care agency, or the Department," which in much of Illinois means a delegate agency rather than the State: the entity that cites you also supplies the form and also, through its licensing representative, signs the release. "Licensing representative" is defined as "a person authorized by the Department under Section 5 of the Child Care Act of 1969 to examine facilities for licensure" — a definition worth noticing, because 225 ILCS 10/5(a) now opens "This Section does not apply to any early care and education center, early care and education home, or group early care and education home," so the rule's definition points at a statutory section that has been amended to exclude your facility type. The authority to inspect survives elsewhere; the internal pointer is stale, and it is one of several places where Part 2007 still speaks the pre-transfer language. DISPLAY LOCATION: "prominently display in the home," the same formula as the licence at 2007.6(i), and in practice the same wall. The purpose is parental notice, so a corrective-action form facing the inside of a cupboard is not displayed. Expect it to sit beside the licence and the radon report. WHAT ELSE THE SAME VISIT PRODUCES. 2007.4(c) entitles you to the underlying document: "The applicant shall receive a copy of the results of the on-site compliance review upon request." Ask for it every time; the posted form is a summary and the review is the evidence. And note the reporting duties that run in the other direction, because a home that hides an incident and is later cited will find the citation posted on its own wall: 2007.24(n) requires the supervising agency to be "notified immediately by telephone, and in writing within one week" of an "Accident or injury resulting in death or requiring emergency medical care," a child "missing from the day care home," or "Notice is received of legal action against the facility"; 2007.24(p) requires the same immediate telephone-plus-one-week-in-writing notice "of fires or other incidents resulting in structural damage to the day care home," after which "A supervisory visit will be conducted by the supervising agency to determine the safety of the licensed premises."
• IMMUNISATION AND HEALTH RECORDS — ON FILE THE FIRST DAY, VALID TWO YEARS, AND CONFIDENTIAL RATHER THAN POSTED. Illinois does not put child health information on a wall. It puts it in a file with a hard deadline. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.14(c): "A medical report, on forms prescribed by the Department, shall be on file for each child, on the first day of care, and shall be dated no earlier than 6 months prior to enrollment." Not within thirty days of enrolment — on the first day of care, on the Department's form, and no older than six months. 2007.14(c)(1): "The medical report shall be valid for 2 years, except that subsequent examinations for school-age children shall be in accordance with the requirements of Section 27-8.1 of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/27-8.1] provided copies of the exam are on file at the facility." THE IMMUNISATION LIST IS ENUMERATED, AND YOU SHOULD CHECK REPORTS AGAINST IT RATHER THAN TRUSTING THE FORM. 2007.14(c)(4): "The report shall indicate that the child has been immunized as required by the rules of the Illinois Department of Public Health for immunizations (77 Ill. Adm. Code 695). These required immunizations are poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenza B, and varicella (chickenpox) or provide proof of immunity according to requirements in Part 695.50 of the Department of Public Health." Section 2007.24(d)(3) repeats the list in the records section. Two screens apply on top: 2007.14(c)(2) requires, for a child in a high-risk group, "a tuberculin skin test by the Mantoux method and the results of that test... for all children who have attained one year of age"; and 2007.14(c)(3) requires that "The initial examination shall show that children from 6 months through 6 years of age have been screened for lead poisoning" in a high-risk area, "or that a lead risk assessment has been completed" in a low-risk area, under 77 Ill. Adm. Code 845. WAIVERS ARE WRITTEN AND THEY LIVE IN THE CHILD'S RECORD. 2007.14(c)(5) and, in identical terms, 2007.24(h): "In accordance with the Child Care Act of 1969, a parent may request that immunizations, physical examinations, and/or medical treatment be waived on religious grounds. A request for such waiver shall be in writing, signed by the parent, and kept in the child's record." A medical exemption goes on the form itself under 2007.14(c)(6): exceptions "shall be so indicated by the physician on the child's medical form." THE ADULTS HAVE FILES TOO, ON A DIFFERENT CLOCK. 2007.24(i) requires "Members of the household, regular substitutes, and assistants" to have a complete physical examination on Department forms, "with a tuberculin test to be included in the initial exam only. If the skin test is positive, a chest x-ray is required." 2007.24(j): "The medical report for caregivers, regular substitutes, and assistants shall be valid for 3 years" — three, against two for children. WHY NONE OF IT IS POSTED: 2007.25(b) makes information about "the admission, progress, health, or discharge of an individual child" confidential and "limited to authorized representatives of the supervising agency, the Department, caregivers and assistants unless the parent(s) of the child has granted written permission," and 2007.25(b)(1) requires signed release forms, "on file at the facility prior to release of information." Posting a child's immunisation status would breach the very Part that requires you to collect it.
• ABUSE REPORTING AND THE HOTLINE — A DISTRIBUTION DUTY AND A SIGNATURE DUTY, NOT A PLACARD. The number is in the rule and providers assume it goes on the wall. It does not. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(l): "Suspected child abuse and/or neglect shall be reported immediately to the Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline as required by the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. The telephone number for the reporting hotline is 1-800-252-2873." That is a duty to report with the number attached; there is no verb of display anywhere in it, and a search of Part 2007 for posting language returns the licence, the permit, the radon report, the lead-in-water results, the emergency telephone numbers, the "no firearms" sign and the corrective-action form — and nothing about the hotline. What Illinois requires instead are two documents with signatures on them. FIRST, THE MANDATED-REPORTER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 2007.24(m): "The licensee and each staff person shall sign a statement prescribed by the Department acknowledging his or her status as a mandated reporter of child abuse or neglect under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act and acknowledging he or she has knowledge and understanding of the reporting requirements under that Act. The statement shall be signed and dated by the staff person prior to employment, and shall be maintained by the licensee." Prior to employment — an assistant who starts on Monday and signs on Friday has generated a finding. The training behind it is an application item: 2007.4(b)(2)(E) lists "Department approved Mandated Reporter Training for all licensees and assistants, regardless of the age of children in care" among the pre-service topics completed "not more than one year prior to the application date." SECOND, THE CONSUMER MATERIALS AND THE PARENT'S SIGNATURE. 2007.24(f) carries most of what other states achieve with posters: "The caregiver shall distribute a summary of the licensing standards, provided by the Department, to the parents or guardian of each child at the time that the child is accepted for care in the home. In addition, consumer information materials provided by the Department, including, but not limited to, information on reporting and prevention of child abuse and neglect and preventing and reporting communicable disease, shall be distributed... when designated for such distribution by the Department. Each child's record shall contain a statement signed by the child's parents or guardian, indicating that they have received a summary of licensing standards and other materials designated by the Department for such distribution." Three obligations: hand over the standards summary at acceptance; hand over the Department's abuse-and-neglect and communicable-disease materials when designated; and keep, in each child's file, a signed acknowledgement that both were received. The signed statement is the item an inspector pulls, because it is the only proof the other two happened. TWO MORE SIGNED POLICIES BELONG IN THE SAME FOLDER. 2007.12(h) requires "a written policy that explains the actions the provider will take if a parent does not retrieve... his or her child at the designated, agreed upon time," in "the form of a written agreement that shall be signed by the parent." And 2007.12(j) requires homes serving infants, toddlers or preschool children to "maintain, and notify parents of, written behavior support and transition policies, in compliance with 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2050.320 (Behavior Support Plans)."
• WHAT ILLINOIS DOES NOT MAKE YOU POST — THE POSTER PACK YOU SHOULD NOT BUY. Five wall items that appear in almost every commercial "family child care compliance kit" are requirements of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008, which governs DAY CARE CENTERS, and have no counterpart anywhere in Part 2007, which governs your home. First, THE POSTED MENU. 2008.330(g) requires centres to plan menus "at least one week in advance" and to keep corrected menus "on file and available for review for one year after the meals were served"; 2008.330(g)(1) then requires that "Menus shall be posted in the kitchen, the classroom or other area accessible to parents, and made available to parents upon request." Part 2007's nutrition section, 2007.17, runs to twelve subsections on portions, choking foods, milk and mealtime atmosphere, and never once requires a menu to be written down, let alone posted or retained. The only menu language in the home rule is advisory: 2007.17(l)(3), "Information provided by parents concerning the child's eating habits, food preferences, or special needs should be considered in planning menus" — "should," not "shall." Second, THE POSTED DAILY SCHEDULE. 2008.200(d): "The facility shall provide a basic program of activities geared to the age levels and developmental needs of the children served. The daily program shall be posted in the facility." The home equivalent, 2007.16(b), requires only that "The daily activities shall be well-balanced and geared to the needs of the children served." No posting. Even the group day care home rule, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009, drops the clause — it says "The daily program shall provide" without "be posted." Third, THE CHOKE-SAVING POSTER. 2008.100(i): "Any center that serves food shall have posted in a conspicuous location visible to employees the Choke Saving Methods Poster available from the Illinois Department of Public Health." Part 2007 does not require it. Fourth, THE FLOOR PLAN IN EVERY ROOM. 2008.370(f)(1) requires centres to post a floor plan in every room showing tornado-stable areas and "The primary and secondary exit routes in case of fire." A home must have a written emergency preparedness plan under 2007.8(a)(19) but is never told to hang a diagram. Fifth, EMERGENCY NUMBERS BY EACH TELEPHONE. 2008.370(t)(2) requires a centre to post fire, police, poison control and emergency medical numbers "along with the full address of the day care center... next to each telephone," and 2008.380 adds "The telephone number for Poison Control shall be posted at each telephone." The home standard, 2007.8(a)(16), asks only for "an area that is readily available in an emergency" — one location, functionally judged. THE PRACTICAL POINT. An Illinois day care home must display exactly six things: the licence (2007.6(i)) or current permit (2007.7(f)); the most recent radon report with the statutory statement next to the licence (2007.8(a)(29), 225 ILCS 10/5.8(c)-(d)); all lead-in-water results whatever the number (2007.8(f)(1)); emergency telephone numbers including Poison Control (2007.8(a)(16)); the 4-by-6-inch "no firearms" sign where parents pick up children (2007.8(a)(17), 430 ILCS 66/65(d)); and, only if cited, the violations list and corrective plan (2007.24(g)). Everything else is a record you keep and produce, not a sheet you laminate. If a vendor's kit contains menus, schedules, a choke poster, room floor plans or a hotline placard, you are buying a centre's wall for a home's licence.
• WHO CHECKS, WHEN THEY COME, AND WHY "CLOSED TODAY" IS NOT A DEFENCE. Two short sentences govern access. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.26(a): "Authorized representatives of the supervising agency or the Department shall be admitted to the facility during the facility's hours of operation for the purpose of determining compliance with the Child Care Act of 1969 and standards set forth in this Part." 2007.26(b): "Licensed providers are subject to periodic monitoring as long as the license is valid, whether or not child care is actually being provided." The second surprises people: holding the licence, not enrolling children, is what makes you monitorable. The statute behind it is 225 ILCS 10/5(g): "During the hours of operation of any licensed early care and education provider's location, authorized representatives of the Department may without notice visit the provider's location for the purpose of determining its continuing compliance with this Act or regulations adopted pursuant thereto." Without notice. Your postings and logs are judged in their ordinary state, not the state you can produce given a day's warning. WHO THE PERSON AT THE DOOR IS. 2007.2 defines "Authorized representative of the Department" as "the licensing representative or any person acting on behalf of the Director of the Department," and "Licensing representative" as "a person authorized by the Department under Section 5 of the Child Care Act of 1969." Note the stale pointer: 225 ILCS 10/5(a), as amended by P.A. 103-594 and P.A. 104-480 both effective 1 July 2026, now begins "This Section does not apply to any early care and education center, early care and education home, or group early care and education home." The rule defines your inspector by reference to a statutory section amended to exclude your facility type — a recodification artefact, not a licence to refuse entry. "Supervising agency" is defined as "a licensed child welfare agency, a licensed day care agency, or the Department," so in much of Illinois your licensing representative works for a delegate agency and your file sits at a local licensing office. THE FIRE-SAFETY CHECK HAS A SECOND INSPECTOR. 2007.4(d)(1) requires the Department to "request the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to perform a fire safety inspection of homes when an initial application is being considered for licensure and when care will be provided on other than ground level and for homes in multi-housing units"; 2007.4(d)(2) allows "single floor homes, at ground level with no unusual or complex code considerations" to be inspected against Appendix E "by a licensing representative trained by OSFM"; and 2007.4(d)(3) is the gate: "Prior to the Department issuance of a permit or a license, the day care home shall have written approval by OSFM or staff trained by OSFM, indicating the home meets fire safety requirements." At renewal and annual monitoring the same Appendix E list is worked through, items 12 to 18 being the "Operating Requirements" block covering your written plan, drills, monthly self-inspections and daily exit log. THE OTHER ENFORCEMENT LEVER IS LOCAL. 2007.4(e): "Licensed day care homes that fail to comply with all applicable local, municipal and State regulations may be prohibited from operating." A municipal occupancy or zoning problem is not outside your licence; it is a ground for being shut. And 2007.24(q) requires written notice to the supervising agency within one week of any change in household composition.

Enrollment forms for each child

• CFS 597, APPLICATION FOR CHILD CARE FACILITY LICENSE, REV 3/2020 — AND IT HAS NO BOX FOR YOUR KIND OF HOME. This is the only licence application form Illinois publishes for a licensed facility, and as served today it is still headed "State of Illinois / Department of Children and Family Services" even though 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 was emptied and recodified as 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 under the Department of Early Childhood effective 1 July 2026. The rule that obliges you to file it does not name it: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(a) says only that "a complete application shall be filed with the Department by the supervising agency on forms prescribed and provided by the Department", and 2007.4(b)(1)(A) requires "a completed, signed and dated Application for Home License" — a title that appears on no form in either published Illinois index. Open the CFS 597 and look at the row headed "APPLICANTS CHECK THE TYPE OF LICENSE FOR WHICH YOU ARE APPLYING (CHECK ONE ONLY)". The eight boxes are Child Care Institution, Child Welfare Agency, Day Care Center (DCC), Emergency Day Care Program (EDC), Day Care Agency, Maternity Center, Group Home, Youth Emergency Shelter. There is no Day Care Home box and no Group Day Care Home box. The word "home" appears on the face of the form exactly once, in "Group Home", which is a child welfare group home under 225 ILCS 10/2.16, not your residence. Do not tick "Group Home" because it contains the word; do not tick "Day Care Agency", which is the now-repealed supervising-agency category. Ask your licensing representative in writing which box to mark and keep the answer. The instructions on the reverse compound the problem: "Renewal of License — Check only when applicant is currently licensed for this facility-type in Illinois and wishes that license to be renewed FOR TWO YEARS." Two years is wrong for you. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(b) says "A day care home license is valid for 3 years", and 225 ILCS 10/5.01(d) says licences for early care and education homes "shall be valid for 3 years from the date issued". Who signs: the header says "Complete in duplicate. Retain one copy for your file", and the signature block is the applicant personally — "If the facility is a sole ownership, the owner must sign and enter the title. If the facility is jointly owned or a partnership, all owners/partners must sign." Joint licensees under 2007.6(a) must be related and both must live in the family home, so both sign. What you are signing is a criminal certification: "Are aware that to operate a child care facility without a license or permit constitutes a Class A misdemeanor" and "I(WE) understand that making materially false statements in order to obtain a license or permit constitutes a Class A misdemeanor". 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(u) restates it as a licensing ground: "Licensees or applicants shall not provide false or misleading information regarding their compliance with the applicable regulations." Timing: a renewal application must be "signed by the licensees and submitted to the supervising agency at least 3 months prior to expiration of the current license, in order to be considered timely and sufficient" (2007.5(b)); a change of name, location or supervising agency needs a fresh signed application 30 days before the change (2007.5(c)); a move without a completed application within 14 days forces a wholly new application (2007.4(f)(1)(B)). There is no fee — 2007.6(j), "There shall be no fee or charge for the license."
• CFS 718-B-DC, AUTHORIZATION FOR BACKGROUND CHECK FOR DAY CARE, REV 5/2023 — ONE PER HUMAN BEING AGE 13 AND OVER, THREE SIGNATURES EACH. This is the form 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(C) means when it demands "completed, signed and dated authorizations to conduct the background check for the applicants, each employee or person used to replace or supplement staff, and each member of the household age 13 and over". Its instruction page is unambiguous: "This form must be completed by every person age 13 or older as part of an application to operate or reside in a day care home or group day care home, and all employees/volunteers at a day care facility regardless of age." The statutory hook is 225 ILCS 10/4.1, which after Public Act 103-594 requires "The Department of Children and Family Services or the Department of Early Childhood" to make every applicant, employee and volunteer authorise an investigation, and adds that "An employee or volunteer of a day care center, day care home, or group day care home shall authorize an investigation every 5 years, as required under the Child Care and Development Block Grant"; 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010.10(f) repeats it — "The comprehensive criminal background check is to be completed at least every five years except for interstate checks. Background checks shall be completed in 45 days or less." The form is four pages and you sign three of them. Page 1 carries the identifying block and the two disclosure questions — "Have you ever been indicated as a perpetrator in a child abuse/neglect investigation?" and "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense, other than a minor traffic violation?" — plus a "Parent/Guardian Signature (if applicable)" line, because a household member aged 13 to 17 cannot authorise their own check; 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010.10(a)(2) says "Parent or guardian authorization is required for any individual under the age of 18." Page 3 is the NOTICE OF PROBATIONARY EMPLOYMENT STATUS, signed separately: "A probationary employee or volunteer shall not be left alone with any child served by the licensed facility until notified by the employer that a full comprehensive background check clearance has been received", which is the same rule as 2007.9(b). Page 4 carries the ISP/FBI Privacy Act Statement and the AUTHORIZATION/CERTIFICATION, each with its own signature line. Two traps cost applicants weeks. First, the form dies without a number: "THIS FORM WILL NOT BE PROCESSED WITHOUT A COMPLETE SOCIAL SECURITY, INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYER IDENTIFICATION (ITIN) NUMBER OR DEPARTMENT ASSIGNED NUMBER." Second, you cannot mail it in yourself — Section 4 is reserved "TO BE COMPLETED BY SUPERVISING AGENCY" and states "This authorization will not be processed without completion of this section", including the fingerprint date; the licensing worker "must check the form for completeness and accuracy, confirm that the person has been fingerprinted, if applicable, and verify the correct spelling of names alongside a form of identification". Household members 13 through 17 who are not employees are not fingerprinted (2010.10(a)) but are still searched against the State Central Register, the Illinois Sex Offender Registry, the National Sex Offender Public Website and every out-of-State registry for five years. The form tells you that you may keep a copy: "Individuals authorizing background checks have a right to receive a copy of this form." Keep it — it is your only proof of when the clock started.
• CFS 718-3, BACKGROUND CHECK ROSTER, 11/2002 — THE COVER SHEET THAT PROVES YOU DID NOT LEAVE ANYONE OUT. The roster is the companion to the individual authorisations and it is the instrument by which the file is audited against your household. It is printed bilingually, English and Spanish in parallel columns, and its two directions are the whole point: "1. List all persons subject to a background check (13 years of age or older). 2. Attach a completed/signed Authorization for Background Check form for any person who has not previously undergone a background check." The columns are NAME (Print Last Name First), AGE, ROLE and SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, and the role codes printed at the foot of the form are Licensee (L), Employee (E), Substitute (S), Household Member (HM), Assistant (A), and Foster Child for dually licensed homes (FC). That last code matters more than it looks: if you hold a foster family home licence under 89 Ill. Adm. Code 402 as well as a day care home licence under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, the foster children in your home are listed here too. The roster is signed by the Licensing Representative, not by you — the only signature line reads "Licensing Representative / Representante de licenciamiento (Print Name / Nombre en letra de imprenta)" — so it is your representative's certification that the household you disclosed matches the authorisations attached. What makes the roster a live obligation rather than an application artefact is the duty to keep it true. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(q) provides that "The licensee shall notify the supervising agency within one week, in writing, of any changes to the household composition. Changes that require notification include the addition of any new person into the home, the return of any former household member, or the departure of any household member." An adult child who moves back in, a partner who moves in, a relative who arrives for a long stay — each is a new line on the roster and a new CFS 718-B-DC, and a household member who turns 13 becomes newly checkable. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.9(a) is the sanction: "No individual may receive a license from the Department when the applicant, a member of the household age 13 and over, or any individual who has access to the children cared for in a day care home, or any employee of the day care home, has not authorized the background check required by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 (Background Checks) and been cleared in accordance with the requirements of Part 2010." Two further rules attach to the roster and cost licences. 2007.9(d): failure to appear for scheduled fingerprinting "may result in the denial of a license application or refusal to renew or revocation of an existing license" unless you show adequate cause — the rule lists only death in the family, serious illness of the person or in their immediate family, and weather or transportation emergencies. A reluctant adult in your house is not adequate cause. Note also that the Department publishes CFS 718-L, "Request for Updated Background Check for a Licensed Provider" (Rev 07/2018), but read its face before you reach for it: it is addressed "TO: Central Office of Licensing", is filled in by a Department or agency employee, and its only purposes are the two printed check boxes, "Adoption" and "Subsidized Guardianship". It is not the day care refresh instrument; the five-year re-authorisation is another CFS 718-B-DC.
• CFS 560, CHILD SUPPORT CERTIFICATION, REV. 7/2013 — AND THE OFFICIAL INDEX LINKS YOU TO THE SPANISH ONE. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(D) requires that a complete application include "a completed, signed and dated Child Support Certification form", and 2007.9(e) states the substance in statutory language: "As a condition of licensure, each licensee or license applicant must certify under penalty of perjury that he or she is current or not more than 30 days delinquent in complying with a child support order. Failure to so certify may result in a denial of the license application, refusal to renew the license, or revocation of the license" (Section 10-65(c) of the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act [5 ILCS 100/10-65(c)]). The form is a single page. It asks for Facility Name, Applicant's Name, Street Address, City/State/Zip and Phone, then presents the certification verbatim: "I hereby certify, under penalty of perjury, that (check one): 'I am not subject to a child support order.' 'I am not more than 30 days delinquent in complying with a child support order.' 'I am more than 30 days delinquent in complying with a child support order.'" Below that: "All license holders and all license applicants must complete this form. Failure to certify may result in denial of a license application, an application for license renewal, refusal to renew the license, or revocation of the license. Making a false statement on this form may subject the licensee or applicant to contempt of court [5 ILCS 100/10-65(c)]. This form shall be recertified prior to the issuance of a new license." Read that last sentence as your renewal calendar: the certification is not a once-in-a-lifetime filing, it is re-signed every three years with the renewal application. The applicant signs and dates; a footer block "To be completed by Licensing Worker" captures Provider ID#, Licensing Worker ID# and name, so the form travels to the supervising agency and lives in the Department's file, not merely in yours. Here is the live trap, verified on 26 August 2026. The Department's Sunshine site page "Commonly used provider forms" lists the item as "CFS 560 Child Support Certificate", but the link behind it resolves to cfs-560-s-child-support-certification-spanish-fillable.pdf — the Spanish edition, CFS 560/S, headed "Departamento de Servicios para Niños y Familias del Estado de Illinois / Certificación de Sustento a un Niño". The English CFS 560 exists and is correctly linked from the Department's master forms index at cfs-560-child-support-certification-fillable.pdf. If you download from the day care forms page and file the Spanish form in an English packet, expect it back. Note also what the third check box does not do. Ticking "I am more than 30 days delinquent" is not automatically fatal, but it triggers 2007.9(f): where the applicant acknowledges delinquency, or is found delinquent on the background check despite certifying otherwise, "the Department shall deny the application for license, refuse to renew the license, or revoke the license UNLESS the licensees or license applicants arrange for payment of past due and current child support and pay child support in accordance with that agreement." The escape route is a payment agreement actually being honoured, arranged before the file is decided — not after.
• CFS 602, MEDICAL REPORT ON AN ADULT IN A CHILD CARE FACILITY, REV. 03/2016 — ONE FOR YOU, ONE FOR EVERY ADULT UNDER YOUR ROOF. Its own subtitle states the reach: "(Includes employees and volunteers in DCFS licensed child care facilities, operators of day care/group day care homes and other adult members of their households)". The rule requiring it is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(i): "Members of the household, regular substitutes, and assistants shall have a complete physical examination. The medical reports shall be submitted on forms provided by the Department." Section 2007.9(m) applies the same duty to you and everyone living with you — caregivers and all household members must show "they are free of reportable communicable disease, and, in the case of caregivers, free of physical or mental conditions that could interfere with the child care responsibilities" — and 2007.10(e) repeats it for assistants. The form's "Position (check one)" block opens with "Day Care/Group Day Care Home Caregiver" and includes "Member of Household", "Food Handler" and "Child Care Facility Driver". Section I records the "Tuberculin test (by the Mantoux method or chest X-ray in a positive reactor)", footnoted "* Required in initial examination only. Physician to determine need for test in subsequent examinations" — which is exactly what 2007.24(i)(1) says: "The report shall be based on an examination that occurred no earlier than 6 months prior to application, with a tuberculin test to be included in the initial exam only. If the skin test is positive, a chest x-ray is required." Section II is the vaccine block that catches people who assume adult immunisation is voluntary: "If this individual is employed in a child care facility that cares for children age 6 and under, please check two of the following: This individual has received: 1 dose of the Tdap vaccine / 2 doses of the MMR vaccine or is immune to MMR." That is 225 ILCS 10/4.6 in form language — "No person may be employed by a child care facility that cares for children ages 6 and under unless that person shows proof of having received: (i) one dose of the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine; and (ii) 2 doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine or shows proof of immunity to MMR." Section III is signed by the examining physician and must carry an affirmative finding: "The above individual was found free from symptoms of communicable disease and is otherwise medically and emotionally fit to work, volunteer or reside in a facility caring for children. Yes / No", plus a strength-and-mobility opinion by age band (0-2, 2-6, 7-12, 12-18). Check the age bands against the ages on your licence: an examiner who ticks only 7-12 has just capped you. Dates that matter: the examination must be no earlier than six months before application (2007.24(i)(1)); the report "shall be valid for 3 years" (2007.24(j)), so it renews on the same cycle as your licence; and no permit can issue until "Medical reports as required in Section 2007.24(i) have been received by the Department for all caregivers and assistants" (2007.7(a)(3)). The form is not merely retained — it is submitted. It also never fully closes: 2007.24(k) provides that "Evidence of freedom from communicable disease or illness may be required at any time for members of the household, regular substitutes and assistants", and the form carries six pre-printed REEXAMINATIONS blocks for exactly that.
• CFS 600, CERTIFICATE OF CHILD HEALTH EXAMINATION, REV 11/2013 — THE SCHOOL FORM, REBADGED, DUE ON DAY ONE. Two rules command it and they are not identical, so read both. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.14(c): "A medical report, on forms prescribed by the Department, shall be on file for each child, on the first day of care, and shall be dated no earlier than 6 months prior to enrollment." 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(d) adds who may sign it: "the examining physician, an advanced practice nurse who has a written collaborative agreement with a collaborating physician that authorizes the advance practice nurse to perform health examinations, or a physician assistant who has been delegated the performance of health examinations by the supervising physician; or certified by a recognized health facility." The published form is the Illinois school health certificate — its foot bears the State printing number IL444-4737 (R-01-12) — reissued with a corner flag reading "FOR USE IN DCFS LICENSED CHILD CARE FACILITIES / CFS 600 / Rev 11/2013". That lineage explains the school vocabulary all over it ("NEEDS/MODIFICATIONS required in the school setting", "INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORTS") and the carve-out "DIABETES SCREENING (NOT REQUIRED FOR DAY CARE)". Side one is the immunisation grid; side two is the health history and physical examination. The health history is not the doctor's to fill in — the form says "HEALTH HISTORY: TO BE COMPLETED AND SIGNED BY PARENT/GUARDIAN AND VERIFIED BY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER", and it carries its own parent signature and date line. So a CFS 600 with only a physician's signature is an incomplete CFS 600. Three screenings are built into the initial examination and each is a rule in its own right. Lead: "LEAD RISK QUESTIONNAIRE Required for children age 6 months through 6 years enrolled in licensed or public school operated day care, preschool, nursery school and/or kindergarten ... (Blood test required if resides in Chicago.)" — matching 2007.14(c)(3) and 2007.12(b)(2), which bars admission of a child under 6 unless the examination is complete "with lead risk assessment" (low-risk area) or "a screening for lead poisoning" (high-risk area, see 77 Ill. Adm. Code 845). Tuberculosis: the form's TB block is "Recommended only for children in high-risk groups"; 2007.14(c)(2) makes it mandatory where the examining physician places the child in a high-risk group, "a tuberculin skin test by the Mantoux method and the results of that test shall be included in the initial examination for all children who have attained one year of age", repeated on entry to elementary and secondary school. Physical limitations: 2007.24(d)(4) requires that "The report shall include a statement on any physical limitations." Validity: "The medical report shall be valid for 2 years, except that subsequent examinations for school-age children shall be in accordance with the requirements of Section 27-8.1 of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/27-8.1] provided copies of the exam are on file at the facility" (2007.14(c)(1)). 77 Ill. Adm. Code 665.150 is blunt about substitutes: "The required form is the Certificate of Child Health Examination provided by the Department", and "A statement by a physician or other health care provider indicating only that an examination was conducted is not acceptable." Keep the original in the child's file at the home; it is a record under 2007.24(a), confidential under 2007.25.
• THE IMMUNIZATION RECORD AND THE RELIGIOUS WAIVER — ONE IS A GRID ON A FORM, THE OTHER IS A LETTER NOBODY PRINTS FOR YOU. Illinois does not publish a standalone immunisation card for day care homes. The record lives on side one of the CFS 600, Certificate of Child Health Examination, whose instruction reads "IMMUNIZATIONS: To be completed by health care provider. Note the mo/da/yr for every dose administered. The day and month is required if you cannot determine if the vaccine was given after the minimum interval or age. If a specific vaccine is medically contraindicated, a separate written statement must be attached explaining the medical reason for the contraindication." The grid runs DTP or DTaP; Tdap, Td or Pediatric DT; Polio (IPV or OPV, type checked); Hib; Hepatitis B; Varicella; MMR; single-antigen measles, rubella and mumps; pneumococcal conjugate; and an "Other/Specify" row. The rule behind it, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.14(c)(4), lists the mandatory diseases in its own words: "The report shall indicate that the child has been immunized as required by the rules of the Illinois Department of Public Health for immunizations (77 Ill. Adm. Code 695). These required immunizations are poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenza B, and varicella (chickenpox) or provide proof of immunity according to requirements in Part 695.50 of the Department of Public Health." 2007.24(d)(3) repeats the list, so an incomplete grid fails twice at a monitoring visit. Under ALTERNATIVE PROOF OF IMMUNITY the form gives three routes without a dose date: clinical diagnosis verified by a physician (footnoted "All measles cases diagnosed on or after July 1, 2002, must be confirmed by laboratory evidence"), a verified history of varicella disease, or laboratory confirmation with the result attached. A separate line under the grid reads: "Health care provider (MD, DO, APN, PA, school health professional, health official) verifying above immunization history must sign below. If adding dates ... put your initials by date(s) and sign here." A provider who transcribes a parent's card without initialling has produced an unverified record. The exemptions are where applicants go wrong, because Illinois prescribes no form for either one. Medical: 2007.14(c)(6) says only that "Exceptions made for children who for medical reasons should not be subjected to immunizations or tuberculin tests shall be so indicated by the physician on the child's medical form" — the exemption is written on the CFS 600 itself by the examining physician, not on a separate certificate. Religious: 2007.14(c)(5) and, in identical terms, 2007.24(h), provide that "In accordance with the Child Care Act of 1969, a parent may request that immunizations, physical examinations, and/or medical treatment be waived on religious grounds. A request for such waiver shall be in writing, signed by the parent, and kept in the child's record." Note what that text does and does not require: a writing, a parent signature, retention in the child's record — and no physician signature, no notarisation, and no Department form. Do not import the Illinois school "Certificate of Religious Exemption" used under the School Code; it is not the instrument this rule names. Draft it as a dated letter naming the child and what is waived, have the parent sign, and file it behind the CFS 600 so the blank grid is explained on its face.
• CFS 428, APPLICATION/RECORD OF CHILD INFORMATION, REV. 4/2001 — THE ENROLMENT RECORD, AND IT IS SIGNED BY BOTH OF YOU. This is the identifying record 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(c) demands: "There shall be a record of identifying information as required in Section 2007.12(b)(3) on each child received at the time the child is accepted into the home." Not within a week of acceptance — at the time. The form's fields are the emergency architecture of your home: Name of Child, Birthdate, Sex, Address, Date Child Received and Date Child Left; then, for up to two adults, PARENT OR OTHER PERSON(S) PLACING THE CHILD with relation, home address, phone, place of employment, employer address and phone, and working hours; then OTHER PERSON TO NOTIFY IF PERSON PLACING THE CHILD CANNOT BE REACHED with name, address, phone and relationship; then PHYSICIAN TO CALL IF CHILD BECOMES ILL OR INJURED with name, address, phone and hospital or clinic; and a PROGRAM block for days per week, hours of care and rate of pay (optional). The signature line is the part providers skip: "Signature of parent or other person placing child / Signature of caregiver / Date". You sign it too; an unsigned CFS 428 is a note, not a record. The physician and hospital fields are not decoration. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.14(j) requires an emergency plan for each child and specifies its contents: "The caregiver shall have available at all times the name, address, and telephone number where the child's parents or guardian, relative, friend, or physician, and the Department can be reached", and "There shall be a planned source of readily available emergency medical care: a hospital emergency medical room, clinic, or the child's physician." The two employment blocks, which look intrusive, are what let you comply with 2007.12(a): a child may not remain more than 12 hours in any 24-hour period "unless the parent's employment schedule requires more than 12 hours of day care", with an absolute ceiling of 18 consecutive hours. Two documents sit alongside the CFS 428 and neither is on the form. First, proof of identity and age. 2007.12(b)(3) requires that "the parent provide a certified copy of the child's birth certificate", that you "provide a written notice to the parent of a child to be enrolled for the first time that within 30 days after enrollment the parent shall provide a certified copy of the child's birth certificate or other reliable proof of identity and age of the child", that you "promptly make a copy of the certified copy and return the original certified copy to the parent", and that the notice also state "that the caregiver is required by law to notify the Illinois State Police or local law enforcement agency if the parent fails to submit proof of the child's identity within the 30 day time frame". If the deadline passes you must notify the Illinois State Police or local law enforcement and "notify the parent in writing that the Illinois State Police or local law enforcement has been notified as required by law and that the parent has 10 additional days to comply" [325 ILCS 50/5]. Second, the late-pick-up agreement: 2007.12(h) requires a written policy "in the form of a written agreement that shall be signed by the parent", stating late fees and when they accrue, how hard you will try to reach emergency contacts, and how long you will keep the child before calling the child abuse hotline or police. File both behind the CFS 428; the whole record is confidential under 2007.25.
• CFS 593, CONSENTS TO DAY CARE PROVIDERS, REV 7/2007 — SIX CONSENTS ON ONE SHEET, AND THE RULE ASKS FOR SIX DIFFERENT THINGS. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(e) is a closed list: "There shall be signed consent forms from the parent or guardian including: 1) Permission for emergency medical care and treatment if the parent is not readily available. 2) Permission to administer medication, if applicable. 3) Permission for someone other than parent or guardian to pick up child if necessary. 4) Visits, trips or excursions off the premises. 5) Transportation provided by caregiver and caregiver assistant, if applicable. 6) Permission to use the facility's swimming pool, if applicable." The CFS 593 carries six blocks, each with its own date, parent signature and "Relationship to child" line, so a parent may sign some and not others: EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE ("This authorizes ______ to secure EMERGENCY medical care for my/our child when I/we cannot be immediately reached ... I/we will be responsible for the emergency medical charges upon receipt of the statement", plus a preferred doctor/clinic/hospital line); ADMINISTER PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE; ADMINISTER OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICINE, headed "(Administer only in accord with the appropriate standards for licensure)"; CHILD PICKUP, with three name/address/phone rows and the note "Use additional sheet of paper if more than 3 people are authorized to pick up child"; TRIPS, EXCURSIONS, AND PUBLIC PARK FACILITIES; and SWIMMING. Count carefully: the rule's items 4 and 5 are separate, but the form folds them together. The trips block reads "I/we authorize ______ to take my/our child on walking trips, special excursions, and to nearby public park facilities. I/we also authorize the child to ride as a passenger in the vehicle owned or leased by the above-named person(s)." If you transport children other than on outings — a school run, for instance — that sentence does not cover it, and 2007.24(e)(5) still wants a transportation consent naming the caregiver and any assistant who drives. Add a line, or add a sheet. The form also has a limit printed across the top that people miss: "THESE CONSENTS ARE FOR NON-DCFS WARDS ONLY AND MAY ONLY BE USED FOR DAY CARE SERVICES." A child for whom DCFS is legally responsible is consented for through the guardian's own instruments, not this one. The pickup block is the operationally dangerous one because the rule is stricter than the form. 2007.12(d) and (e): a child is discharged "only to the child's parents or to a person designated in writing by the parents", and "The caregiver shall refuse to release a child to any person, whether related or unrelated to the child, who has not been authorized in writing by the parents ... Persons not known to the caregiver shall be required to provide a driver's license (with photo) or photo identification card issued by the Illinois Secretary of State to establish their identity prior to a child's release to them." 2007.12(f) then demands two lists, not one: a primary list of people to whom the child is released at least weekly, and a contingency list for less frequent releases — and every contingency release must be logged with "the person to whom the child was released, the date and time that the child was released, and the manner that the child left the facility (whether on foot, by passenger car, by taxicab, or by other means of transportation)." Keep the CFS 593 in the child's file; refresh it whenever the named people change.
• CFS 534, MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION LOG, 8/2002 — THE ONLY MEDICATION FORM ILLINOIS PRINTS, AND ITS INSTRUCTIONS ARE ADDRESSED TO SOMEBODY ELSE. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.14(e) sets five duties around medicine and prescribes a form for none of them. The consent: "(3) There shall be a signed statement by the child's parent or guardian giving permission to the caregiver to administer medication to the child" — that is the ADMINISTER PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE and ADMINISTER OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICINE blocks of the CFS 593. The instructions: "Necessary medications shall be administered according to specific written instructions provided by the child's parents or guardians." The labelling: "(1) Prescription medicine labels must bear the child's name, the physician's name, the name of the drug store or pharmacy, prescription number, date of the prescription, and directions for administering. (2) Non-prescription medication may be administered upon written parental permission that specifies the duration and frequency of medication. Such medication shall be administered in accordance with package instructions, and, except for aspirin and aspirin substitutes, shall be labeled with the child's name and dated." A parent permission slip that says "Tylenol as needed" fails, because it specifies neither duration nor frequency. The record: "(4) The caregiver shall maintain a record of the dates, hours and dosages that are given." The disposal: "(5) Medication shall be returned to the parents when it is no longer required. Additionally, medication provided for a child no longer cared for in the facility and medication that has reached its expiration date shall be destroyed." The CFS 534 is the natural instrument for item (4). Its grid captures month, year, child's name and date of birth, physician ordering, name of medication, expiration date, dose, "# of Times Given per/day", a 1-to-31 day strip for initialling each administration, and signature-plus-initials lines so initials trace to a human. Below are MISSED DOSAGES ("Give date, name of medication and reason") and appointments. Read its instruction paragraph before you adopt it, because it is not written for you: "Foster parents who are caring for a child for whom the Department is responsible are required by Rule 402 to keep a log of all medications that are given to the child ... The foster parent is expected to complete this log on a daily basis and submit a copy of it to their caseworker once a month." You are not a foster parent, Rule 402 is not your rule, and there is no caseworker to send it to. Nothing in Part 2007 obliges a day care home to submit a medication log to anyone; 2007.24(a) obliges you to keep it — "Records as required by this Part shall be maintained and available for review by the Department." Use the CFS 534 if the layout suits you, strike the foster-parent instructions, and keep it in the child's file. Two adjacent rules complete the picture. 2007.14(e)(6): "Medical services, such as direct medical care to the child, shall be administered as required by a physician, subject to the receipt of appropriate releases from parents." And 225 ILCS 10/5.11, added for early care and education homes by Public Act 103-594, requires "a plan for anaphylactic shock", to be "shared with parents or guardians upon enrollment", with a child-specific treatment plan "kept by the staff" where one exists — a document Part 2007 has not yet caught up with and for which no form is published.
• CFS 1050-51, SUMMARY OF LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, REV 2/2020 — AND CFS 581, THE RECEIPT BOUND TO ITS LAST PAGE, WHICH NO INDEX LISTS. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(f) makes this the one document every parent must physically receive: "The caregiver shall distribute a summary of the licensing standards, provided by the Department, to the parents or guardian of each child at the time that the child is accepted for care in the home. In addition, consumer information materials provided by the Department, including, but not limited to, information on reporting and prevention of child abuse and neglect and preventing and reporting communicable disease, shall be distributed to the parents or guardian of each child cared for when designated for such distribution by the Department. Each child's record shall contain a statement signed by the child's parents or guardian, indicating that they have received a summary of licensing standards and other materials designated by the Department for such distribution." At the time the child is accepted, not at the first invoice. The instrument for the signed statement is the final page of the booklet, a separate form numbered CFS 581, Rev. 12/2000, titled VERIFICATION OF RECEIPT: "I/WE, ______ parent(s) of ______, hereby certify that I/we have received a copy of a summary of licensing standards printed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services", with two parent signature and date lines and the instruction "THIS COMPLETED FORM IS TO BE PLACED IN EACH CHILD'S FILE AT THE DAY CARE FACILITY." CFS 581 appears on neither published forms index; it exists only as the tear-off page of the CFS 1050-51. Do not photocopy the booklet and forget the last sheet: the signed receipt, not the booklet, is what a representative asks to see. Now the freshness problem, because this booklet is what your parents will read and it is out of date. The copy served today carries a print line "DCFS #294 • Jan 2026 • 5,000 copies" over "CFS 1050-51 • rev 2/2020": printed in January 2026, six months before the transfer of Part 406 to the Department of Early Childhood, and never revised since. Its introduction tells parents that homes "must be licensed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)", that "a DCFS or licensed child welfare agency licensing representative has inspected the facility", that "Licensed day care homes are inspected annually by DCFS or the supervising licensed child welfare agency", and that complaints go "to the local DCFS Licensing Office". Since 1 July 2026 the licensor of a day care home is the Illinois Department of Early Childhood under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 225 ILCS 10/4.01. What the booklet gets right and you should confirm you can meet: "A license is valid for three years" (2007.6(b)); the licence "must be posted" and lists capacity, the areas of the home usable for child care and whether night care is permitted (2007.6(i), (c), (e)); "No day care home operator may care for more than a total of 12 children, including the caregiver's own children under age 12"; and substantiated violations "must be posted in a prominent area of the home until corrected", which is 2007.24(g) — the caregiver posts the list of violations and the corrective plan "on a form provided by the supervising agency" and keeps it up "until a licensing representative has verified in writing that every violation on that form has been corrected."
• CANTS 22, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MANDATED REPORTER STATUS, REV. 5/2019 — SIGNED BEFORE THE FIRST DAY, BY YOU AND BY EVERY STAFF MEMBER. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(m) is the rule and it is precise about sequence: "The licensee and each staff person shall sign a statement prescribed by the Department acknowledging his or her status as a mandated reporter of child abuse or neglect under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act and acknowledging he or she has knowledge and understanding of the reporting requirements under that Act. The statement shall be signed and dated by the staff person PRIOR TO EMPLOYMENT, and shall be maintained by the licensee." Prior to employment means before the assistant's first shift, not at the end of the first week, and "maintained by the licensee" means the signed original stays in your personnel file at the home — this one is not mailed. The prescribed statement is CANTS 22, headed with the Department's Office of the Director address at 406 E. Monroe Street, Springfield. Its operative sentences, which the signer is certifying they understand, read: "I, ______, understand that when I am employed as a ______, I will become a mandated reporter under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act [325 ILCS 5/4]. This means that I am required to report or cause a report to be made to the child abuse and neglect Hotline number at 1-800-25-ABUSE (1-800-252-2873) whenever I have reasonable cause to believe that a child known to me in my professional or official capacity may be abused or neglected." It continues: "I further understand that the privileged quality of communication between me and my patient or client is not grounds for failure to report suspected child abuse or neglect, I know that if I willfully fail to report suspected child abuse or neglect, I may be found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor", and closes "I affirm that I have read this statement and have knowledge and understanding of the reporting requirements, which apply to me under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act", over "Signature of Applicant/Employee" and a date. Fill in the "Type of Employment" blank accurately — "day care home licensee", "child care assistant", "substitute caregiver" — because a blank there is the most common defect found on this form at a monitoring visit. The acknowledgement is not the training. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(2)(E) puts "Department approved Mandated Reporter Training for all licensees and assistants, regardless of the age of children in care" inside the fifteen hours of pre-service training that must be completed not more than one year before the application date, and the CANTS 22 itself points to it: "DCFS administers an online training course entitled Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse: Training for Mandated Reporters, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Keep the training certificate with the signed acknowledgement; they answer different questions. The reporting duty the form describes is repeated as an operating rule at 2007.24(l): "Suspected child abuse and/or neglect shall be reported immediately to the Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline as required by the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act. The telephone number for the reporting hotline is 1-800-252-2873." Note the Spanish edition CANTS 22/S and the clergy and foster-parent variants CANTS 22-A and CANTS 22-B exist on the Department's master forms index; the day care home instrument is the plain CANTS 22.
• CFS 583-B, CERTIFICATION OF INSPECTION FOR UNSAFE CHILDREN'S PRODUCTS (HOMES), REV 08/2024 — YOU SIGN IT, YOU KEEP IT, YOU DO NOT SEND IT. This is the most recently revised form in the day care home packet and one of the few that still matches its authority. The prohibition it certifies is now at 225 ILCS 10/5.2a, "Unsafe children's products; Department of Early Childhood", added by Public Act 103-594 and effective 1 July 2026: "An early care and education center, early care and education home, or group early care and education home may not use or have on the premises an unsafe children's product as described in Section 15 of the Children's Product Safety Act. This subsection (a) does not apply to an antique or collectible children's product if it is not used by, or accessible to, any child". The licensing rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.16(c): "The day care home may not use or have on the premises any unsafe children's product as described in the Children's Product Safety Act and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 386 (Children's Product Safety)." Note the seam: Part 386 was not among the Parts transferred to the Department of Early Childhood on 1 July 2026 and still sits in Title 89 as a Department of Children and Family Services rule, so a Department of Early Childhood licensing standard now points at another agency's regulation. That is a live cross-reference, not a dead one, but expect it to be renumbered. The form's text is short. You print your name "as the licensee of a (mark one or more)" — the boxes are Day Care Home, Group Day Care Home, and Foster Family Home — "licensed to care for children under the age of 12, have read the list of unsafe children's products maintained by the Illinois Department of Public Health pursuant to the Children's Product Safety Act [430 ILCS 125] and have inspected children's products in my home. To the best of my knowledge there are no unsafe children's products in my home as of the signature date below." Then one signature and one date. The filing instruction is printed in capitals across the middle of the page: "RETAIN CURRENT SIGNED AND DATED ORIGINAL ON-SITE IN LICENSING FILE", and again in the instructions: "MAINTAIN THE MOST RECENT COPY OF THIS CERTIFICATION IN YOUR LICENSING FILE AT YOUR HOME, AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION DURING LICENSING AND MONITORING VISITS." The word "current" is the obligation. A certification dated at initial licensure and never re-signed is not current; re-sign it at each renewal and whenever you re-inspect after a recall. Two further duties travel with the form and are not satisfied by signing it. First, a file: "Licensees must maintain all written information regarding any unsafe children's products identified in a file. The file is to be available to staff and parents of children attending the facility." Second, a posting: "Child care facilities must post in a prominent location regularly visited by parents written notification of the existence of the comprehensive list of unsafe children's products available on the internet" — the statutory wording at 225 ILCS 10/5.2a(b) is identical. The list is maintained by the Illinois Department of Public Health at srs.dph.illinois.gov and recalls at cpsc.gov; both are reachable from the Sunshine site's Resources tab. Do not use CFS 583-A instead: that edition is headed "(Facilities)" and is for centres and institutions.
• CFS 585-2, CERTIFICATION OF RADON TEST, 12/2013 — NOT FILED WITH ANYONE, POSTED NEXT TO YOUR LICENCE. Radon is one of two environmental filings that gate the licence, and this form is a posting, not a submission. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(I) puts it in the initial application: "for an initial application effective January 1, 2014 or later, proof that the home has been tested within the last 3 years for radon, as established by rules of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (32 Ill. Adm. Code 422) [225 ILCS 10/5.8]". 2007.5(i) repeats it verbatim for renewal. 2007.8(a)(29) makes it continuous: "Effective January 1, 2013, the home shall be tested for radon at least once every 3 years. The most current radon measurements shall be posted next to the license in the home, on a form provided by the Department, containing the required informative statement from Section 5.8(d) of the Child Care Act of 1969 [225 ILCS 10]." The CFS 585-2 is that form. Titled "Facility's Radon Test Certification", it carries Facility Name, Facility Address, "The most current Radon test of this facility was on:", "The result of the test is:", "A copy of the Radon test report can be provided to you upon request", and the statutory notice: "Every parent or guardian is notified that this facility has performed radon measurement ... The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) recommends that all residential homes be tested and that corrective action be taken at levels equal to or greater than 4.0 pCi/L. Radon is a Class A human carcinogen". The statute at 225 ILCS 10/5.8, as amended by Public Acts 103-594 and 104-480 effective 1 July 2026, now reads in the plural of the new department: "The report of the most current radon measurement shall be posted in the location next to the license issued by the Department of Early Childhood. Copies of the report shall be provided to parents or guardians upon request." The form has no signature line and is not submitted; the agency reads it off your wall at the annual visit. The trap is 4.0 pCi/L. Neither the statute nor Part 2007 forbids licensure at or above it — IEMA "recommends" corrective action — so a high result is not automatically disqualifying, but the number you post is the number parents read. Test before you apply, not after, because the licensing representative cannot recommend a licence on a promise. Its companion is the lead-in-water filing, which is a submission rather than a posting. 2007.8(f): "Any day care home serving children under 6 years of age and housed in a building constructed on or before January 1, 2000 shall be subject to lead in water testing by an IEPA laboratory or an IEPA-certified laboratory ... Test results and mitigation plans, when required, shall be submitted to the local licensing office within 120 days after notification of test results of 2.01 ppb or above", and 2007.4(b)(1)(J) requires "lead testing results and mitigation plans when required by Section 2007.8(e) and (f)" with the application. Note also 2007.4(b)(3): the initial application must include "a certificate of completion of lead safety training" covering a mitigation plan for results of 2.01 ppb or above and the impact of lead exposure, and 2007.9(t)(5) requires that certificate to be submitted to the local licensing office. No Department form number exists for it; the training provider's certificate is what you file.
• CFS 452-7, CHILD CARE FACILITY ATTESTATION (CANNABIS), REV 8/2020 — CERTIFIED BEFORE THE INITIAL LICENCE AND AGAIN BEFORE EVERY RENEWAL. This one-page attestation is not mentioned anywhere in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, which is exactly why applicants miss it; it is an application-packet requirement carried by the form itself and by the two Public Acts it recites. Its full title on the face is "COMPLIANCE with the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act (410 ILCS 130/) and Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705/) — Child Care Facility Attestation". The three prohibitions you are attesting to are printed as bullets: "Cannabis of any type or form shall not be consumed, possessed, stored in and/or on the premises of any licensed or unlicensed child care facility"; "Cannabis of any type or form shall not be consumed, stored or possessed by any person at any time when they are, or will be transporting a youth-in-care. Cannabis shall not be stored, possessed or consumed within any vehicle used to transport youth-in-care"; and "No child who is a resident of a licensed or unlicensed child care facility, and no employee of a licensed or unlicensed child care facility shall be in proximity to any type or form of cannabis where it can be observed and/or the odor can be detected." Read the first bullet against the fact that your licensed premises is your family home. The prohibition is not limited to the hours you provide care and not limited to the rooms named on your licence: it says "in and/or on the premises". A licensed day care home in Illinois is a cannabis-free dwelling, and possession of a medical cannabis registry card does not create an exception on the face of this form. The certification is a perjury certification with only two boxes: "I hereby certify and affirm, under penalty of perjury, that (Check one) — I will comply with the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Program Act (410 ILCS 130/) and the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705/) / I will not or cannot comply". There is no third option, and the consequence of the second is stated: "Failure to certify willingness to comply with the Public Acts noted above, shall result in denial of an initial application for licensure and enforcement action against an existing license. This form shall be certified prior to the issuance of an initial license and prior to renewal of an existing license." Two signature-and-printed-name lines with dates sit at the foot, which is how joint licensees under 2007.6(a) sign. There is also a duty that outlives the signing: "Applicant/Licensee understands that any divergence from compliance with the Public Acts noted above, shall require immediate notification to the assigned licensing representative and submission of an updated CFS 452-7." Immediate notification, then a fresh form — not a note at the next annual visit. The form is on the Department's master forms index but not on the Sunshine site's "Commonly used provider forms" page for day care, so an applicant who works only from the day care forms list will not see it and will discover it as a missing item when the packet is reviewed. Ask your licensing representative for the current initial application packet list in writing and check the CFS 452-7 against it.
• CFS 671, CHILD CARE FACILITY DRIVER APPLICATION, REV. 4/2004 — THE FORM A DAY CARE HOME ALMOST CERTAINLY DOES NOT FILE, AND WHY THAT MATTERS. Providers copying a centre's checklist file this one needlessly. Read the authority printed on the back of the form: "Pursuant to the Child Care Act [225 ILCS 10/5.1(a)], the Department shall assure that no day care center, group home or child care institution as defined in the Act shall on a regular basis transport a child or children with any motor vehicle unless such a vehicle is operated by a person that complies with the following requirements" — six of them, beginning "is 21 years of age or older". A day care home is not in that list, and never was. The list is now narrower still. As amended by Public Acts 103-594 and 104-480, both effective 1 July 2026, 225 ILCS 10/5.1(a) reads "no group home or early care and education institution", and a new Section 5.1a assigns the parallel duty over "early care and education centers" to the Department of Early Childhood. Neither section reaches an early care and education home. So the form as published recites a version of the statute that no longer exists, and even the current version does not capture you. The rule that does govern your driving is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.18(a), and it is much lighter: "Children may be transported only when the child/adult ratios in accordance with Section 2007.13 are maintained and the person transporting is 18 years of age or older and has a valid driver's license for the vehicle classification being used." Eighteen, not twenty-one; a valid licence, not a five-year fatal-accident certification. 2007.10(d) says the same for an assistant: "An assistant 18 years of age or older may accompany children playing outdoors, and may transport children, if the assistant possesses a valid driver's license for the vehicle classification that is being used to transport children and insurance." What Part 2007 does require you to hold, and what a monitoring visit will ask for, is documentary in a different way. 2007.18(f)(2): "Evidence of compliance regarding vehicle liability and medical insurance shall be on file with the home records. Evidence may consist of, but is not limited to, a copy of an insurance policy, binder or certificate, or a letter from the insurance carrier." 2007.18(c) requires each child to be individually fastened into a federally approved restraint, with one exception that is itself a document: the requirement "shall not apply to a child for whom a physician has certified, in writing, that the child has a physical handicap that prevents wearing an appropriate restraint device". Parent consent to transport is 2007.24(e)(5), collected on the CFS 593. And 2007.18(d)(2) puts a person, not a paper, at the other end of the trip: "A responsible person as designated by the child's parents or guardian shall receive the child when delivered to the home or the facility." If a supervising agency does ask you for a CFS 671 — for example because you also hold a licence in a category that is covered — note the attachment rule printed on it: "A CURRENT (not more then 2 months) CFS 602, Medical Report On An Adult In A Child Care Facility, MUST BE ATTACHED", forwarded "at least two (2) weeks prior to the date the individual is expected to provide transportation", original white copy to the licensing representative, yellow copy retained. Ask in writing which authority they invoke.
• CFS 508 AND CFS 508-1 — THE MONTHLY STAFF RETURN, AND THE THREE REFERENCES THAT DECIDE YOUR LICENCE. CFS 508, "Report of Persons Employed in a Child Care Facility", Rev. 11/2012, is a monthly return with three sections: A, persons employed during the month; B, persons changing positions within the facility; C, persons leaving employment, with reason for leaving. Its footnote sets the cadence: "The facility is to submit report at the end of the month in which changes occur. The facility should retain a copy for its records", and the routing is printed twice: "ATTACH TO THIS FORM, THE CFS 508-1 FOR STAFF LISTED IN SECTIONS A OR B, AND SUBMIT TO YOUR DCFS LICENSING REPRESENTATIVE." Its certification paragraph is the one that binds a day care home licensee who hires an assistant: "This certifies that the above-employed persons have on file with the employing agency the required medical reports, background checks, verification of training, education and experience, and references indicating suitability for employment, in the position indicated, in accordance with minimum standards prescribed by the Department of Children and Family Services." You cannot truthfully sign it before the CFS 602 and the background check clearance are in your file. The signature block reads "Director/Executive Director"; a home licensee signs in their own name. CFS 508-1, "Information on Person Employed in a Child Care Facility", Rev. 12/2013, is one sheet per person and is where the substantive checks live. Section IV requires ten years of previous employment and carries an affirmation that "The employer, or authorized official of the employing facility has contacted the human resources personnel, management or knowledgeable supervisor for each listed previous employer to inquire about the employee's work performance and whether the employee would be eligible for rehire" — you are certifying that you actually telephoned them. Section V requires "Report of Reference on File (At least three character and/or business, from persons not related to the employee)". Section VI records education, which for you is fixed by 2007.9(l): "Caregivers licensed after January 1, 2011 shall have proof of a high school diploma, equivalent certificate, or degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education or vocational institution", and 2007.4(b)(1)(G) requires a copy of it with the application. Section VII records the physical examination and asks "Health Clearance Report on File? Yes / No". The position list is centre-shaped — "Early Childhood Assistant (day care center)", "Substitute", "Cook" — with no day care home assistant entry; write it under "Other". The references matter more here than in most states, because in Illinois they are a condition precedent to the licence itself. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(E) requires with your application "the names, addresses and telephone numbers of at least 3 adults not related to the applicants, nor living in the household, who can attest to their character and suitability to provide child care", and 2007.4(c) makes them decisive: "A license may not be recommended without the receipt of at least 3 positive, written references, and a written study signed by the licensing representative and supervisor." A permit needs less but still needs some — 2007.7(a)(5) requires that "Character references have been requested, and at least two favorable references have been received". Choose referees who answer their post.
• THE FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION, THE INCIDENT REPORT, AND THE HAZARD PLAN — THREE MANDATORY FILINGS FOR WHICH ILLINOIS PRINTS NO FORM. Stop looking for a fire inspection request form: you do not request it. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(d)(1): "The Department shall request the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) to perform a fire safety inspection of homes when an initial application is being considered for licensure and when care will be provided on other than ground level and for homes in multi-housing units". For an ordinary single-floor home at ground level with no unusual code considerations, no fire marshal comes at all: 2007.4(d)(2) provides that the inspection "shall be completed following the list of items for fire safety inspection in Appendix E by a licensing representative trained by OSFM". Appendix E is your real checklist, published as part of the rule: eighteen numbered items, the first eleven physical (clear escape paths; smoke detectors on every level including unused basements and second floors and in any napping room, all under ten years old and passing the test button; exit locks openable without a key, tool or special knowledge; no more than two releasing devices on an exit door; bathroom doors openable from outside; closet doors openable from inside; lit escape paths; receptacle covers; guarded heat sources; operable carbon monoxide detectors) and the last seven operational (written fire emergency response plan, monthly tornado and fire drills with children participating, monthly and daily caregiver inspections, corridors clear, wall artwork limited to 20% of wall area, caregivers awake and alert). What issues is a written approval, and nothing precedes it: 2007.4(d)(3), "Prior to the Department issuance of a permit or a license, the day care home shall have written approval by OSFM or staff trained by OSFM", echoed at 2007.7(a)(8). The drill records are yours to keep: 2007.24(s), "Fire safety records include monthly fire drill reports, monthly fire safety inspections conducted by the licensee, and the log of daily inspections ... to ensure that exit routes are kept clear." There is likewise no health department inspection and no health inspection request form for an Illinois day care home; the representative's own study under 2007.4(c) is the inspection. The incident report has no form either, only a two-stage deadline. 2007.24(n): "The supervising agency shall be notified immediately by telephone, and in writing within one week, if any of the following situations involving children occurs at the facility: 1) Accident or injury resulting in death or requiring emergency medical care; 2) A child is missing from the day care home; or 3) Notice is received of legal action against the facility." 2007.24(p) applies the same call-then-write-within-a-week rule to "fires or other incidents resulting in structural damage". 2007.24(o) requires prompt reporting of "any known or suspected case or carrier of communicable disease to the supervising agency and to local health authorities". Write these yourself, date them, keep the copy. Finally, the hazard protection plan: 2007.4(b)(1)(F) requires with the application "a written hazard protection plan identifying potential hazards within the home and outdoor area accessible to the children in care", addressing "traffic construction, bodies of water accessible to the children, open stairwells, and neighborhood dogs"; 2007.5(f) makes its review part of every renewal.

What's specific about getting licensed in Illinois

Three things set Illinois apart at once. First, the license is genuinely free — no application fee — which surprises applicants used to other states charging. Second, as of July 1, 2026, child care licensure moved out of DCFS to the brand-new Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), so the agency you deal with changed even though Rule 406 standards still apply. Third, Illinois mandates a radon test of the home (many states don't) and uses a distinctive '8 alone / 12 with a qualified assistant, your own kids under 12 included' ratio structure. Few states combine a no-fee license, a radon requirement, and a fresh 2026 agency handover.

How long it takes and what it costs in Illinois

Timeline: Illinois doesn't publish a fixed processing time. The rules set a 2-month permit (a temporary document that lets you start once core items clear) and a license that is then valid for 3 years. Realistically, plan several months from first contact to full license — often about 2 to 6 — with the pace set by your fingerprint background clearances (Illinois State Police + FBI), the OSFM fire-safety inspection, the radon test, and getting your 15 pre-service hours and CPR done.

Cost: The license itself is free — Rule 406.6(j) states plainly that there is no fee or charge for a day care home license, and you don't pay the state to apply. Your real out-of-pocket costs come from the supporting items: fingerprint-based background checks, a radon test, first aid/Heimlich/infant-child CPR certification, and the required medical exam/physical. Much of the required pre-service training is available free through the state's Gateways to Opportunity / INCCRRA system. Exact statewide dollar amounts for fingerprinting, radon kits, and CPR classes vary by vendor, so confirm current prices locally rather than assuming a fixed figure.

Source: PRIMARY SOURCES ACTUALLY OPENED DURING RESEARCH, FIELD BY FIELD (not summarised from memory). [agency] https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/AdminCode — JCAR index of Illinois Administrative Code titles in effect; entry point used instead of any pinned rule PDF (old .../commission/jcar/admincode/023/023parts.html paths now 404 after the ILGA site redesign). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023 — Title 23 (Education and Cultural Resources) parts listing served 26 Aug 2026; establishes that PART 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2050, 2060, 2070 now exist, including "PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=02302007 — sections listing for Part 2007; establishes the placement "TITLE 23: EDUCATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES / SUBTITLE A: EDUCATION / CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD" and the 27 sections + Appendices A-E. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 as served today; source of the verbatim AUTHORITY note ("Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]"), the SOURCE note (transfer from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917), the definitions of "Department", "Licensing representative", "Authorized representative of the Department", "Supervising agency", "CANTS", "SACWIS", and Sections 2007.4 (application, OSFM fire inspection), 2007.5 (renewal, and its now-mis-pinned citation to 225 ILCS 10/5(d)), 2007.6 (3-year term, no fee, Gateways Registry cross-reference to 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G), 2007.26 (access and periodic monitoring). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=089 — Title 89 (Social Services) parts listing served today;

establishes "PART 406 ... (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 407 ... (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 408 ... (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 377 ... (TRANSFERRED)", and that PART 405 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE AGENCIES was NOT transferred and remains a DCFS rule. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900406 — the residual 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 stub; source note ends "amended at 44 Ill. Reg. 16116, effective September 18, 2020; transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832." Also fixes September 2020 as the date of the last substantive amendment. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900405 — confirms Part 405 still headed "TITLE 89: SOCIAL SERVICES / CHAPTER III: DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES / SUBCHAPTER e: REQUIREMENTS FOR LICENSURE". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — full current text of the Child Care Act of 1969, 225 ILCS 10, served today.

Source of the verbatim Sections 1, 2.02, 2.09, 2.10 (repealed), 2.11 (repealed by P.A. 103-594 eff. 7-1-26), 2.18, 2.20, 2.41, 3(a), 3(a-5), 3(d-5)(1), 3.01, 4, 4.01, 4.1, 4.2a(c), 4.3a, 5, 5.01(a)-(h), 7 (both versions), 7.01, 7.10, and of every Public Act source note swept for the transfer date (103-594, 104-307, 104-308, 104-309, 104-417, 104-440, 104-466, 104-480, 104-559). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Acts?ChapterID=24&ChapterNumber=225 — chapter listing used to locate the Child Care Act (ActID 1293) rather than guessing the URL. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Acts?ChapterID=32&ChapterNumber=325 — confirms the Department of Early Childhood Act is codified at 325 ILCS 3 (ActID 4516), i.e. the citation given in the Part 2007 authority note. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=4516&ChapterID=32 — full current text of 325 ILCS 3; source of Sections 1-1, 1-15, 1-20(a)-(b), 1-30, Article 20 heading, 20-25(a)-(b), 80-5(a)-(e), 80-10(a)-(c), 80-15(b),(e), and of the source notes showing P.A. 103-594 eff. 6-25-24 and later amendment by P.A. 104-466 eff. 7-1-26. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/103/103-0594.htm — enrolled text of Public Act 103-0594 (SB0001 Enrolled, LRB103 25137 RJT 51476 b, "AN ACT concerning education");

source of Section 1-1 short title, Section 1-10 purpose, Section 1-20, Article 80 transition provisions, Article 90 amendment of 20 ILCS 5/5-10 to include the Secretary of Early Childhood, Article 95 heading "CHILD CARE ACT OF 1969 AMENDMENTS", Section 99-99 ("This Act takes effect upon becoming law, except Article 95 takes effect on July 1, 2026"), and the struck-through Section 5(b)/6(b) language removing day care homes from the licensed-day-care-agency application and renewal route. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/104/104-0480.htm — enrolled text of Public Act 104-0480 (HB3595 Enrolled, LRB104 08153 BAB 18201 b, "AN ACT concerning regulation"); source of Section 180 (list of Child Care Act sections changed, Section 2.41 added), Section 184 (repeal of Sections 2.10, 3.7, 16.1), the strike/insert text of Section 5.01, and Section 999 ("This Act takes effect July 1, 2026"). https://www.ilsos.gov/content/dam/departments/index/register/volume50/register_volume50_29.pdf — Illinois Register, Volume 50, Issue 29, 17 July 2026. Table of contents establishes the paired notices (DCFS Notice of Transfer, 89 Ill. Adm. Code 377/378/385/406/407/408 at pp. 9829-9838;

Department of Early Childhood Notice of Recodification, 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2005/2006/2007/2008/2009/2010/2050/2060/2070 at pp. 9896-10484). Body text at p. 9832 and p. 9917 quoted verbatim, including "Date of Index Department Review: July 1, 2026" and "Date of Administrative Code Division Review: July 1, 2026". Also establishes that DHS 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50 (Child Care) became 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060 in the same issue, which is why the Gateways cross-reference in Section 2007.6(k) is now stale. https://www.ilsos.gov/content/dam/departments/index/register/volume50/register_volume50_33.pdf — Illinois Register, Volume 50, Issue 33, 14 August 2026; contains no Department of Early Childhood rulemaking. https://www.ilsos.gov/content/dam/departments/index/register/volume50/register_volume50_34.pdf — Illinois Register, Volume 50, Issue 34, 21 August 2026 (most recent issue published before this was written); contains no Department of Early Childhood rulemaking.

Together these establish that as of 26 Aug 2026 no amendment conforming Part 2007's "day care home" vocabulary to the statute's "early care and education home" has been proposed. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC's own licensure page, read today. Used ONLY for facts the agency is the primary source of: the published DCFS-rule-to-IDEC-rule mapping table (377>2005, 378>2006, 406>2007, 407>2008, 408>2009, 385>2010), the statement that IDEC licensing representatives make annual unannounced visits, and the referral of ratio questions to the local CCR&R. NOT relied on for the transfer date or the identity of the licensor, both of which were taken from the session law and the Administrative Code. https://idec.illinois.gov/contact.html — IDEC contact page read today; establishes that the only published entry points are the central line (217) 785-9160 and Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov, with no regional or field licensing office roster. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders.html — IDEC provider landing page read today; confirms the licensing page is the published route for home providers. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/about-us/notices/pr-policy-rules.html — DCFS rules index read today (26 Aug 2026); still lists "Part 406 Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes", "Part 407", "Part 408" and "Part 377" among DCFS Subchapter d/e rules with no transfer note.

This is the live stale artifact described in the entry. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/rules/rules-406.pdf — downloaded and text-extracted today; still headed "TITLE 89: SOCIAL SERVICES / CHAPTER III: DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES / SUBCHAPTER e: REQUIREMENTS FOR LICENSURE / PART 406", source notes ending at 44 Ill. Reg. 16116 eff. 18 Sept 2020, no mention of the 1 July 2026 transfer. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS METHOD REQUIRES: the brief instructed me to verify "89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406 for day care homes". The official text contradicts it. Part 406 was transferred out of DCFS and recodified as 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 under Chapter XI: Department of Early Childhood, effective 1 July 2026, printed at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832 and 9917 in the Illinois Register of 17 July 2026, and the Title 89 index now shows Part 406 as "(TRANSFERRED)". The entry is written on 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007. The brief was also right to warn about the new department: the transfer is not pending, it is complete.

UNVERIFIED: the identity of the current Secretary of Early Childhood. IDEC's About page returned no leadership content when read on 26 Aug 2026, and the only name surfaced by search was an "Interim Secretary" from a November 2024 FAQ, which is exactly the kind of stale agency artifact this method forbids publishing. No Secretary is named in the entry. UNVERIFIED: any roster of IDEC regional or field licensing offices. None is published on idec.illinois.gov as read today; the entry says so rather than importing the old DCFS regional structure. UNVERIFIED: whether, in operational practice, IDEC has retained any licensed child welfare agencies or former "day care agencies" as delegated supervising agencies for individual day care home files after 1 July 2026. The rule text (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.2, 2007.4(a), 2007.5) still assumes a supervising agency; the statute (225 ILCS 10/5.01(b), and the repeal of 225 ILCS 10/2.11) no longer authorises the day care agency route for homes. The entry reports the conflict rather than resolving it in either direction. UNVERIFIED: the precise date on which Public Act 103-0594 was approved by the Governor.

The ILCS source notes give its effective date as 6-25-24 and that is what the entry uses; the enrolled Public Act page as served does not print a separate approval date. NOTE ON ACCESS: www.ilga.gov refused all direct connections from this machine (ECONNREFUSED / timeout on 12.43.67.2, both ports), and www.ilsos.gov returned Akamai 403 to direct requests. All ILGA and Secretary of State documents above were retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns the target page's own text; the content is the official text, the transport was not direct. Every ILGA citation was reached by navigating from the JCAR title index or the ILCS chapter index rather than by re-downloading a previously known URL. [annual_training_hours] All sources below were opened on 2026-08-26. www.ilga.gov (12.43.67.2) refused every direct TCP connection from this host (curl returns code 000, zero bytes), and www.ilsos.gov returns Akamai 403 to direct requests; every ilga.gov and ilsos.gov document listed here was therefore retrieved through the r.jina.ai text proxy against the exact ilga.gov / ilsos.gov URL shown.

The content is the official text; only the transport was indirect. No previously pinned URL was re-downloaded to confirm itself: the Parts were reached from the JCAR index of rules in effect, and the statutes from the ILCS chapter/act listing. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023 — JCAR index of rules IN EFFECT for Title 23 (Education and Cultural Resources), served today. Establishes that Chapter XI carries PART 2005, 2006, 2007 ("LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES"), 2008, 2009 ("LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES"), 2010, 2050, 2060 ("CHILD CARE"), 2070. This index, not a pinned PDF, is what tells me which rule is current. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=089 — JCAR index of rules in effect for Title 89, served today. Establishes verbatim "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 408 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 377 ... (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 378 ... (TRANSFERRED)" and — the finding this field turns on — "PART 50 CHILD CARE (TRANSFERRED)", which is the DHS Part that 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(k) still cross-references for the Gateways Registry. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 as served today (144 KB).

Source of the AUTHORITY note ("Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]") and SOURCE note (transfer from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917, with NO subsequent amendment); the definition of "Licensing year" at 2007.2; 2007.4(b)(1)(H) and (b)(2)-(3) (pre-service, Gateways proof, lead safety); 2007.5(b), (d), (e), (h) (renewal clock, holdover, "current with the annual 15 hours", licensing study); 2007.6(b), (k) (3-year term, Gateways registry, "within 30 days after hire", cross-reference to 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G); 2007.7(a)(4) (CPR before permit); 2007.9(n), (o), (p), (t)(1)-(5) (first aid/Heimlich/CPR currency, 6-hour disabilities course within 36 months, the 15 clock hours per licensing year, the 5-hour carry-over, the lead safety certificate to the local licensing office); 2007.10 (assistants — no annual hour count); 2007.11(a), (c) (substitute 25 hours/month + 2 weeks, "continuing education" extension, regular substitutes qualified as caregivers); 2007.24(a), (r); 2007.26(a), (b); and Appendix D in full (entities (a)(1)-(11), topics (b)(1)-(16) with the three-year parentheticals, delivery modes and signature rules (c)(1)-(2), the 15-hour/5-hour restatement (d), the disabilities-course components (e)). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 as served today (170 KB).

Source of the AUTHORITY and SOURCE notes (recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183, no later amendment); "Licensing year" at 2009.5; 2009.15(a), (b), (d), (e), (h); 2009.20(b), (k); 2009.35(i) (CPR "shall be for the age range of children in care") and 2009.35(o) (6-hour disabilities course); 2009.45(f) (15 clock hours per licensing year), (f)(3) (lead safety certificate), (g) (5-hour carry-over), (h) (records document the continuing education), and — the key home/group divergence — 2009.45(j), requiring the caregiver to provide "in-service training totaling a minimum of 15 clock hours per year for the child care assistants" with the named content list; 2009.50 (assistants, silent on hours); 2009.55(a), (c) (substitutes); 2009.120; and Appendix G in full, including the textual difference at G(b)(12) ("new applicants" only, where D(b)(12) says "new applicants and assistants"). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=02302060 — sections listing for 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060 (Child Care) under Chapter XI, served today. Establishes that SUBPART G is "GATEWAYS TO OPPORTUNITY CREDENTIALS" (Sections 2060.710-2060.760) and SUBPART H is "STAFF QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING STANDARDS" (2060.800-2060.830). This is how the live successor to "89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G" was located rather than guessed. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020600G07100R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.710. "Subject to the availability of funds, the Department, through its agents, shall administer Gateways to Opportunity."

Source note: "(Source: Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50 (Department of Human Services) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10370)". Establishes that Gateways is now administered by the Department of Early Childhood, not DHS. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020600G07600R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.760. Source of the Registry definition (a), "Membership is renewed annually in order to keep workforce data current" (b)(2), the Professional Development Record (c)(1)-(2), the Statewide Online Training Calendar (d)(1)-(2), and the two URLs printed in the rule that are now dead. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020600H08100R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.810 Applicability, quoted verbatim: the Subpart H training standards "shall only apply to school-age programs or portions of programs that do not receive State or federal funds pursuant to Section 2.09 of the Child Care Act of 1969". This is what forecloses the 4-hour figure for licensed homes. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020600H08300R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.830, source of the "at least 4 hours of training annually" standard for license-exempt school-age providers, quoted only to warn the reader off it. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — full current text of the Child Care Act of 1969, 225 ILCS 10, served today (305 KB), read section by section.

Source of Sec. 4.5(a)-(b) (children with disabilities training); Sec. 5.01(d), (g), (h) (3-year licence, unannounced visits, "shall be monitored at least annually"); Sec. 5.11 (anaphylaxis plan and "at least one staff member present at all times who has taken a training course in recognizing and responding to anaphylaxis"); Sec. 7 in BOTH printed versions, the post-P.A. 103-594 version of which expressly excludes "a day care center, day care home, or group day care home"; Sec. 7.01(a)(16) (SUID/SIDS/safe sleep training every 3 years) and the unnumbered paragraph of 7.01(a) (social emotional learning / infant and early childhood mental health / early childhood trauma / adverse childhood experiences, "at least once every 3 years"), with the source line "(Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26.)"; Secs. 9.1e and 9.1f (course list, source line P.A. 104-309, eff. 1-1-26); and the source lines on Secs. 2.18, 2.20, 4.5, 5.01, 5.11 showing "P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26; 104-480, eff. 7-1-26." https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1460&ChapterID=32 — full current text of the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, 325 ILCS 5, served today.

Source of Sec. 4(a), which lists "child care worker" among mandated reporters, and Sec. 4(j): initial mandated reporter training "within 3 months of their date of engagement ... and at least every 3 years thereafter", plus "The mandated reporter shall maintain records of completion." https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs?GA=104 — Public Acts index for the 104th General Assembly, read today; establishes that the series runs through 104-0853, i.e. that the ILCS text above reflects the complete session to date. (See UNVERIFIED below on the per-range listings.) https://registry.ilgateways.com/ — Gateways to Opportunity Registry, live site, read today.

Establishes the current registry host, the "Find Trainings" / "Find Trainers" / "Trainer/Training Approval" structure, and the i-learning free online training offer. https://registry.ilgateways.com/be-a-member/registry-membership — read today; source of "With a free Gateways Registry Membership ...", the two-business-day online approval versus thirty-day mailed-application turnaround, and the footer "Gateways to Opportunity is funded by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood and the McCormick Foundation". https://registry.ilgateways.com/be-a-member/pdr-training-categories — read today; source of the four PDR categories (Registry-Approved, Registry-Verified Conferences, Attendance-Verified, Self-Reported) and of the verbatim warning that self-reported events still require you to keep the certificates. https://registry.ilgateways.com/be-a-member/find-trainings — read today; the live training calendar, with the "May Meet Requirements For — Gateways to Opportunity Registry-Verified / Registry Approved" filter. https://www.ilgateways.com/registry-membership — requested today, returns HTTP 404 ("Sorry! We can't seem to find the page you're looking for").

This is the URL printed verbatim in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.760(b)(1). https://www.ilgateways.com/en/statewide-online-training-calendar — requested today, returns HTTP 404. This is the URL printed verbatim in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.760(d)(2). https://www.dcfstraining.org/manrep/index.jsp — requested today, returns "HTTP Status 404 – Not Found". This is the URL printed verbatim in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.Appendix D(c)(1)(G) and 2009.Appendix G(c)(1)(G). https://mr.dcfstraining.org/ — read today; carries only the notice "The Training for Mandated Reporters Has MOVED!" and redirects readers to the new portal. http://mandatedreporter.dcfs.illinois.gov/ — read today; live DCFS Learning and Development Center Mandated Reporter Portal, the working replacement for the dead URL in the appendices. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC licensure page read today. It lists "Training and education requirements for staff" as a heading but publishes no hour count, so nothing in this field rests on it; it is cited only to record that the agency page does not state the number. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/safe-kids/reporting/mandated-reporter-training.html — returns a 404 body, but the site-wide banner served with it was read verbatim: "As of July 1, 2026, child care licensure is managed by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood ... please reach out to IDEC directly at Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov or your current CCR&R."

Independent confirmation from DCFS's own site of the transfer date. https://www.ilsos.gov/content/dam/departments/index/register/volume50/register_volume50_35.pdf — requested today; the Secretary of State returns a "Not Found" page, establishing that Illinois Register Volume 50, Issue 35 had not been published as of 26 Aug 2026. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS METHOD REQUIRES. The brief warned that other writers had found Parts 406/408 emptied and recodified as 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007/2009, and told me to verify rather than assume. Verified independently today from the JCAR indexes of rules in effect for both Titles: the Title 89 index prints "(TRANSFERRED)" against Parts 406 and 408, and the Title 23 index carries Parts 2007 and 2009 under Chapter XI: Department of Early Childhood. The prior writers were right, and this field is written on Parts 2007 and 2009. I add one correction they did not report: 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50 (Child Care) is ALSO marked "(TRANSFERRED)" on today's Title 89 index, so the cross-reference inside 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(k) to "89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G" — the only pointer the licensing standard gives you for the Gateways Registry rules — now points at a Part that no longer exists.

The live text is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2060.Subpart G, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 10370, and 2060.710(a) makes the Department of Early Childhood, not the Department of Human Services, the administrator that 2007.2 and 2007.6(k) still name. A second correction: 225 ILCS 10/7.01 — the section that actually carries the recurring SUID/SIDS/safe-sleep and social-emotional/trauma training mandates for home providers — was NOT renamed by P.A. 104-0480. Its source line reads "(Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26.)" alone and its text still says "day care home" and "group day care home", even though P.A. 104-0480 renamed 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and 2.20 to "early care and education home" and "group early care and education home" effective the same day. Anyone who assumes the rename is uniform across the Act will fail to find the training mandates. UNVERIFIED: whether any Public Act later than those reflected in the ILCS source lines amends the training provisions. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs?GA=104 confirms the series runs to 104-0853, but the per-range listing pages (e.g. ?GA=104&Start=801&End=853) render as an empty JavaScript shell through the text proxy and could not be read act by act.

Mitigation: the ILCS compilation as served today already carries source lines for acts effective 8-15-25 (104-417), 1-1-26 (104-307, 104-309) and 7-1-26 (103-594, 104-480), so the compilation is current through the session; I could not perform an independent act-by-act sweep. UNVERIFIED: the Illinois Register itself (50 Ill. Reg. 9917, 10183, 10370) was not read. www.ilsos.gov returns Akamai 403 on direct request and the proxy returns the site chrome rather than the PDF body for the volume-50 dam paths. The recodification citations are relied on only as they are reprinted in the SOURCE notes of the recodified rules themselves. I could confirm negatively that Issue 35 does not yet exist, but I could not sweep Issues 30-34 for a pending IDEC rulemaking on training. Consequence: I cannot exclude a proposed (not yet adopted) amendment to Appendix D or Appendix G. Nothing in this field asserts that none is pending; it asserts only that no amendment appears in the Parts' SOURCE notes as served today, which is what I read. UNVERIFIED: whether IDEC has issued any non-rule guidance, form or provider notice stating a different in-service figure or a different renewal documentation packet. idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html lists "Training and education requirements for staff" as a topic heading but publishes no hours, and no IDEC training bulletin was found.

The field therefore states no form number and no agency-specific submission procedure beyond what the rules themselves say (the lead-safety certificate to the local licensing office under 2007.9(t)(5) and 2009.45(f)(3)). UNVERIFIED: the practical treatment of the 5-hour carry-over across a licence renewal boundary — i.e. whether surplus earned in the final licensing year of one 3-year term may be applied to the first year of the next term. The rule says only "the next year's training requirements" (2007.9(t)(4), 2009.45(g), Appendix D(d), Appendix G(d)) and does not address the term boundary. The field quotes the rule and does not resolve the question. UNVERIFIED: whether the group home appendix's narrower SIDS parenthetical (Appendix G(b)(12), "new applicants" only, omitting "assistants") is a deliberate distinction or a drafting slip. The field reports both texts verbatim and directs the reader to the stricter reading, which 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.15(e) independently supports, rather than asserting an intent. NOTE ON ACCESS: r.jina.ai was used as a read-only text proxy because direct connections to ilga.gov and ilsos.gov are blocked from this machine.

Every ILGA document above was reached by navigating from the JCAR title index or the ILCS act index rather than by re-downloading a URL known in advance, as METHOD rule 1 requires. [background_check] https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900385&TitleDescription=TITLE+89 — JCAR index of 89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 385 (Background Checks) as served on 26 August 2026. THE DECISIVE DOCUMENT. Establishes (a) the new Subpart A-G structure, (b) the SOURCE note ending "amended at 45 Ill. Reg. 12963, effective September 28, 2021; amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445, effective April 24, 2026; 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Subpart B transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9831", and (c) the new AUTHORITY note adding the CCDBG Act (P.L. 113-186) and 45 CFR 98.43 and the Illinois State Police Law [20 ILCS 2605/2605-355].

Sections 385.30 through 385.34 are shown as (Transferred). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900406&TitleDescription=TITLE+89 — JCAR index of Part 406, shown as "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", source note ending "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=02302010&TitleDescription=TITLE+23 and https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302010 — full current text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 (Department of Early Childhood, BACKGROUND CHECKS), five sections, "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.SUBPART B) ... and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293". Source of every quotation of 2010.10(a),(b),(c),(d),(e),(f), 2010.20, 2010.30, 2010.40 and 2010.50, including the 45-day completion rule and the five-year recurrence rule. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020100B00500R.html — Section 2010.50 fetched on its own page to test the truncation.

It reproduces the same defect: the section ends at "shall be ineligible for employment or licensure if the individual: a) has been convicted of any of the following felonies:" with no list. The published rule really is incomplete; this is not a rendering artefact of one page. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=02302007&TitleDescription=TITLE+23 — index of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes), "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) ... and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917". Section numbering is 1:1 with the old Part 406. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000090R.html — Section 2007.9, verbatim; source of 2007.9(a) (the 13-and-over sentence, now pointing at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010), (b) conditional employment, (c) Appendix C pointer, (d) fingerprint availability, (e)-(f) child support. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000040R.html — Section 2007.4, application contents including the list of household members age 13 and over and their authorisations. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000050R.html — Section 2007.5, renewal (6 months / 3 months). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000060R.html — Section 2007.6; source of "A day care home license is valid for 3 years" and of "There shall be no fee or charge" for the licence.

THIS RULE NOW CONTRADICTS THE STATUTE (4 years). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000070R.html — Section 2007.7, permits; source of the background-check gate at (a)(2) and (a)(5), the "2 month permit period" language, and "There shall be no fee or charge for the permit". The 2-month figure now contradicts Section 5(e) of the Child Care Act (one 6-month permit). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000100R.html — Section 2007.10, assistants at 14, direct personal supervision under 18. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/02302007ZZ9996CR.html — Section 2007.APPENDIX C, verbatim. Establishes that it travelled from Part 406 unamended and still cites "the Statewide Child Sex Offender Database" and "the Criminal Code of 1961". https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850A00100R.html — Section 385.10 as amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445, eff. 24 April 2026. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850A00200R.html — Section 385.20 definitions as amended 24 April 2026. Source of "Member of the household" (paramours), "Access to children", "Initial background check", "Probationary day care employee", "Resource personnel", "State Central Register", "Replacement or supplemental staff", "Presumption of unsuitability".

Note the 2021 terms "CANTS/SACWIS", "Conditional employee", "Work-Study student" and "Persons subject to background checks" are GONE from the definitions. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850E00400R.html — Section 385.40 (authorisation, employees absent 6 months, transfers, foreign nationals, commingling, responsibility for cooperation, and subsection (h) persons not required to authorise). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850E00500R.html — Section 385.50 (retention-period test, assessment criteria, 30-day waiver request, Director's waiver). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850E00600R.html — Section 385.60 (non-waivable bars, day care provision at (c) citing Section 385.34, waiver conditions at (d) and (e), assessment at (f), pending charges at (g)). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850E00700R.html — Section 385.70 (ineligibility list at (a), including (a)(4)(A) citing Section 385.34; notice; employer decision; subsequent checks;

child support). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850E00800R.html — Section 385.80 (Central Office of Licensing Background Review Committee, 89 Ill. Adm. Code 337, the Springfield address, the 10-day postmark, the 10-business-day exchange, the limited evidence, clear-and-convincing standard). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/089003850F00900R.html — Section 385.90 records retention. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/089/08900385ZZ9996aR.html — Section 385.APPENDIX A as amended 24 April 2026: Lifetime Bars (Non-Waivable), Financial-type Crimes, Waivable Bars (Not Including Foster Homes or Host Homes) including "(18) Felony possession of a controlled substance", and Additional Foster Home Restrictions.

Note the appendix says "Felony unlawful use of weapons" where the statute says "Felony unlawful possession of weapons". https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K4.2 — 225 ILCS 10/4.2 as it stands today. Source of the barred-offence lists and of the fact that the statute now speaks of "a licensed early care and education provider". Credit line: "(Source: P.A. 103-22, eff. 8-8-23; 103-822, eff. 1-1-25; 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K4.1 and https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=022500100K4.1 — 225 ILCS 10/4.1. THREE parallel texts sit in the database: "(Text of Section from P.A. 103-1072)", "(Text of Section from P.A. 104-307) (Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 103-594)", and "(Text of Section after amendment by P.A. 103-594)". The operative one today is the post-103-594 text (P.A. 103-594 took effect 7-1-26). Source of the every-5-years CCDBG sentence, the DCFS/IDEC dual naming, the two probationary-hire routes, the constant-supervision sentence, and the third-party vendor definition and direct-payment rule (which appear in the 103-1072 text of subsections (a)-(b)). https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K5 — Section 5 of the Child Care Act.

Source of "are valid for 4 years from the date issued" and of "one 6-month permit to a newly established provider". Credit: "(Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26; 103-1061, eff. 7-1-25; 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0480 — Public Act 104-0480 (HB3595), "Effective Date: 7/1/2026". The bill-status header still shows the As Introduced short title "INS CD-PET INSURANCE" and the insurance-code statute list, because HB3595 was gutted and replaced; the enacted Act is the child care licensing redesign. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocNum=5099&GAID=18&GA=104&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=114 — HB5099 "DEC-DAY CARE CRIMINAL CHECKS", last action 7/31/2026 Public Act 104-0692. House Committee Amendment No. 1 replaced everything after the enacting clause and moved the fingerprint transfer date from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2027, DCFS retaining the function through 30 June 2027; it also adds 20 ILCS 2630/3.4 new (National Child Protection Act qualified-entity procedure). https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC Child Care Licensure page, read 26 August 2026. Source of the statement that the full background check process (ISP, FBI, out-of-state, CANTS, SOR) applies to "Child care home, fully licensed (most common)", and of the contrast that the School Code regime adds "the statewide Murder and Violent Offender Against Youth Database, but not CANTS" for ISBE-recognised preschool programmes.

This is the basis for the negative finding on the MVOAY registry. https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/child-care-licensing-redesign-bill-signed.html — IDEC release of 26 June 2026, "Gov. Pritzker Signs Child Care Licensing Redesign Bill into Law (HB 3595)"; "Terminology change takes effect immediately"; exemption framework by 1 July 2027, park districts and municipalities by 1 July 2028. https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/2026-spring-legislative-session---early-childhood-education--ece.html — IDEC legislative wrap-up of 2 June 2026. Swept act by act for anything touching background checks: HB3595, HB5099, HB5204, HB2190, HB4587, HB5364, SB2771, HB3772, SB2773, HB5225, HB1783, HB4606, HR0923. Only HB3595 and HB5099 bear on this field. https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/illinois-department-of-early-childhood-officially-launches-july-.html — IDEC launch release of 1 July 2026 (385 employees, $4.3bn, programmes transferred from DCFS, IDHS, ISBE and GOECD). https://dcfs.illinois.gov/for-providers/background-checks-for-licensed-and-unlicensed-providers/background-check-portal-for-licensed-providers.html — DCFS Background Check Portal page.

Source of the CFS 718-B-AI / CFS 718-B-DC form names, the AccountManagement registration URL, the Background Check Portal Access Request Form to DCFS.BCP.ADMIN@illinois.gov, "Approval takes up to five business days", and the link to "Adam Walsh State Contacts and Procedures for Out of State Child Abuse Registry Checks". https://dcfs.illinois.gov/for-providers/background-checks-for-licensed-and-unlicensed-providers/background-checks-for-unlicensed-providers.html — CFS 689 page; source of the handwritten-signature rule, the fax number 217-782-3991, DCFS.689Background@illinois.gov, 217-557-0758, and the warning that the 689 check excludes the Illinois criminal and sex offender checks. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/cfs-700/cfs-718-b-dc-authorization-for-background-check-for-day-care.pdf — full text of form CFS 718-B-DC, footer "CFS 718-B-DC Rev 5/2023", four pages.

Source of the signature instruction, the who-should-use-this-form note, the SSN/ITIN warning in capitals, the five-year address instruction, the Section 4 licensing-worker duty, "Initial Applications will be assigned # by Background Check Unit", the probationary employment notice, the ISP/FBI Privacy Act statement, and the authorisation text quoting 225 ILCS 10/4.1. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BackgroundCheckProcess.aspx — DCFS Sunshine Background Check Process page, read 26 August 2026. Source of the operational description of partial vs comprehensive checks, of "At present Illinois fingerprinting and background checks are free", and of the now-stale sentence "Since Illinois license period is three years, the Comprehensive Background Check will take place during the Renewal of license." https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BecomeLicensed.aspx — Sunshine "An Overview of the Licensing Process". Source of "Everyone age 13 years and older living or working in a day care home is subject to a background check" and "There is no cost for this check".

Also carries a 2016 promise about an online application system that never shipped: treat this page as colour, not law. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Resources/FingerPrintLookup.aspx — Sunshine Fingerprint Lookup page. Source of backgroundcheckportal.dcfs.illinois.gov/FingerPrintSearch, the transfer-instead-of-reprint procedure, and the instruction that a day care home applicant's licensing representative decides whether printing is needed. NOTE: this page still calls the vendor "BioMetric Impressions" while linking to accuratebiometrics.com — a stale vendor name on a live state page. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/CommonlyUsedProviderForms.aspx — Sunshine forms list; confirms CFS 718-B-DC is the day care authorisation, CFS 560 the Child Support Certificate, CFS 597 the licence application, CFS 602 the adult medical report. https://accuratebiometrics.com/dcfs-illinois — vendor page, read 26 August 2026. Source of "As of February 10, 2025, Accurate Biometrics is the sole provider for all DCFS fingerprinting in Illinois", "There is NO cost to the individual; the fee is paid by DCFS", the walk-in/no-appointment statement, the Search Result Letter requirement, the six-digit provider ID requirement, and the confirmation that 14-to-17-year-old employees get the comprehensive fingerprint check.

Vendor, not law; used only for mechanics and price. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/rules/rules-385.pdf — DCFS print of Part 385, footer "October 29, 2021 - P.T. 2021.08". READ IN FULL AND THEN DISCARDED AS STALE. Cited in the field only as the trap. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/rules/rules-406.pdf — DCFS print of Part 406, footer "October 25, 2020 - Updated pursuant to 2021.11 IT". Same treatment. https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/illinois/Ill-Admin-Code-tit-89-SS-385.20, .30, .60 and .../Ill-Admin-Code-tit-89-SS-406.4, 406.9 — Cornell LII. Used as a cross-check and found to be STALE in the same way: LII still prints the pre-April-2026 text of Part 385 and the Part 406 text as if it had not been transferred. Recorded here so no one later "verifies" against it. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS THE METHOD REQUIRES. The brief instructed me to quote "89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 385 and Part 406" as the governing text for an Illinois day care home.

That is wrong as at 26 August 2026 and has been wrong since 1 July 2026. Part 406 is emptied and marked (TRANSFERRED); the day care home licensing standards are 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 under the Department of Early Childhood. Part 385 survives but its day care subpart (former Sections 385.30 to 385.34) is emptied and marked (Transferred); the day care background check rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010. Part 385 was additionally rewritten into Subparts A-G at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445, effective 24 April 2026, so even the surviving sections do not read as the brief assumes. The field therefore cites 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2010 for the day care rules and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 only for the parts that stayed with DCFS, and says so to the reader. SECOND CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF. The brief listed "the Illinois Sex Offender and Murderer-and-Violent-Offender-Against-Youth registries" as components of the check. The Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth registry appears nowhere in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010, nowhere in 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385, and nowhere on form CFS 718-B-DC. IDEC's own licensure page attributes that database to the School Code regime for district and ISBE-recognised preschool programmes and expressly contrasts it with the licensed child care regime.

The field says the registry is NOT part of a day care home check. THIRD CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF. The brief asked for "the cost per person, who pays". Under the rule as it stood in 2021 there was an express "No Charge for Background Checks" subsection; it did not survive the April 2026 rewrite, and 225 ILCS 10/4.1 now expressly contemplates a third-party fingerprinting vendor paid directly by the day care home. In fact today the checks are free because DCFS pays Accurate Biometrics, but the legal guarantee is gone. The field reports both. UNVERIFIED: the list of felonies that Section 2010.50(a) was meant to carry. The codified text on the JCAR site ends at the colon on both the EntirePart view and the individual section page, so the additional day care disqualifiers are unpublished. Section 385.60(c) and Section 385.70(a)(4)(A) both still point at "Section 385.34", which no longer exists in Part 385. Nothing in the field asserts what those felonies are; the field tells the reader to demand the published text in writing. UNVERIFIED: whether IDEC has issued any rule of its own beyond the recodifications.

The JCAR Title 23 Chapter XI listing was reached only through the two Part pages (2007 and 2010); the full Chapter XI parts index was not enumerated, so a separate new IDEC background-check Part, if one has been proposed, was not checked for. UNVERIFIED: the Illinois Register itself. www.ilsos.gov returns HTTP 403 behind Akamai from this environment for every path tried, including the Administrative Code home page, so the Secretary of State's Illinois Register issues at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445, 9831, 9832, 9917 and 10293 were not read in their published form; those citations are taken from the JCAR source notes that reproduce them. www.ilga.gov also refuses or times out direct connections from this environment (curl, headless Chrome and the sandbox proxy all fail against 12.43.67.2), so every ILGA page above was retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns ILGA's own rendered content. The text is ILGA's; the transport was not direct. UNVERIFIED: the full enacted text of P.A. 104-0480 and P.A. 104-0692. The Public Act pages report "The full text of the file you requested is too large for display in this window" and offer a PDF that was not extracted; the effective dates, the amended-statute list and the operative changes are taken from the Public Act landing pages, the bill status pages, the synopses and House Committee Amendment No. 1, plus the amended ILCS text itself where the Act has already been folded in (225 ILCS 10/4.2 and 10/5 both carry the 104-480 credit).

UNVERIFIED: whether the Background Check Unit publishes any service standard beyond the 45-day rule in Section 2010.10(f). The Sunshine "Background Check Delays" page linked from the site navigation returns Page Not Found, so no departmental statement on delay causes was read. UNVERIFIED: the current DCFS/IDEC fee, if any, charged by the Illinois State Police under 225 ILCS 10/4.1. No fee schedule was located; the field says only that the statute authorises a fee not exceeding actual cost. [capacity_max] https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900406 — opened 2026-08-26; 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 now contains ONLY its source note, which ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832". Establishes that the brief's citation (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) is dead. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900408 — opened 2026-08-26; 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 likewise emptied, source note ends "amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 8928, effective July 1, 2025; transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?titleId=023 — index of Title 23 parts in effect; confirms PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, PART 2008 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE CENTERS, PART 2009 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES, plus 2005 (exemptions), 2006, 2010 (background checks).

Started from this index rather than from a pinned URL, per method rule 1. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 as served today. Established: Section 2007.2 definitions of "Attendance", "Day care homes", "Department" (= Illinois Department of Early Childhood, Section 1-15 of the Early Childhood Act), "Infant" (through 12 months), "Licensed capacity", "Preschool age", "School age", "Special use areas"; Section 2007.6(c)(d) licence capacity and age limits; Section 2007.8(k) 35 sq ft / +20 sq ft only when licensed capacity exceeds 8; Section 2007.10 assistant age 14 minimum and direct personal supervision of minor assistants; Section 2007.13(a)-(h) in full (8 alone incl. own/related/unrelated resident children under 12; the three lone-caregiver groupings; minor-assistant and adult-assistant groupings; extended 4 school-age capacity addendum; night care 8; home-schooled resident children; brief unforeseen school closing +1 capped at 12; sibling transition plan); Section 2007.20(c) functional-age counting for children with special needs; Section 2007.21 school-age programme duties; Section 2007.22 under-30-months duties; Section 2007.24 records; Section 2007.26 admission of representatives and periodic monitoring.

Every section carries "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 as served today. Established: Section 2009.5 definitions ("Attendance", "Group day care home", "Licensed capacity", "Preschool age", "School age"); Section 2009.20(c)(d) licence capacity/age limits; Section 2009.30(c) 35 sq ft per child from the first child plus 20 sq ft for each child under 30 months when play area is sleep area; Section 2009.50 part-time assistants 14+, full-time assistants 18+; Section 2009.65(a)-(f) in full (8 alone except all-school-age; the four lone-caregiver groupings incl. up to 8 preschool if none under 3 and up to 12 school age; 12 with one adult assistant, incl. 12 aged 3-6 and the 12/6-under-30-months/4-under-15-months grouping; extended capacity to 16 with two assistants and its (c)(2)/(c)(3) variants; own school-age children counted once extension granted; 16 hard cap; night care 12; brief closing +1 capped at 16; sibling transition plan); Appendix H "Chart of Number and Ages of Children Served" totals column 8/8/8/12/12/12/16; Section 2009.100(c); Section 2009.110; Section 2009.120(b) daily attendance records; Section 2009.130 cooperation with the Department.

Every section carries "(Source: Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 (Department of Children and Family Services) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183)". https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K2.18 — current 225 ILCS 10/2.18: "'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children ... The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12." (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.) Establishes the statutory 12 and the post-1 July 2026 renaming; note the statute says "natural or adopted", NOT "natural, foster, or adopted". https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K2.20 — current 225 ILCS 10/2.20: "'Group early care and education home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children ..." (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.) Establishes the statutory 16 and the renaming. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=022500100K2.09 — current 225 ILCS 10/2.09 "Early care and education center", showing the >8-children-in-a-family-home boundary and the stack of 2023-2026 amendatory acts (103-153, 103-594, 103-952, 104-45, 104-417, 104-480). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0480 — Public Act 104-0480 landing page; Effective Date: 7/1/2026. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/104/104-0480.htm — enrolled text of P.A. 104-0480 (1.72 MB).

Lines showing "Sec. 2.18. 'Early care and education Day care homes'" and "Sec. 2.20. 'Group early care and education day care home'" with "more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children" and "up to a maximum of 16 children" left unstruck. Establishes that the 2026 act changed the NAMES only, not the ceilings. Also adds new 225 ILCS 10/2.41 "Supervisor of children". https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/illinois/title-89/part-406 — used only to enumerate the old Part 406 section list at the start of the search; not relied on for any published assertion (it still serves the pre-transfer Part 406). CONTRADICTIONS WITH THE BRIEF, resolved in favour of the text in hand: 1. The brief says to quote "89 Ill. Adm. Code Parts 406 and 408". Those parts no longer contain rule text. The operative citations are 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Department of Early Childhood), per the transfer notes at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832 / 9838 and the recodification notes at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 / 10183. The file cites the live parts and explains the move. 2. The brief asks for "the separate limits on children under 2 and under 12 months".

Part 2007 has NO under-12-months capacity limit; its brackets are under 24 months (max 3) and under 30 months (max 2), and "Infant" (through 12 months) is used only for meal patterns and safe sleep. The only sub-24-month bracket anywhere in either part is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.65(b)(2)(C), "No more than 4 children may be under 15 months of age", and it is fifteen months, not twelve. The file says so explicitly. 3. The brief describes "the short overlap window before and after school" as if it were a clock-time allowance. There is no minute- or hour-based overlap allowance anywhere in Part 2007 or Part 2009 (searched for "overlap", "brief period", "30 minutes", "one hour", "transition period" — zero hits). The real provision is the occasion-based limit in 2007.13(c)(3)/(d)(3) and 2009.65(c)(2): the extra school-age seats may be used only before and/or after school, on holidays, weekends, during unforeseen school closings, when the provider's own children come home sick, and during the summer. The file states it that way. UNVERIFIED: the exact publication date of the Illinois Register issues at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832, 9838, 9917 and 10183 was not opened; the citations are taken verbatim from the JCAR-served source and recodification notes of Parts 406, 408, 2007 and 2009. UNVERIFIED: no Department of Early Childhood form, licence face, or licensing procedures manual was opened, so the exact wording printed on an Illinois licence stating capacity and age range is described from the rule text (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(c)(d), 2007.2 "Licensed capacity", 2009.20(c)(d), 2009.5) rather than from a specimen document. idec.illinois.gov/licensing.html was fetched and returned no capacity content.

UNVERIFIED: whether the Department has begun issuing licences under the new statutory labels "early care and education home" / "group early care and education home", or is still issuing "day care home" / "group day care home" licences while Parts 2007 and 2009 retain the old vocabulary. Both the rules and the statute were read; the practice was not. [home_type_definition] https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/AdminCode — JCAR index of Illinois Administrative Code titles in effect, opened 2026-08-26. Starting point (not a pinned URL); established that Title 23 is EDUCATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES and led to the Title 23 parts list. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023 — Title 23 parts index as served 2026-08-26. Established that Chapter XI (Department of Early Childhood) now contains PART 2005 FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS EXEMPT FROM LICENSURE, PART 2006 DAY CARE INFORMATION LINE, PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, PART 2008 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE CENTERS, PART 2009 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES, PART 2010 BACKGROUND CHECKS. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900406 — 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 as served today.

Established that the Part is now EMPTY except for its SOURCE note, which ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832." This DISPROVES the brief's premise that the rule definition lives in Part 406. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900407 — 89 Ill. Adm. Code 407, empty; source note ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 ... at 50 Ill. Reg. 9834." Last substantive amendment before transfer: 49 Ill. Reg. 8719, eff. June 18, 2025. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900408 — 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408, empty; source note ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 ... at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838." Last substantive amendment before transfer: 49 Ill. Reg. 8928, eff.

July 1, 2025. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes) as served 2026-08-26. Established verbatim: the authority line (P.A. 103-0594, Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]) and the recodification source (50 Ill. Reg. 9917); Section 2007.1 (purpose); the Section 2007.2 definitions of "Applicant", "Attendance", "Caregiver", "Day care homes" (quoting the pre-104-480 text of 2.18 with the agency's inserted word "foster"), "Department" (= Illinois Department of Early Childhood), "Family home"/"family residence", "Licensed capacity", "Member of the household", "Persons subject to background checks", "Premises", "Preschool age", "Related", "School age", "Supervising agency"; Section 2007.4(a) and (b)(1)(B)-(C) (application filed by the supervising agency; list of household members age 13 and over and their background-check authorisations); Section 2007.6(a),(b),(c),(e),(f),(g),(h),(j); Section 2007.7(b),(e),(i); Section 2007.9(a),(c),(i); Section 2007.13(a) through (h) in full (the 8-child ceiling including the caregiver's own children, the three caregiver-alone groupings, the assistant groupings and the 4 additional school-age children, the extended-capacity addendum counting the caregiver's own school-age children, night care capped at 8, home-schooled resident children counted, the one extra child on an unforeseen school closing up to a total of 12, the sibling transition plan). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Group Day Care Homes).

Established the Section 2009.5 definitions of "Group day care home" (quoting 225 ILCS 10/2.20), "Extended capacity" (4 additional school-age children, maximum 16), "Family home", "Licensed capacity", "Member of the household", and the whole of Section 2009.65 (caregiver alone capped at 8 under-twelves or 12 school-age or 8 preschoolers if none under 3; caregiver plus one adult assistant = 12; caregiver plus two assistants = 16; two assistants present at all times above 12; square-footage cross-reference to 2009.30(c)). Source line: recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302008 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 (Day Care Centers).

Established that Sections 2008.1-2008.34 are Repealed and the live text is in Subparts A-… beginning at Section 2008.40, and the verbatim Section 2008.45 definitions of "Child care facility" (quoting 225 ILCS 10/2.05) and "Day care center" ("more than 8 children in a family home or more than 3 children in a facility other than a family home, including senior citizen buildings") with its exclusions for school-operated and ISBE-recognised programmes serving children who have attained the age of 3. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302005 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2005 (Facilities and Programs Exempt From Licensure), recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 377 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9896. Established verbatim Section 2005.3(d) (the three-child / single-household home exemption, own children included), Section 2005.3(a) and (b) (school, religious-school, shopping-centre, federal-premises and special-activities exemptions), Section 2005.4 (part day child care facility notification), Section 2005.6 (licence for a government benefit), and the two STALE cross-references still in the served text: "Section 377.2 of this Part" and "89 Ill. Adm. Code 407 (Licensing Standards for Day Care Centers)" at Section 2005.3(c). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Acts?ChapterID=24&ChapterNumber=225 — ILCS chapter 225 act list, used to locate the Child Care Act of 1969 (ActID=1293) rather than guessing a pinned URL. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — full text of the Child Care Act of 1969 (225 ILCS 10) as served 2026-08-26. Established verbatim and with source lines: Sec. 2.04 "Related" (Source: P.A. 98-804; 98-846; 99-78);

Sec. 2.05 "child care facility" ("unrelated to the operator", Source: P.A. 103-1061, eff. 7-1-25); Sec. 2.09 "Early care and education center" (Source includes P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26 and 104-480, eff. 7-1-26); Sec. 2.10 (Repealed by P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26); Sec. 2.11 "day care agency" (Repealed by P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26); Sec. 2.18 "Early care and education homes" (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26) — the operative current text quoted in the field; Sec. 2.20 "Group early care and education home" (Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26); Sec. 3(a), (d), (d-5)(1)-(7), (d-10), (d-15), (g) and (h) in full, including the three-child in-home exemption with the provider's own children counted, the six-children-from-one-household allowance, the definition of "children from the same household", the mandatory exemption notice to parents, the two-hour supplementary-operations exemption, and the deferral of subsections (d-10)/(d-15) to July 1, 2027 (July 1, 2028 for park districts); Sec. 3.01 (licence or permit; Department of Early Childhood); Sec. 4(a) (DCFS licence requirement, now expressly excluding early care and education centers and homes);

Sec. 4.01 (IDEC licence requirement for providers defined in Sections 2.09, 2.18 and 2.20). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?GAID=18&SessionID=114&DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=3595 — HB3595 (104th GA) bill status.

Established that it became PUBLIC ACT 104-0480 on 6/26/2026 with "Effective Date July 1, 2026", and the verbatim synopsis: replaces "day care"/"daycare"/"day-care" with "early care and education" and "facility" with "provider", creates Recognized Alternative Provider registration, and repeals the licensure exemption for day care homes and group day care homes serving children of military personnel and a child from a foreign state or country, and the definition of "part day child care facility". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?GAID=18&SessionID=114&DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=5099 — HB5099 (104th GA) bill status, swept per METHOD rule 2. Became PUBLIC ACT 104-0692 on 7/31/2026. Establishes that the IDEC takeover of fingerprint-based criminal history checks is deferred to July 1, 2027 (DCFS retains until then) and that the probationary-hire provision now runs through June 30, 2027. Confirms this act does NOT amend 225 ILCS 10/2.18, 2.20 or 2.09; no definitional claim in the field text rests on it. Note that the ILCS database text of Sec. 4.1 as served today still shows the pre-104-692 dates, so no Section 4.1 detail is asserted in the field text. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?GAID=18&SessionID=114&DocTypeID=HB&DocNum=2190 — HB2190 (104th GA), became PUBLIC ACT 104-0583 on 7/24/2026 (first aid/CPR staffing in child care institutions).

Swept; does not touch the home definitions. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — Illinois Department of Early Childhood, Child Care Licensure page, read 2026-08-26. Established that IDEC "will officially become the lead agency for Child Care Licensing" starting July 1, 2026, the facility-type list used for background checks ("Child care home, fully licensed (most common)", "Child care home, license exempt non-relative care"), and the sentence "No background check is required for a child care home that is license exempt because children are cared for by a relative." https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/2026-spring-legislative-session---early-childhood-education--ece.html — IDEC agency news, 2 June 2026, "2026 Spring Legislative Session - ECE Bills that Passed Both Chambers". Legislative sweep of the 2026 spring session act by act. Established that HB3595 is the terminology/licensing-redesign bill ("Changes in terminology are effective in statute on July 1, 2026"; "New license exemption structure is not effective until July 1, 2027 ... not effective until July 1, 2028 for Park Districts"; "Background check changes will not go into effect until July 1, 2027, upon approval by the FBI"), and that no other 2026 act amends the definition of a day care home.

Also lists HB5204, HB4587, HB5364, SB2771, HB3772, SB2773, HB5225, HB1783, HB4606 and HR0923, none of which touches 225 ILCS 10/2.18, 2.20 or 2.09. CORRECTION TO THE BRIEF (the official text outranks the hint, per METHOD): the brief's three citation anchors are all stale as of today. (1) "the rule definition in 89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406" — Part 406 is empty; the live rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, transferred at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832 and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 under P.A. 103-594. (2) "a 'group day care home' (Part 408)" — Part 408 is empty; the live rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009. (3) "a day care CENTER (Part 407)" — Part 407 is empty; the live rule is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008. Fourth and most consequential: the brief asks for "the statutory definition at 225 ILCS 10/2.18 ... quoted verbatim" of a "day care home", but Section 2.18 no longer uses that term. Since P.A. 104-480 (HB3595), effective July 1, 2026, it defines "Early care and education homes", the 2.20 term is "Group early care and education home", and the 2.09 term is "Early care and education center". The exclusion clause was also reworded from "facilities which receive only children from a single household" to "locations that receive only children from a single household".

The arithmetic (more than 3, up to 12, under 24 hours, own children counted, single household excluded) is unchanged; the nouns are not. The field text quotes both the current statute and the rule's stale in-line quotation of the old statute, and names the mismatch, because a provider will meet both texts in the same week. UNVERIFIED: whether IDEC has FILED a proposed rulemaking to rename Part 2007 or to conform it to the P.A. 104-480 vocabulary. The Illinois Register is published by the Secretary of State at ilsos.gov, which returned HTTP 403 to every request from this environment; the JCAR side of ilga.gov serves only the codified text, which as of today still says "day care home". No claim is made in the field text about pending rulemaking, only about the text in effect. UNVERIFIED: the full engrossed text of Public Act 104-0480 itself. ILGA's Public Act viewer (ilga.gov/legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0480) could not be rendered from this environment; the act's content is established instead from (a) the amended ILCS sections' own source lines, which name P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26 on Sections 2.09, 2.10, 2.18, 2.20 and 3, and (b) the verbatim synopsis and the "Effective Date July 1, 2026" / "Public Act 104-0480" entries on the HB3595 bill-status page.

UNVERIFIED: the exact numeric reconciliation between 225 ILCS 10/2.18 (single-household carve-out with no numeric cap) and 225 ILCS 10/3(d-5)(1) (same-household exemption capped at 6 children). Both texts were read verbatim; no agency interpretation resolving the tension was found. The field text states the tension explicitly and advises the reader to obtain a written exemption verification under Section 3.01(e) rather than assert a resolution. UNVERIFIED: whether ilga.gov is reachable directly from the operator's network. Every direct request to www.ilga.gov and ilga.gov timed out from this machine (curl and the fetch tool both, port 443, DNS resolving correctly to 12.43.67.2), while dcfs.illinois.gov, idec.illinois.gov and law.cornell.edu answered normally. All ILGA pages above were therefore retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns the ILGA page's own rendered text with the source URL echoed in the response header. Every URL above is the ILGA URL that was actually fetched; the proxy is transport, not source. No text was taken from Justia, Cornell LII, elaws.us or any other mirror. [max_group_size] Field: max_group_size (IL).

All sources below were opened on 26 August 2026. ACCESS NOTE, read this before re-checking anything: from this machine www.ilga.gov resolves to 12.43.67.2 and every direct TCP connection times out, and www.ilsos.gov (which now serves the Administrative Code index) returns Akamai "Access Denied" 403 to curl, to headless Chrome and to WebFetch alike. The Illinois Administrative Code and ILCS pages below were therefore retrieved through the r.jina.ai text proxy against the live ilga.gov URLs shown (https://r.jina.ai/<url>), which returns the live page, not a cached snapshot — each response carried today's live content including the 2026 recodification notes. Wayback was used only to confirm reachability and was not the source of any published assertion. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=02302007&TitleDescription=TITLE%2023 — index of rules in effect for TITLE 23, SUBTITLE A, CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD.

Serves today: PART 2005 FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS EXEMPT FROM LICENSURE, PART 2006 DAY CARE INFORMATION LINE, PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, PART 2008 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE CENTERS, PART 2009 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES, PART 2010 BACKGROUND CHECKS, PART 2050, PART 2060, PART 2070. This is the index I started from; it establishes that Parts 2007/2009 are the live home rules. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900406&TitleDescription=TITLE%2089 — establishes that the Part named in the brief is dead: heading reads "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)" and the SOURCE note ends "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832". No operative section text remains. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900408&TitleDescription=TITLE%2089 — same for the group-home Part: "PART 408 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", SOURCE note ending "transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full live text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (144,733 bytes retrieved).

Established, verbatim: the Part SOURCE line ("Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917"); Section 2007.2 definitions of "Day care homes", "Attendance", "School age", "Assistant"; Section 2007.6(c) and (d) (capacity and ages on the licence, written approval to increase); Section 2007.8(k) (35 sq ft per child plus 20 sq ft for under-30-months, triggered only when licensed capacity exceeds 8); Section 2007.9(i) and (k) (licensee present; caregivers at least 18); Section 2007.10(a)-(e) (assistant qualifications: background check per 2007.9(a), at least 14 and 5 years older than the oldest child supervised, 56 Ill. Adm. Code 250, direct personal supervision defined as audible or visual contact, 18+ may transport); Section 2007.11(a)-(c) (substitute 18+, 25 child care hours per month plus 2 weeks per 12 months, regular substitute must be qualified as a caregiver); Section 2007.13(a)-(h) in full — the entire "Number and Ages of Children Served" section, which is the whole of the numeric regime; Section 2007.20(c) (special needs counted at functional age); Section 2007.22 in full (confirmed to contain NO numeric limit on infants); Section 2007.23 (night care).

Confirmed by full-text search of the Part that the phrase "group size" does not occur anywhere in Part 2007. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full live text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (170,413 bytes retrieved). Established, verbatim: Part SOURCE line citing 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 and 50 Ill. Reg. 10183; Section 2009.5 definitions of "Group day care home" (quoting Section 2.20 of the Child Care Act), "School age", "Attendance", "Assistant"; Section 2009.30(c) (35/20 sq ft, no threshold), (l) (one toilet per 10 persons), (m) (75 sq ft outdoor per child); Section 2009.35(k) (persons counted in the ratio must be present, awake and free from other responsibilities); Section 2009.45(c)-(e) (caregiver at least 21, high school diploma, three qualifying education/experience routes, Appendix F); Section 2009.50(b)-(d), (h) (part-time assistant 14+, full-time assistant 18+, under-18 direct personal supervision, medical report valid 3 years); Section 2009.55(b) (substitute at least 21); Section 2009.65(a)-(f) in full; Section 2009.100(d) (special needs at functional age); Section 2009.APPENDIX H "Chart of Number and Ages of Children Served", whose column headings are "Caregiver Alone / Caregiver & Assistant (Assistant must be 18 or older) / Extended Capacity (2 Assistants must be present) / Total".

Confirmed by full-text search that the phrase "group size" does not occur anywhere in Part 2009. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302008 — full live text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 (Day Care Centers, 264,461 bytes retrieved), opened solely to prove the contrast. Section 2008.190(a) prints a table with the literal column heading "MAXIMUM GROUP SIZE" (infants 6 weeks–14 months 1 to 4 / 12; toddlers 15–23 months 1 to 5 / 15; two years 1 to 8 / 16; three years 1 to 10 / 20; four years 1 to 10 / 20; five years preschool 1 to 20 / 20; school-age with kindergartners present 1 to 20 / 30), plus subsection (b) (up to 30 if all children are at least five) and (c) (youngest child governs when ages are combined).

Establishes that Illinois uses the term "maximum group size" only for centres, never for homes. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/fulltext?DocName=022500100K2.18 — 225 ILCS 10/2.18 as served today: "'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day..." with source note "(Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/fulltext?DocName=022500100K2.20 — 225 ILCS 10/2.20 as served today: "'Group early care and education home' means a family home which receives more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children for less than 24 hours per day..." with source note "(Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0480 — Public Act 104-0480, Effective Date 7/1/2026. Establishes the effective date of the statutory renaming relied on above. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs/View/103-0594 — Public Act 103-0594, Effective Date 06/25/2024. Establishes the authority cited in every recodification note of Parts 2007, 2008 and 2009. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF (flagged per METHOD rule 4). The brief instructed me to quote "89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406" and "Part 408". Those Parts are emptied and marked (TRANSFERRED) on the JCAR index as of today; quoting them verbatim as live law would have been publishing repealed-in-place text.

Everything published is quoted from 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2009 instead, with the transfer citation given in the field text so a reader carrying the old citation is corrected rather than confused. The brief's framing also presupposed that a group-size rule might exist "distinct from total capacity"; the text establishes that it does not, for either home type, and the field says so explicitly. UNVERIFIED: the full body text of Public Act 104-0480 was not read — the ILGA page returned only the metadata block ("The full text of the file you requested is too large for display in this window") and the linked PDF at https://www.ilga.gov/Documents/Legislation/PublicActs/104/PDF/104-0480.pdf was not opened. Nothing is asserted about that Act beyond its effective date (7/1/2026) and the two definitional sentences it produced, both of which were read directly in the ILCS text of 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and 2.20 where they appear with that Act as their source note. UNVERIFIED: whether the Department of Early Childhood has since proposed or adopted amendments to Parts 2007/2009 published in the Illinois Register after the recodification — the Illinois Register is hosted on ilsos.gov (formerly cyberdriveillinois.com), which returns 403 to every access method available on this machine, so the Register itself could not be swept issue by issue.

The JCAR text served today is the codified text in effect and carries no pending-amendment marker at Sections 2007.13, 2009.65 or 2008.190. UNVERIFIED: no Illinois Department of Early Childhood licensing handbook, technical assistance bulletin or capacity worksheet was consulted, deliberately — under METHOD rule 3 the agency manual is not the law, and none is cited in the field text. [prelicensing_steps] https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 "Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes" as served on 26 Aug 2026, reached from the JCAR Title 23 parts index rather than from any pinned PDF.

Source of every verbatim quotation from Sections 2007.2 (definitions of "Licensing representative", "Supervising agency", "Water source"), 2007.4(a)-(f) (contents of application A-J, 15 hours pre-service within one year, lead safety certificate, licensing study and 3 written references, OSFM fire inspection, local/municipal compliance, new applications), 2007.5(f) (renewal review of fire/tornado/hazard plans), 2007.6(a)-(k) (residence-only, 3-year term, capacity increases, display, no fee, Gateways Registry with the stale 89 Ill. Adm. Code 50.Subpart G cross-reference), 2007.7(a)(1)-(8) and (b)-(i) (the eight permit preconditions, non-renewable, non-retroactive, no fee), 2007.8(a)(3)-(5),(8),(10),(11),(12),(14),(16),(17),(18),(19),(22),(23),(24),(25),(29) and (d),(e),(f),(g),(j)(5),(k),(m),(p) (first aid kit, extinguisher, smoke and CO detector placement, basement two-exit and egress-window dimensions, firearms, emergency plans, daily escape-route log, pool fencing, radon every 3 years, private water supply and 10 ppm nitrate, CFS 597-DCI construction date, lead-in-water 2.01 ppb regime and 120-day submission, 115F hot water, 35/20 square feet, crib certification), 2007.9(a)-(f),(l),(m),(n),(o),(p),(t) (background check bar, fingerprint non-appearance, child support certification, diploma, medical evidence, first aid/Heimlich/CPR, 6-hour disability training within 36 months), 2007.10(e), 2007.12(b),(h),(j) (child medical/lead screening before admission, late pick-up policy elements, behaviour support policies citing 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2050.320), 2007.14(c) (child medical report on file first day of care), 2007.24(f),(i),(j),(k),(m) (parent receipt of licensing standards summary, household physical examinations and tuberculin test, 3-year validity, mandated reporter statement signed prior to employment), 2007.26(a)-(b) (access and monitoring whether or not care is being provided), Appendix D (approved training entities and delivery methods, infant topics, disability course components) and Appendix E (the 18 fire safety inspection items).

https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302010 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 "Background Checks" as served today.

Source of Sections 2010.10(a) (partial checks for household members 13-17, parental authorization), 2010.10(c)(1),(3),(4),(5),(6) (comprehensive checks for applicants, adult household members "even if these members of the household are not usually present", employees, volunteers, 14-17 year old workers), 2010.10(e) (ISP and FBI Next Generation Identification fingerprints, SCR, SOR/NSOPW, NCIC/NSOR, interstate checks for five years of residence) and 2010.10(f) ("Background checks shall be completed in 45 days or less"). Also establishes its own AUTHORITY note (P.A. 103-0594) and SOURCE note (transferred from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Subpart B, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=08900385 — full text of 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 as served today, opened specifically to test whether the background-check machinery moved with Subpart B. It did not. Establishes that only Subpart B transferred (Sections 385.30-385.34 now read "(Transferred)"), that the Part was substantively amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445 effective 24 April 2026, and that Subparts A, E and F remain DCFS rules.

Source of Sections 385.40(a)-(b) (authorization contents), 385.50 (presumption of unsuitability, 30-day waiver request), 385.60(a),(c),(d) (non-waivable bars, the cross-reference to the transferred Section 385.34, the 5-year/10-year waiver arithmetic), 385.70(a),(c),(e) (disposition), 385.80(a),(d) (appeal to the DCFS Administrative Hearings Unit under 89 Ill. Adm. Code 337, the Springfield address, and the 10-day postmark deadline) and 385.90 (five-year records retention). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — full current text of the Child Care Act of 1969, 225 ILCS 10, served today and reached from the ILCS chapter index.

Source of the verbatim Sections 2.18 and 2.20 (the renamed home categories, P.A. 104-480 eff. 7-1-26), 3(a) and 3(d-5)(1) (licensing bar and the 3-child exemption with the parental notice duty), 4.01(a)-(c) (application to IDEC on its prescribed forms), 4.1 (fingerprints to ISP and FBI, the 5-year re-authorization under CCDBG, probationary hiring), 5.01(b)-(h) (applications filed by IDEC on behalf of homes, examiner qualification, 3-year licence and the 30+30 day continuation, the ONE 2-month home permit, unannounced visits, annual monitoring), 5.8(a)-(d) (radon every 3 years, proof at initial application and renewal, posting next to the licence, the prescribed parental statement and the IEMA 800-325-1245 number), 5.9(a)-(b) (lead in water, buildings constructed on or before 1 Jan 2000 serving children under 6), 5.11 (anaphylactic shock plan and the trained-staff-at-all-times duty), 7.01 (premises as required by any law, regulation or ordinance applicable to the location) and 7.10(a-5),(b),(c)(4)(A),(c)(4)(I) (the twice-yearly orientation entitlement in each Representative District and the language accommodation; the 30 September report; the "new applications disposed of within 90 days" metric and the orientation waiting-time metric). https://hdl.dcfstraining.org/jsp/index.jsp — the Day Care Home Licensing Orientation, opened and confirmed live on 26 Aug 2026. Source of the course structure (43 yes/no eligibility questions, 60-90 minutes of self-paced training, 10-question post-training assessment, evaluation, certificate) and of the verbatim instruction that the certificate "must be printed at time of completion".

Also establishes that the only functioning orientation route is still DCFS-branded two months after the transfer. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BecomeLicensed.aspx — "An Overview of the Licensing Process", read today. Source of the verbatim statements that home licences "are only issued in the family home of the individual(s) applying ... You may not rent or buy another home or apartment or use an unattached garage, outbuilding, etc.", of "Please phone licensing office to discuss your plans before you sign a lease or contract", and of the description of the home visit as verifying compliance and setting capacity, areas of use and hours. Also the primary evidence of how stale the consumer-facing guidance is: the page still announces an online application system "scheduled to be available in late 2016", still instructs applicants to comply with "Rule 406", and still links the DCFS-headed 406 and 408 PDFs. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BackgroundCheckProcess.aspx — read today; source of the CFS 718 authorization form number for 13-to-17-year-old household members, of the statement that fingerprinting and background checks are free to applicants, household members and employees, and of the description of the three-person waiver review panel.

Used only for operational detail the agency is the primary source of; the legal requirements are cited to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BackgroundCheckDelay.aspx — read today; establishes that the live official notice on background-check turnaround is an artefact of a 2018 CCDBG re-check backlog ("DCFS must complete these by September 30, 2018 ... the lags will likely continue into the summer"). Cited here as evidence that no current published turnaround figure exists other than the 45-day rule; the entry therefore quotes 2010.10(f) and treats it as a floor. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/LeadTesting.aspx — the lead-testing page that 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(f) points applicants to; opened today and confirmed still resolving on the DCFS domain, which is why the entry warns that a DCFS URL is embedded in what is now an IDEC rule. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC's own Child Care Licensure page, read today.

Used for the facts IDEC is the primary source of: annual unannounced monitoring visits, the referral of ratio and group-size questions to the local CCR&R, the licensed family child care description ("Up to 8 children for one provider, or up to 12 children with an assistant"), and the fact that IDEC still routes providers to sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov for monitoring reports and background-check information. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders.html — IDEC provider landing page, read today; establishes that Child Care Licensure is the only licensing entry in the provider navigation and that there is no forms or application section. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure/forms.html and https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/becomealicensedprovider.html — both requested today and both returned pages titled "404". This is the basis for the published assertion that as of 26 Aug 2026 IDEC has no forms page and no "become a licensed provider" page, and that the prescribed application packet must be requested from a licensing representative by name. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/about-us/notices/forms.html — DCFS forms index, read today; source of the verbatim transitional banner "As of July 1, 2026, child care licensure is managed by the Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

For providers, nothing is changing. All licensing representatives and staff remain ready to assist you. If you have questions related to licensure, please reach out to IDEC directly at Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov or your current CCR&R." https://dcfs.illinois.gov/about-us/notices/pr-policy-rules.html — DCFS rules index, read today; still lists Part 405, Part 406, Part 407 and Part 408 among its own rules with no transfer note, two months after the Administrative Code Division marked 406 "(TRANSFERRED)". Cited as the live stale artefact. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS METHOD REQUIRES: the brief's warning was correct and I confirmed it independently from the index of rules in effect rather than from the sibling agency.txt.

The JCAR Title 23 parts listing serves PART 2007, and its full text carries the AUTHORITY note "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]" with every section tagged "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)". Background checks are at 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010, recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Subpart B at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293. The statutory category names are "early care and education home" and "group early care and education home" per P.A. 104-0480 eff. 7-1-26. Every step below is written on 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007/2010 and the post-1 July 2026 text of 225 ILCS 10. TWO REFINEMENTS THE BRIEF DID NOT ANTICIPATE, both material to an applicant: (1) only SUBPART B of 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385 transferred, so the authorization, waiver, disposition, appeal and records-retention rules governing your background check are STILL DCFS rules at 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385, amended at 50 Ill. Reg. 6445 effective 24 April 2026, and a denied applicant still appeals to the DCFS Administrative Hearings Unit under 89 Ill. Adm. Code 337 within 10 days;

(2) 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010.50, as served today, prints the lead-in "In addition to criminal background check restrictions listed in Appendix A, day care home, group day care home, and day care center applicants/licensees, adult household members, employees, and volunteers shall be ineligible for employment or licensure if the individual: a) has been convicted of any of the following felonies:" and then ends, with the source note immediately following and NO enumerated list of felonies, while 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.60(c) still cross-refers to "Section 385.34" for exactly that list and 385.34 is now marked "(Transferred)".

The recodified Part also has no Appendix A of its own; the only Appendix A of criminal convictions in force is the one still sitting in the DCFS Part. The entry does not resolve this defect; it directs applicants to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.Appendix C and 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Appendix A, both of which are served in full. UNVERIFIED: any Illinois statute preempting municipal zoning, condominium declarations or lease restrictions for an early care and education home. I searched the full current text of the Child Care Act of 1969 for "zoning", "ordinance", "landlord", "lessor" and "deed" and found only the two "law, regulation or ordinance applicable to the location" clauses in Sections 7 and 7.01, which point the other way, and a domain-restricted search of ilga.gov surfaced no such provision. The entry therefore treats local law as a genuine veto grounded in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(e) and does not assert any statewide protection. UNVERIFIED: the form numbers of the initial application packet other than CFS 597-DCI (named inside 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(e)) and CFS 718 (named on the DCFS background-check process page). 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1) names its documents by title only — "Application for Home License", "Child Support Certification form" — and IDEC publishes no forms page, so no other CFS number is published here.

UNVERIFIED: the current roster of local licensing offices. The Sunshine "Become Licensed" page offers a collapsible list of local licensing offices, but the link resolves to the same page and no roster rendered when read today; IDEC publishes none. The entry tells applicants to ask for the representative assigned to their address rather than naming an office. UNVERIFIED: any published IDEC processing time for an initial home licence. Illinois sets no statutory decision deadline for an initial application; the closest official figure is the annual reporting metric at 225 ILCS 10/7.10(c)(4)(A) ("the number and percentage of new applications disposed of within 90 days"). The four-to-seven-month range given in element 17 is stated as an arithmetic stack of the individual rule-set deadlines that ARE published (45-day background checks, 120-day lead mitigation submission, 12-month pre-service freshness window, 2-month permit, 3-month renewal lead time), and is labelled as such rather than attributed to the agency. NOTE ON ACCESS: www.ilga.gov again refused direct connections from this machine, and every ILGA document above was retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns the target page's own text; the content is the official text, the transport was not direct. idec.illinois.gov, dcfs.illinois.gov, sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov and hdl.dcfstraining.org were reachable through the same reader.

No previously pinned URL was re-downloaded to confirm itself; Part 2007, Part 2010 and Part 385 were each reached fresh today. [preservice_training] CHAMP preservice_training — ILLINOIS — sources ouvertes et lues le 26 aout 2026. Note d'acces : www.ilga.gov refuse les connexions directes depuis cette machine ET depuis le fetcher (ECONNREFUSED 12.43.67.2:443) ; toutes les pages ILGA ont ete lues via le proxy de lecture r.jina.ai. Pas de IL/agency.txt dans le dossier au moment de la redaction — la question de l'agence a donc ete tranchee ici, a partir de l'index. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/AdminCode?titleId=89 — index des TITRES du Code administratif de l'Illinois maintenu par la Legislative Information System de l'Assemblee generale, lu le 26/08/2026. Point de depart (regle de methode n°1 : ne jamais re-telecharger une URL epinglee). Donne le lien vers le TITRE 89 et le TITRE 23. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=089 — index des PARTS du Titre 89 en vigueur, lu le 26/08/2026. Etablit le fait central du champ : "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 407 ... (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 408 ... (TRANSFERRED)".

Les Parts 401-405, 409-415 ne portent PAS cette mention : le transfert ne concerne que les trois Parts de garde d'enfants. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900406 — note SOURCE complete de l'ex-Part 406, lue mot pour mot le 26/08/2026. Derniere ligne : "amended at 44 Ill. Reg. 16116, effective September 18, 2020; transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Illinois Department of Early Childhood) pursuant to P.A. 103-594 at 50 Ill. Reg. 9832." https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900408 — idem pour l'ex-Part 408 : "...amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 8928, effective July 1, 2025; transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 ... at 50 Ill. Reg. 9838." https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=08900407 — ex-Part 407 : "...transferred to 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 ... at 50 Ill. Reg. 9834." https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023 — index des PARTS du Titre 23, lu le 26/08/2026 : PART 2005 FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS EXEMPT FROM LICENSURE, 2006 DAY CARE INFORMATION LINE, 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES, 2008 DAY CARE CENTERS, 2009 GROUP DAY CARE HOMES, 2010 BACKGROUND CHECKS.

Confirme la destination du transfert. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — TEXTE INTEGRAL de 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (Titre 23, Sous-titre A, Chapitre XI : DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD), 144 733 caracteres, lu le 26/08/2026. Note SOURCE : "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917." Sections effectivement lues et citees : 2007.2 (definitions "Applicant", "Assistant", "Background check"), 2007.4(b)(1)(F)(G)(H)(I)(J), 2007.4(b)(2)(A)-(E), 2007.4(b)(3), 2007.4(c), 2007.4(d)(1)-(3) ; 2007.5(e)(f) ; 2007.7(a)(1)-(8), (e), (g) ; 2007.8(a)(19)-(21) ; 2007.9(k)(l)(m)(n)(o)(p)(t) ; 2007.10(a)-(g) ; 2007.11(a)-(f) ; 2007.18 ; 2007.22(b) ; 2007.24(d)(e)(i)(j)(k)(l)(m) ; Appendix D (a), (b)(1)-(16), (c)(1)(A)-(H), (c)(2), (d), (e). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — TEXTE INTEGRAL de 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (group day care homes), 170 413 caracteres, lu le 26/08/2026. Note SOURCE de chaque section : "Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 ... pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183." Sections lues et citees : 2009.10(b)(1)(E)(I), (b)(2), (b)(3), (c) ;

2009.25(a)(1)-(12), (g) ; 2009.35(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)(o) ; 2009.45(c)(d)(e)(f)(j) ; 2009.50(b)(c)(h) ; 2009.55(b)(c) ; Appendix F ; Appendix G. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — Child Care Act of 1969 (225 ILCS 10) consolide, lu le 26/08/2026. Etablit : Sec. 2.09 "Early care and education center", Sec. 2.18 "Early care and education homes", Sec. 2.20 "Group early care and education home" (vocabulaire refondu, P.A. 104-0480) ; Sec. 2.41 "Supervisor of children" ; Sec. 3(a) (DCFS avant le 1/7/2026, DEC apres) ; Sec. 4.1 (trois versions coexistantes) ; Sec. 7 en DEUX versions explicitement etiquetees "(Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 103-594)" et "(Text of Section after amendment by P.A. 103-594)", cette derniere excluant "(other than a day care center, day care home, or group day care home)" ; Sec. 7.01 "Minimum standards for licensing; Department of Early Childhood" (Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26), dont (a)(2) formation abus/negligence pour les CENTRES seulement, (a)(4) "at least one staff member certified in first aid, in the Heimlich maneuver and in cardiopulmonary resuscitation", (a)(16) formation SUID/SIDS/AAP tous les 3 ans, et le paragraphe final imposant a tous les licensed day care home providers une formation SEL/sante mentale/trauma/ACEs "at least once every 3 years". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocNum=2190&GAID=18&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=159838&SessionID=114&GA=104 — statut de HB2190, lu le 26/08/2026 : "6/18/2026 House Sent to the Governor ;

7/24/2026 Governor Approved ; 7/24/2026 Effective Date January 1, 2027 ; Public Act 104-0583". Synopsis de l'amendement lu mot pour mot. https://ilga.gov/legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0583 — texte de la loi P.A. 104-0583, lu le 26/08/2026 en mode "diff" (barres = texte supprime).

Confirme que l'acte modifie la Sec. 7 (version anterieure a P.A. 103-594), remplace "at least one staff member" par "at least 2 non-administrative staff members" et ajoute "no later than 90 days after employment". La Sec. 7.01 n'est PAS touchee par cet acte.

Ligne finale : "Effective Date: 1/1/2027". https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/hb2190-update.html — position publique de l'IDEC sur HB 2190, lue le 26/08/2026 : "The law does not take effect until January 1, 2027", "this requirement only applies to child care center settings", le departement "is working with the sponsor to correct the language before it goes into effect". https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocNum=3595&GAID=18&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=162296&SessionID=114&GA=104 — statut de HB3595, lu le 26/08/2026 : "6/26/2026 Governor Approved ; Effective Date July 1, 2026 ; Public Act 104-0480". Le texte introduit etait un projet sur l'assurance des animaux de compagnie ;

la refonte de la licence garde d'enfants a ete ajoutee par amendement de seance — d'ou l'invisibilite du sujet dans le synopsis d'origine. https://idec.illinois.gov/news/2026/2026-spring-legislative-session---early-childhood-education--ece.html — recensement IDEC des textes de la session de printemps 2026 : HB3595 (terminologie, 1/7/2026), HB5099 (transfert du fingerprint background check DCFS -> IDEC, 1/7/2027), HB2190 (CPR), HB4587 (qualifications minimales des directeurs de centre, 1/7/2027), HR0923 (etude sur l'allegement de la licence, rapport du 1/7/2028). Aucun de ces textes, hors HB2190, ne touche la formation prealable d'un day care home. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — page Child Care Licensure de l'IDEC, lue le 26/08/2026 : "Starting July 1, 2026, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood will officially become the lead agency for Child Care Licensing", plus le tableau de correspondance DCFS -> IDEC (406->2007, 407->2008, 408->2009, 385->2010, 377->2005, 378->2006). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1460&ChapterID=32 — Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (325 ILCS 5) consolide, lu le 26/08/2026. Sec. 4(i) (declaration signee avant l'embauche) et Sec. 4(j) (formation initiale dans les 3 mois "or within the time frame of any other applicable State law", puis tous les 3 ans ; "in-person or web-based" ; 4 themes minimaux dont implicit bias). https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/procedures/procedures-406.pdf — "LICENSING PROCEDURES FOR DAY CARE HOMES", 31 mars 2014, en-tete DCFS, PDF telecharge et converti le 26/08/2026 (HTTP 200 : le document est TOUJOURS servi).

Manuel d'agence, PAS la loi — signale comme tel dans le champ. Etablit : les numeros de formulaires (CFS 597-DCI, 560, 602, 600, 599, 599-1, 599-10, 599-11, 515, 718, 674-3, 595-1) ; "Day care home orientation training is not required for licensure" avec 3 heures creditables ; "Online CPR certifications are not accepted" ; l'obligation CPR des deux conjoints co-demandeurs et des remplacants ; les tables de tranches d'age Red Cross / American Heart ; le Mantoux documente sur le CFS 602 ; l'adresse du registre (registry.ilgateways.com, INCCRRA, 1226 Towanda Plaza, Bloomington IL 61701). https://courses.inccrra.org/course/index.php?categoryid=24 — catalogue "IL Child Care Licensing Required Training" d'INCCRRA (plateforme i-learning Gateways), lu le 26/08/2026 : orientation 3 h, mandated reporter 1 h, Child Development Health and Safety Basics 4 h, Shaken Baby 1 h, SIDS/SUID/AAP Safe Sleep 1 h, Lead in Water 1 h, Welcoming Each and Every Child 7 h, Trauma-Informed Practice for Child Care Providers 2 h, plus equivalents espagnols. Sert a chiffrer le contenu reel des 15 heures. CONTREDIT LE BRIEF, ASSUME ET ECRIT DANS LE CORPS DU CHAMP : le brief demandait de citer "89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406 (et Part 408)". Ces deux Parts sont VIDEES et marquees (TRANSFERRED) dans l'index du Titre 89. Le texte opposable est 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 (day care homes) et 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (group day care homes), sous le DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD, depuis le 1er juillet 2026 (P.A. 103-0594 ; recodifications a 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 et 10183). Toutes les citations verbatim du champ portent donc la numerotation 2007.x / 2009.x.

Le fond des exigences de formation n'a PAS change : la recodification a deplace le texte, pas reecrit. CONTREDIT AUSSI LE BRIEF SUR L'ORIENTATION : le brief attendait "la formation d'orientation obligatoire et son decompte d'heures". Il n'y a AUCUNE orientation obligatoire dans 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007. Le manuel d'agence le dit expressement ("Day care home orientation training is not required for licensure"). Ce qui est obligatoire, c'est le compte de 15 heures (Sec. 2007.4(b)(2)), fraiches d'un an, plus 5 themes nommes et un certificat lead safety separe. CONTREDIT AUSSI LE BRIEF SUR LA "PREPARATION AUX URGENCES" ET LA "TRANSPORTATION" : ni l'une ni l'autre n'est une formation en Illinois. Ce sont des plans ecrits (Sec. 2007.4(b)(1)(F), 2007.8(a)(19)) et des conditions d'exploitation (Sec. 2007.18). Ecrit explicitement dans le champ pour eviter un achat inutile. PIEGE DE REDACTION SIGNALE : Sec. 2007.4(b)(2) renvoie les 15 heures "listed in Appendix D", mais Appendix D(b) s'ouvre sur "Topics or courses to meet the IN-SERVICE training requirements". Il n'existe nulle part dans la Part 2007 de curriculum enumere de pre-service.

Verifie ligne a ligne dans le texte integral. UNVERIFIED : la date exacte de publication du numero 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 / 9832 / 10183 (donc le jour precis de la recodification au Illinois Register) n'a pas ete lue ; seules les citations "50 Ill. Reg. XXXX" figurant dans les notes SOURCE de JCAR sont affirmees. La date d'effet du transfert de fonction (1er juillet 2026) repose sur P.A. 103-0594 tel que reflete par les notes de source ILCS ("103-594, eff. 7-1-26") et sur la declaration publiee de l'IDEC, non sur la lecture du texte integral de P.A. 103-0594. UNVERIFIED : les numeros de formulaires CFS restent affirmes d'apres le manuel DCFS de 2014. L'IDEC n'a publie a ce jour aucune liste de formulaires renumerotes ; il est possible que certains numeros aient change au transfert. Reserve ecrite dans le corps du champ. UNVERIFIED : le contenu de HB3595 / P.A. 104-0480 n'a ete lu qu'a travers le texte ILCS consolide (Sec. 2.09, 2.18, 2.20, 2.41, 3, 4.3a) et le recensement IDEC ; le texte integral de l'acte n'a pas ete ouvert. En particulier, la date de mise en oeuvre des volets "background check lie a la personne" (2027) et "Recognized Alternative Providers" (2027-2028) est reprise de l'IDEC, pas de l'acte.

UNVERIFIED : l'affirmation que le manuel de procedures DCFS reste, en pratique, l'instruction suivie par les representants de licence de l'IDEC apres le transfert. Elle est plausible (l'IDEC n'a rien publie qui le remplace) mais n'est etayee par aucun document IDEC. Le champ attribue explicitement au manuel, et non a la regle, toutes les exigences qui n'en viennent pas — notamment "Online CPR certifications are not accepted". UNVERIFIED : l'agrement IDPH des organismes de secourisme autres que Red Cross / AHA (Sec. 2007.9(n) "other entity approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health") — aucune liste publiee d'entites agreees n'a ete trouvee ni ouverte. Le champ se garde de nommer un troisieme certificateur. [program] All URLs below opened 2026-08-26. www.ilga.gov (12.43.67.2) refused/timed out on every direct TCP connection from this host and from the WebFetch fetcher all day, so ILGA pages were retrieved through the r.jina.ai text proxy against the exact ilga.gov URLs shown; every ilga.gov document quoted was read in that form, not from memory. Illinois Secretary of State (ilsos.gov, Illinois Register) returned Akamai 403 "Access Denied" on every path tried and was never read — see UNVERIFIED below. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000010R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.1 (Purpose).

Establishes that 89 Ill. Adm. Code 406 is now 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, Title 23 Subtitle A Chapter XI Department of Early Childhood, "(Recodified from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917)". Part still captioned "LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES". https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000020R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.2 (Definitions). Read in full; confirms the Part contains no standalone quoted definition of "day care home" (unlike Part 2009, which quotes Sec. 2.20). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000040R.html — 2007.4 Application for License. Contents of application, 15 hours pre-service training, radon test within 3 years, lead safety training, fire safety inspection under 2007.4(d), new-application triggers in 2007.4(f). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000050R.html — 2007.5 Application for Renewal.

Forms mailed 6 months before expiry; application due at least 3 months before expiry to be "timely and sufficient"; 30+30 day holdover quoted from 225 ILCS 10/5(d); 15 hours annual training; radon proof at renewal. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000060R.html — 2007.6 Provisions Pertaining to the License. 3-year term (2007.6(b)); capacity/age changes need written approval (c); 18-hour/24-hour cap (h); "There shall be no fee or charge for the license." (j). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000070R.html — 2007.7 Provisions Pertaining to Permits. 2-month permit period, non-renewable, non-retroactive, non-transferable; prerequisites; "There shall be no fee or charge for the permit." (i). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000080R.html — 2007.8 General Requirements for Day Care Homes. Water supply/nitrate rule, lead-in-water testing for homes serving children under 6 built on or before 1 Jan 2000, square-footage measurement obligation when licensed capacity exceeds 8. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000090R.html — 2007.9 Characteristics and Qualifications of the Day Care Family.

Caregiver at least 18 (k); high school diploma or equivalent for caregivers licensed after 1 Jan 2011 (l); first aid/Heimlich/CPR (n)-(o); 15 clock hours in-service (t). Cites 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010 for background checks, confirming the 385→2010 move. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000130R.html — 2007.13 Number and Ages of Children Served. 8 alone including own/related/unrelated children under 12; the three permitted mixes; +4 full-time school-age children with an assistant; 2007.13(g) confirms 12 as the outer maximum. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020070000270R.html — 2007.27 Severability; used to confirm the recodification legend appears on every section of Part 2007, not only the first. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000010R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009.1 (Purpose). Former 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408; "(Source: Recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 (Department of Children and Family Services) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183)". Still cites "Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 23, pars. 2211 et seq." https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000050R.html — 2009.5 Definitions.

Quotes Sec. 2.20 in its pre-2026 wording ("more than 3 up to 16 children ... natural, foster, or adopted children"), which is how the rule/statute vocabulary mismatch was detected. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000100R.html — 2009.10 Application for License. Documentation of 2009.45(e) caregiver qualifications required with the initial application; fire safety inspection under 2009.10(c); pre-service training; radon; lead. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000150R.html — 2009.15 Application for Renewal. Same 6-month/3-month renewal clock and 30+30 holdover as Part 2007. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000200R.html — 2009.20 Provisions Pertaining to the License. Who may hold the licence (a); 3-year term (b); "There shall be no fee or charge for the license." (j). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000250R.html — 2009.25 Provisions Pertaining to Permits. 6-month permit period (a)(6), (a)(9), (g); liability insurance proof required before permit (a)(7); non-renewable (e); "There shall be no fee or charge for the permit." (i). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000300R.html — 2009.30 General Requirements for Group Day Care Homes. 35 sq ft per child plus 20 sq ft per child under 30 months where play area is the sleep area (c). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000350R.html — 2009.35. "The operators of the group day care home shall carry public liability insurance in the single limit minimum amount of $100,000 per occurrence." (j). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000450R.html — 2009.45 Caregivers.

Age 21 (c); high school diploma (d); the three alternative qualification routes in (e)(1)-(3) including 1,560 clock hours in a licensed day care home; 15 clock hours in-service (f). https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020090000650R.html — 2009.65 Number and Ages of Children Served. 8 alone (12 if all school-age; 8 pre-schoolers if none under 3); 12 with one assistant 18+; Extended Capacity to 16 with two assistants, who must both be present above 12. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/02302009ZZ9996HR.html — 2009.Appendix H, Chart of Number and Ages of Children Served. Confirms the 8/12/16 columns and the composition of the four extended-capacity slots. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020050000020R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2005.2 (Definitions). Confirms Part 2005 is the recodified 89 Ill. Adm. Code 377 (Facilities and Programs Exempt from Licensure) and still carries the pre-2026 "day care center" definition. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020050000030R.html — 2005.3 Day Programs Exempt From Licensure. Subsection (d) is the home exemption rule quoted in the field; subsection (c) still cross-references "Section 377.2 of this Part" and "89 Ill. Adm. Code 407"; recodification legend cites 50 Ill. Reg. 9896. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/023/023020100B00100R.html — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010.10 Background Checks.

Confirms 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.30 was recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ — Child Care Act of 1969, 225 ILCS 10, read section by section from the ILCS compilation as served today. Sections used: 2.05, 2.09, 2.18, 2.20, 3, 3.01, 4, 4.01, 5, 5.01, 11, 18, 18.1. Established: the July 1, 2026 DCFS→IDEC handover in 3(a); the renamed definitions in 2.18 and 2.20 with source line "(Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)"; the exemption and the single-household 6-child cap in 3(d-5)(1); Recognized Alternative Providers in 3(d-10) and 3(d-15); the exclusion of early care and education providers from Sec. 5 by 5(a) and the 3-year term and 6-month/2-month permits in 5.01(d)-(e); annual monitoring in 5.01(h); the Class A misdemeanor and $10,000-per-day business offense in 11 and 18.1; and the relationship burden of proof in the closing sentence of 18.1. https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/104/104-0480.htm — Public Act 104-480 full text (1.7 MB). Amendatory text of 225 ILCS 10/2.18 and 2.20 read verbatim with the strike/insert markup; new Sec. 2.41 "Supervisor of children"; "Section 999. Effective date.

This Act takes effect July 1, 2026." https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?DocNum=3595&GAID=18&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=162296&SessionID=114 — HB 3595 status and synopsis. Establishes that P.A. 104-480 is HB 3595, that its caption is "INS CD-PET INSURANCE", that the child care language arrived as an amendment replacing everything after the enacting clause, and the scope of the day care→early care and education rename. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/PublicActs (104th General Assembly public act list, read through 104-0853) — swept for Child Care Act and early childhood items; identified 104-0308 (CHILD CARE ACT REQUIREMENTS, HB 3444), 104-0309 (EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER REQS, HB 3446), 104-0045 (DAY CARE CENTER-CIVIC ORG), 104-0417 (First 2025 General Revisory), 104-0480. No act found delaying or reversing the July 1, 2026 transfer, and the ILCS source lines on Secs. 3, 4.01, 5, 5.01 and 18.1 all show 103-594 and 104-480 as in force. https://earlychildhood.illinois.gov/ — Illinois Department of Early Childhood home page, fetched live today. Sitewide banner: "Starting July 1, 2026, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood will officially become the lead agency for Child Care Licensing...". https://earlychildhood.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC Child Care Licensure page.

Source of the agency's group-size chart ("Licensed Group Home: 12 or more children with the help of full-time qualified assistant"; "License exempt Family Child Care: Up to 3 children, or a single family") and of the DCFS→IDEC rule-transfer table listing Parts 377, 378, 406, 407, 408 and 385. Note: fetched with a plain browser user agent this path returns the IDEC home page body (soft 404); the real page body was obtained through the r.jina.ai text proxy against the same URL. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/rules/rules-406.pdf and .../rules-408.pdf — DCFS's own PDF reprints of the pre-recodification Parts 406 and 408, dated July 16, 2025 (PT 2025.08). Used only to read the AUTHORITY and SOURCE lines and the section-title tables, and as the illustration that the agency PDFs an applicant will find by search are still the Title 89 versions. Not relied on for any current-law assertion. CORRECTIONS TO THE BRIEF (the official text outranks the hint, per METHOD): the brief's premise that the licensed day care home is governed by "89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406" and the group day care home by "Part 408" is stale as of July 1, 2026. Both Parts were recodified into Title 23 Chapter XI (Department of Early Childhood) as Parts 2007 and 2009 pursuant to P.A. 103-594, published at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 and 50 Ill. Reg. 10183. Separately, P.A. 104-480 renamed the statutory categories themselves: 225 ILCS 10/2.18 no longer says "day care home" but "early care and education homes", and 225 ILCS 10/2.20 no longer says "group day care home" but "group early care and education home".

The field text was written against the current Parts and the current statutory names, and flags the mismatch rather than adopting either vocabulary exclusively. UNVERIFIED: the Illinois Register itself (50 Ill. Reg. 9896, 9917, 10183, 10293) was not read. www.ilsos.gov returned an Akamai 403 "Access Denied" on every path attempted today, so the recodification notices are relied upon only as they are reproduced in the source lines of the recodified rules themselves. UNVERIFIED: no JCAR "index of rules in effect" page was readable today. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Sections?PartID=02302007 and ?PartID=02302009 return an empty JavaScript shell through the text proxy, and the legacy index paths (023parts.html, 02302007sections.html, 02302009sections.html) all return HTTP 404. Sections were therefore reached by their individual JCAR section URLs. Consequence: I cannot exclude the possibility that Part 2007 or Part 2009 contains sections I did not enumerate, and I cannot independently confirm from an index that no further Part was added to Chapter XI after the recodification. UNVERIFIED: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.10, 2007.11 and 2009.50 (assistant and substitute qualifications) were not opened; the field refers to Section 2009.50 only as Section 2009.65 itself cites it, and makes no independent claim about its content.

UNVERIFIED: whether IDEC has since opened rulemaking to re-caption Parts 2007 and 2009 in the new "early care and education" vocabulary, or to adopt the Recognized Alternative Provider rules directed by 225 ILCS 10/3(d-15). No such proposed or adopted rule was found in any source readable today, and the Illinois Register, which is where a proposal would first appear, was inaccessible. UNVERIFIED: current IDEC application form numbers and the identity of the "supervising agency" that files a day care home application under 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(a) post-transfer. The rules still refer to a supervising agency and to DCFS form CFS 597-DCI; whether IDEC has re-numbered the forms could not be confirmed, so no form number is asserted in the field text. [ratios] VERDICT: CONFIRMED, not rewritten. The pre-existing IL/ratios.txt already cited 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2009 under the Department of Early Childhood and already contradicted the coordinator's brief. I re-verified the recodification independently today from the JCAR indexes of rules in effect (not from the earlier file and not from the brief), then checked every quoted passage in the file against the full text of Parts 2007 and 2009 that JCAR serves today.

Every quotation, section number, subsection letter and numeral in the file matched the text word for word, including 2007.13(a)-(h), 2007.9(i)(k)(s), 2007.10(a)-(e), 2007.11(a)-(c), 2007.16(b)(3)(8), 2007.18(a)(e), 2007.19(a)(b)(c) in full, 2007.22(a), 2007.23(h), 2007.6(c)(d), 2007.2 "Licensed capacity"/"School age", 2009.65(a)-(f) in full, Appendix H column headers, 2009.45(b)(c)(d)(e)(l), 2009.50(b)(c)(d), 2009.55(b), 2009.35(c)(k)(m)(p), 2009.85(c)(7)(i), 2009.90(a)(e), 2009.95(a)(b)(c), 2009.30(c)(m), 2009.105(a), 2009.20(c)(d). Nothing was found false or stale. Two verified additions were made and offset by trimming elsewhere to hold the file under 30,000 characters: IDEC's own published DCFS-to-IDEC rule crosswalk, and the divergence between the statutory definitions the rules quote and the definitions the statute now carries. https://my.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=089&TitleDescription=TITLE%2089:%20%20SOCIAL%20SERVICES — index of Title 89 Parts in effect, opened today; serves "PART 406 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", "PART 407 ... (TRANSFERRED)" and "PART 408 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES (TRANSFERRED)", while Part 405 and Part 409 on either side carry no such flag.

This is the index-of-rules-in-effect check required by method rule 1, run independently of the earlier writer. https://my.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023&TitleDescription=TITLE%2023:%20%20EDUCATION%20AND%20CULTURAL%20RESOURCES — index of Title 23 Parts in effect, opened today; serves "PART 2007 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES" and "PART 2009 LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES" with no transferred or repealed flag, alongside 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2050, 2060 and 2070. Establishes that the live family child care rules sit in Title 23, not Title 89. https://my.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full verbatim text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 as served today (144,725 bytes retrieved).

Establishes the chapter heading "CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD"; the AUTHORITY note "Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]"; the SOURCE note "Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406) to the Department of Early Childhood (23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007) pursuant to P.A. 103-0594, and recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917"; and every Part 2007 quotation in the field, notably the section heading "Section 2007.13 Number and Ages of Children Served", the three caregiver-alone groupings at 2007.13(b), the two assistant configurations at 2007.13(c) and (d), the written extended-4-school-age addendum at 2007.13(c)(2) and (d)(2), home schooling at 2007.13(f), the one-child unforeseen-school-closing allowance at 2007.13(g), the sibling transition plan at 2007.13(h), the assistant floor of 14 and the audible-or-visual tether at 2007.10(b) and (c), the 25-hour substitute cap at 2007.11(a), the transport pointer "child/adult ratios in accordance with Section 2007.13" at 2007.18(a), the whole of 2007.19 on swimming, and the contradiction between "Licensed capacity" at 2007.2 and the counting rule at 2007.13(a). https://my.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full verbatim text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 as served today (170,410 bytes retrieved).

Establishes the SOURCE note recodifying from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 408 at 50 Ill. Reg. 10183; the sentence at 2009.65 "Appendix H includes a chart of the number and ages of children who can be served"; the four caregiver-alone shapes at 2009.65(a)(2) including "Up to 12 school age children"; the twelve-child configurations at 2009.65(b) with "The assistant must be present when more than 8 such children are present"; the extended capacity to 16 at 2009.65(c) with "A caregiver and two assistants shall be present at all times when there are more than 12 children in the home"; the square-footage override "When determining capacity, the home must meet square footage requirements listed in Section 2009.30(c)" and the 35/20 square foot rule at 2009.30(c); the column headers of Appendix H "Caregiver Alone", "Caregiver & Assistant (Assistant must be 18 or older)", "Extended Capacity (2 Assistants must be present)", "Total"; the counted-adult clause at 2009.35(k) "must be present, awake and free from responsibilities other than those directly related to the care and supervision of children"; the supervised nap period at 2009.85(c)(7); the lifeguard/water-safety-instructor requirement at 2009.95(c); the 75 square feet of outdoor space at 2009.30(m); and the mis-directed cross-reference at 2009.20(d) pointing to "Section 2009.65 (e)" when the transition plan is at 2009.65(f).

Confirms that Part 2009, not Part 2007, carries the chart, the "present, awake and free from responsibilities" clause, the nap schedule and the water-safety credential. https://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — Child Care Act of 1969 (225 ILCS 10) as the ILCS database serves it today. Establishes Sec. 2.18 "Early care and education homes ... more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children" and Sec. 2.20 "Group early care and education home ... more than 3 up to a maximum of 16 children", each ending "(Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)"; Sec. 3(a) "without a license or permit issued by the Department of Children and Family Services before July 1, 2026 or issued by the Department of Early Childhood on and after July 1, 2026"; and Sec. 2.41 "Supervisor of children", whose only operative use in the Act is the Recognized Alternative Provider sentence in Section 3. Also establishes the NEW divergence added to the field today: both current definitions read "The number counted includes the family's natural or adopted children and all other persons under the age of 12" and no longer contain the word "foster", whereas 2007.2 and 2009.5 still reproduce the pre-104-480 wording "the family's natural, foster, or adopted children". https://ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=104-0480 — Public Act 104-0480 landing page opened today; establishes the bill of origin (HB3595, 104th General Assembly) and "Effective Date: 7/1/2026", i.e. the Act is in force as of the date of writing. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — Illinois Department of Early Childhood provider licensure page, opened today (HTTP 200, 79,861 bytes).

NEW SOURCE, not used by the earlier writer. Establishes the agency's own crosswalk: a table headed "Child Care Licensure Rules", introduced "As a result of the transition to the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, the rules regarding Child Care Licensure have been transferred. Below is a quick reference guide that providers and stakeholders may reference when navigating these rule transfers", with columns "Rule Name", "What the Rule Covers", "DCFS Rule", "IDEC Rule", mapping 89 Ill. Adm. Code Part 406 to 23 Ill. Adm. Code Part 2007 and Part 408 to Part 2009, and whose live hyperlinks resolve to the JCAR Title 23 Sections pages for PartID 02302007 and 02302009. Confirms the recodification from the licensing agency itself, independently of JCAR. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/policy-rules-and-forms/documents/rules/rules-406.pdf — requested today; HTTP 200 on HEAD, HTTP 206 on a ranged read, content-type application/pdf. Establishes that the superseded agency still serves the superseded Part 406 document, which is the citation trap named in the field.

Only headers and a byte range were taken; the document was not used as authority for any substantive assertion. UNVERIFIED: whether the Department of Early Childhood has proposed successor rules to Parts 2007/2009. The Title 23 Chapter XI index served today lists no successor Part, but JCAR's rulemaking pages could not be reached (my.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Rulemaking returns 404 through the proxy) and the Illinois Register at ilsos.gov failed with an HTTP/3 transport error from this network. If IDEC has a first- or second-notice rulemaking pending on capacity, this field would not know it. UNVERIFIED: what 48 Ill. Reg. 5963 (2024) and 49 Ill. Reg. 8928 (2025) actually changed in the group home standards. Only the codified result was read, not the amendment notices, so the field attributes the extended-capacity-to-16 architecture to "recent work" without dating each clause. Carried forward unchanged from the previous note. UNVERIFIED: the effective date of the last Part 408 amendment (JCAR's residual note says July 1, 2025; a secondary index reports July 11, 2025). The field does not turn on this date.

Carried forward unchanged. UNVERIFIED: how an inspector reconciles the "Licensed capacity" definition at 2007.2 (own children counted "in addition to" the licensed number) with 2007.13(a) (own children counted inside the 8). Both texts were read verbatim today and the conflict is real in the codified text; the field states which one is operative but no enforcement guidance was found. NOTE ON THE BRIEF: the brief handed to the earlier Illinois writers cited 89 Ill. Adm. Code Parts 406/408 under DCFS. That is stale, and this task's own instructions correctly said so. Both the field and this note contradict it: those Parts are flagged (TRANSFERRED) in JCAR's Title 89 index and the text in force is 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 and 2009 under the Department of Early Childhood. The substantive rule text survived the move unchanged section for section — only the numbering, the agency name and the source notes differ — so the numbers a reader of the old Parts would expect are right; the address was not. NOTE ON THE BRIEF, SECOND POINT: the framing question asked whether Illinois "expresses the constraint as a ratio or as a composed capacity table".

The text answers unambiguously: a composed capacity table. Both operative sections are headed "Number and Ages of Children Served", 2009.65 opens by pointing at a chart, Appendix H is that chart, and every occurrence of the word "ratio" in either Part (2007.18(a), 2007.20(c), 2009.35(k), 2009.90(a)) is a cross-reference back to those tables rather than a numeral-to-numeral ratio. NETWORK NOTE: my.ilga.gov and ilga.gov are unreachable by direct HTTPS from this machine (curl times out). All ILGA and JCAR pages listed above were retrieved today through the r.jina.ai text proxy against those exact URLs, and the returned pages carried ILGA's own markup, navigation and footer. idec.illinois.gov and dcfs.illinois.gov were fetched directly. [required_forms] METHOD NOTE — HOW THESE FORMS WERE OBTAINED, 26 AUGUST 2026. No form number in this field was taken from the brief, from memory, or from a previously known URL. Every form was reached by opening a LIVE INDEX today and following the link the index serves, then downloading the PDF and reading its own header (form number, revision date, issuing agency) and its own signature and filing instructions.

Two indexes exist and they do not agree; both were swept. Direct connections to www.ilga.gov are refused from this machine, so all Illinois Administrative Code and ILCS text was retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns the target page's own text; DCFS, IDEC, Sunshine and OSFM pages were fetched directly with a browser user agent. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders.html — Department of Early Childhood provider landing page, full HTML link inventory extracted today. Establishes the finding that anchors this whole field: IDEC PUBLISHES NO FORMS INDEX. The site's entire navigation is /forproviders/{ccap,early-intervention,licensure,preschool-for-all,preschool-for-all-expansion,prevention-initiative}.html plus /forparents, /committees, /resources, /workforce. There is no /forms.html, no /forproviders/forms.html, and idec.illinois.gov/sitemap.xml returns 404. Consequence published in the entries: as of today, the forms an Illinois day care home applicant must file are still DCFS-numbered CFS forms served from dcfs.illinois.gov, not renumbered IDEC forms. https://idec.illinois.gov/forproviders/licensure.html — IDEC's licensure page (Published Time header: Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:23:54 GMT).

Contains no forms and no form numbers; its only outbound licensing links are to sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov. This is how the Sunshine forms index was reached rather than guessed. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/CommonlyUsedProviderForms.aspx — THE DAY CARE FORMS INDEX IN FORCE TODAY, reached from IDEC's own licensure page. Served under the heading "Commonly used provider forms — Below are links to some commonly-used forms. Feel free to copy these forms as needed. If you have a question about a form in particular, please contact your licensing representative." It groups them exactly as follows. Forms for Children in Licensed Care: CFS 428 Application/Record of Child Information; CFS 593 Consents to Day Care Providers; CFS 600 Certificate of Child Health Exam; CFS 1050-51 Summary of Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes; CFS 1050-52 (centers); CFS 1050-53 (group day care homes). Forms for Licensees and their Employees: CANTS 22 Acknowledgment of Mandated Reporter Status; CFS 508 Report of Persons Employed in a Childcare Facility; CFS 508-01 Info on a Person Employed in a Childcare Facility; CFS 560 Child Support Certificate; CFS 583-A (facilities) and CFS 583-B (home) Certificate of Inspection for Unsafe Children's Products; CFS 585-2 Certification of Radon Test; CFS 597 Application for child care facility license; CFS 600; CFS 602 Medical Report on an Adult in a Childcare Facility; CFS 671 Childcare Facility Driver Application; CFS 718-B-DC Authorization for Background Checks for Day Care.

Other Useful Forms: CFS 689; CFS 2026 Home Safety Checklist for Parents. DEFECT FOUND AND PUBLISHED: the entry labelled "CFS 560 Child Support Certificate" resolves to cfs-560-s-child-support-certification-spanish-fillable.pdf, i.e. the Spanish edition CFS 560/S, not the English CFS 560. https://dcfs.illinois.gov/about-us/notices/com-communications-forms.html — the Department's MASTER forms index, 373 PDF links, read in full today. Used to cross-check every number above and to find the day care forms the Sunshine page omits: CFS 534 Medication Administration Log; CFS 452-7 Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Pilot Program Act - Child Care Facility; CFS 718-3 Background Check Roster; CFS 718-L Request for Updated Background Check for a Licensed Provider; CFS 585-1 Fire Evacuation Plan; the English CFS 560. NEGATIVE FINDINGS ESTABLISHED BY SWEEPING THIS INDEX: there is NO form titled "Application for Home License" (the title 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(A) uses); there is NO "CFS 597-DCI" (the form 2007.8(e) names); there is NO day care incident/injury report form; there is NO parent handbook form other than CFS 1050-51/CFS 581; there is NO fire or health inspection request form for a day care home.

Every CFS 597 variant on the index is a foster-care instrument (597A, 597-E, 597-FFH, 597-R). https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BecomeLicensed.aspx — read today, used only for the list of items a home applicant must submit and for the local licensing office roster. Cited here as a stale artifact, not as authority: the page still says "The Department is presently developing an on-line application system which is scheduled to be available in late 2016", still directs applicants to "Rule 406 (Rule 408 for group day care homes)", and still lists DCFS regional offices. No assertion in the entries rests on it. https://sunshine.dcfs.illinois.gov/Content/Licensing/BackgroundCheckProcess.aspx — read today; source of the route to CommonlyUsedProviderForms.aspx. FORM PDFs DOWNLOADED AND READ IN FULL TODAY (each cited for its own printed header, revision date, signature block and filing instruction): .../documents/cfs-500/cfs-597-application-for-child-care-facility-license.pdf — CFS 597, Rev 3/2020, 2 pages, 47 AcroForm fields. ESTABLISHES THE CENTRAL DEFECT: the row "APPLICANTS CHECK THE TYPE OF LICENSE FOR WHICH YOU ARE APPLYING (CHECK ONE ONLY)" offers only Child Care Institution, Child Welfare Agency, Day Care Center (DCC), Emergency Day Care Program (EDC), Day Care Agency, Maternity Center, Group Home, Youth Emergency Shelter — NO Day Care Home and NO Group Day Care Home box.

Verified twice (layout and raw extraction); the string "home" occurs once on the face, in "Group Home". Also source of the reverse-side instruction "renewed for two years", which contradicts 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.6(b) and 225 ILCS 10/5.01(d) (three years), and of the Class A misdemeanour certifications. .../documents/cfs-700/cfs-718-b-dc-authorization-for-background-check-for-day-care.pdf — CFS 718-B-DC, Rev 5/2023, 4 pages.

Source of the who-must-file paragraph, the SSN/ITIN processing bar, the supervising-agency Section 4, the probationary employment notice, and the ISP/FBI Privacy Act page. .../documents/cfs-700/cfs718-3.pdf — CFS 718-3, 11/2002, bilingual roster; role codes L/E/S/HM/A/FC; signed by the licensing representative. .../documents/cfs-700/cfs-718l-...-fillable.pdf — CFS 718L, Rev 07/2018; read to establish it is NOT the day care refresh form (addressed to Central Office of Licensing; purposes limited to Adoption and Subsidized Guardianship). .../documents/cfs-500/cfs-560-child-support-certification-fillable.pdf — CFS 560, Rev. 7/2013, English; three check boxes quoted verbatim; "This form shall be recertified prior to the issuance of a new license." .../documents/cfs-500/cfs-560-s-...-spanish-fillable.pdf — CFS 560/S, Rev. 7/2013; downloaded to confirm the Sunshine index mislink. .../documents/cfs-600/cfs-602-medical-rpt-on-adult-in-child-care-facility-fillable.pdf — CFS 602, Rev. 03/2016; position check-list, Mantoux footnote, Tdap/MMR block, findings/recommendations with age bands, six reexamination blocks. .../documents/cfs-600/cfs-600.pdf — CFS 600, Rev 11/2013, printed as IL444-4737 (R-01-12), corner flag "FOR USE IN DCFS LICENSED CHILD CARE FACILITIES";

immunisation grid, alternative proof of immunity, parent-signed health history, lead risk questionnaire, TB block, "DIABETES SCREENING (NOT REQUIRED FOR DAY CARE)". .../documents/cfs-400/cfs428.pdf — CFS 428, Rev. 4/2001; field list and the dual signature line "Signature of parent or other person placing child / Signature of caregiver / Date". .../documents/cfs-500/cfs593.pdf — CFS 593, Rev 7/2007; six consent blocks quoted; header restriction "THESE CONSENTS ARE FOR NON-DCFS WARDS ONLY". .../documents/cfs-500/cfs534.pdf — CFS 534, 8/2002; grid contents and the foster-parent instruction paragraph ("required by Rule 402 ... submit a copy of it to their caseworker once a month") that does not apply to a day care home. .../documents/cfs-1000/cfs-1050-51-summary-for-dch.pdf — CFS 1050-51, rev 2/2020, print line "DCFS #294 • Jan 2026 • 5,000 copies".

ESTABLISHES CFS 581, "Verification of Receipt", Rev. 12/2000, bound as the final page and listed on NEITHER index; text and filing instruction quoted verbatim. Also source of the booklet's stale statements that DCFS licenses and inspects day care homes. .../documents/cants/cants-22-acknowledgement-of-mandated-reporter-status-fillable.pdf — CANTS 22, Rev. 5/2019; full text quoted. .../documents/cfs-500/cfs-583-b-...-homes-fillable.pdf — CFS 583-B, Rev 08/2024 (the most recently revised form in the packet); three licence-type boxes, retention instruction in capitals, file-and-post duties. .../documents/cfs-500/cfs-585-2-certification-of-radon-test.pdf — CFS 585-2, 12/2013; the posted statutory notice. .../documents/cfs-400/cfs-452-7-child-care-facility-attestation-regarding-the-use-of-medical-and-recreational-cannabis.pdf — CFS 452-7, Rev 8/2020; three prohibitions, two-box perjury certification, initial-and-renewal timing, update duty. .../documents/cfs-600/cfs671.pdf — CFS 671, Rev. 4/2004; reverse side recites 225 ILCS 10/5.1(a) as covering "day care center, group home or child care institution" — a pre-2026 version of a statute that no longer reads that way and never covered day care homes.

Also the CFS 602 attachment rule and two-week lead time. .../documents/cfs-500/cfs508.pdf and cfs508-1.pdf — CFS 508 Rev. 11/2012 and CFS 508-1 Rev. 12/2013; certification paragraphs, ten-year employment history, three-reference requirement, centre-shaped position list. .../documents/cfs-500/cfs585_1.pdf — CFS 585-1, 2/2006; read and REJECTED for this field: it is expressly a foster-home instrument ("Rule 402.8(j) The foster home shall have fire and emergency evacuation plans"). Not published as a day care home form. RULE AND STATUTE TEXT READ TODAY: https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007, Licensing Standards for Day Care Homes, Department of Early Childhood, 144,733 characters.

Source of every rule citation in the entries: 2007.4 (application contents A-J, pre-service topics, lead safety certificate, licensing study and three written references, fire safety inspection, new applications), 2007.5 (renewal timing, hazard plan review, radon), 2007.6 (three-year term, posting, no fee), 2007.7 (permit preconditions), 2007.8(a)(29) radon posting, 2007.8(e) the CFS 597-DCI reference, 2007.8(f) lead in water, 2007.9 (background authorisation, child support certification, medical evidence, diploma, training), 2007.10 (assistants), 2007.12 (enrolment, birth certificate notice, release lists, late pick-up agreement), 2007.14 (child medical report, immunisations, religious waiver, medication, emergency plan), 2007.16(c) unsafe children's products, 2007.18 (transportation, insurance evidence, restraint exception), 2007.24 (records: identifying information, child medical report, six consents, summary of standards receipt, violation posting, adult medicals and three-year validity, mandated reporter statement, incident notification, household changes, fire safety records), 2007.25 (confidentiality releases), Appendix E (eighteen fire safety items). https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302010 — 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2010, Background Checks, recodified from 89 Ill. Adm. Code 385.Subpart B at 50 Ill. Reg. 10293. Source of 2010.10(a) partial checks and parental authorisation, (c) who gets a comprehensive check, (e) components, (f) five-year cycle and 45-day service standard. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=089 — Title 89 parts listing served today.

Confirms Parts 406, 407, 408 and 377 are marked "(TRANSFERRED)" and, importantly for entry 13, that PART 386 CHILDREN'S PRODUCT SAFETY was NOT transferred and remains a DCFS rule cross-referenced by an IDEC standard. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1293&ChapterID=24 — full current text of the Child Care Act of 1969, 225 ILCS 10, served today (304,993 characters). Source of Sections 4, 4.01, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2a, 4.3, 4.3a, 4.4, 4.4a, 4.5, 4.6, 5, 5.01, 5.1, 5.1a, 5.2, 5.2a, 5.3, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11. Establishes that the statute now speaks of "early care and education homes" while Part 2007 and every published form still say "day care home"; that 5.01(d) fixes a three-year licence; that 5.1(a)/5.1a do not reach a home; that 5.8(c) requires the radon report to be posted next to the IDEC licence; and that 5.11 imposes an anaphylaxis plan with no corresponding rule or form. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=07700665 — 77 Ill. Adm. Code 665 (Child Health Examination Code). Source of 665.130 (who may perform and sign), 665.150 ("The required form is the Certificate of Child Health Examination provided by the Department"; the parent-signed medical history; the rejection of a bare statement that an examination occurred), and the lead-screening paragraph naming "day care home". https://sfm.illinois.gov/ and https://sfm.illinois.gov/allforms.html — Office of the State Fire Marshal home page and complete forms listing, read today.

No day care fire safety inspection request form is published; the only child-related items are "Fire Prevention/Fire Inspector/Code Official/AHJ" and "School Officials Information". This is why entry 18 says the applicant files nothing and points to Appendix E instead. CONTRADICTION OF THE BRIEF, STATED EXPLICITLY AS THE METHOD REQUIRES. The brief warned that forms "historically carried a DCFS prefix (CFS-xxx) and may have been renumbered or reissued under the new department". The official record contradicts the second half of that warning. As of 26 August 2026, nearly two months after the transfer, NOTHING HAS BEEN RENUMBERED. IDEC publishes no forms index at all; its own licensure page links to the DCFS Sunshine site; and every form an Illinois day care home applicant must sign is still the DCFS-numbered form with its pre-transfer revision date (CFS 597 Rev 3/2020, CFS 428 Rev. 4/2001, CFS 593 Rev 7/2007, CFS 534 8/2002, CFS 671 Rev. 4/2004, CFS 581 Rev. 12/2000). The stale fact this product exists to avoid is therefore the opposite of the one anticipated: the danger is not citing a retired CFS number, it is assuming an IDEC number exists.

Each entry names the department printed on the form and, where the form's own text now conflicts with the statute or the recodified rule (CFS 597's two-year renewal, CFS 671's repealed statutory recital, CFS 534's foster-parent instructions, CFS 1050-51's DCFS narrative), the conflict is published rather than smoothed over. UNVERIFIED: which box a day care home applicant is to tick on the CFS 597. The form as published offers none that fits, no instruction sheet addresses the omission, and no IDEC guidance exists. Entry 01 reports the gap and tells the reader to obtain the answer in writing rather than guessing; it does not invent an answer. UNVERIFIED: whether the "Application for Home License" named in 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.4(b)(1)(A) is the CFS 597 or a separate unpublished instrument. Neither index carries a form of that title. Reported as a gap. UNVERIFIED: the existence and current number of the "CFS 597-DCI form" cited by 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(e) as capturing a new day care home applicant's construction date. It appears on neither forms index and could not be retrieved. Not published as an obtainable form.

UNVERIFIED: whether IDEC has issued any internal initial-application packet checklist superseding the Sunshine "Commonly used provider forms" list. None is published. The entries therefore tell the reader to request the current packet list from the licensing representative in writing. UNVERIFIED: whether CFS 452-7 is in fact demanded of day care home applicants in practice. Its own text ("This form shall be certified prior to the issuance of an initial license and prior to renewal of an existing license") is the only authority; it is absent from the day care forms page and absent from Part 2007. Entry 15 says so. UNVERIFIED: any prescribed incident or injury report form. 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.24(n) requires an immediate telephone call and a writing within one week but names no form, and none was found on either index. Entry 18 reports the deadline, not a form number. NOTE ON ACCESS: www.ilga.gov refused direct connections from this machine; all Administrative Code and ILCS text above was retrieved through the r.jina.ai reader proxy, which returns the target page's own text. Every ILGA document was reached by navigating from a title or chapter index served today, not by re-downloading a pinned URL. [required_postings] All URLs below were opened on 26 August 2026. Direct HTTPS to www.ilga.gov from this machine was refused/timed out all session (ECONNREFUSED 12.43.67.2:443 via WebFetch, curl exit 28 on eight attempts across www.ilga.gov, ilga.gov and plain HTTP); every ilga.gov page listed here was therefore retrieved through the text-extraction proxy https://r.jina.ai/<url>, which fetches and renders the live ilga.gov page.

The content is ILGA's, served today, not a cached or pinned copy — no dated PDF was re-downloaded to confirm itself. Method rule 1 was applied: I started from the index of rules in effect (Parts?TitleID=023) and read what it serves now, rather than opening a rule at a remembered path. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/Parts?TitleID=023 — JCAR index of Title 23 (Education and Cultural Resources) parts in effect, served 26 Aug 2026. Establishes independently, without relying on any brief, that PART 2005 (FACILITIES AND PROGRAMS EXEMPT FROM LICENSURE), 2006 (DAY CARE INFORMATION LINE), 2007 (LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE HOMES), 2008 (LICENSING STANDARDS FOR DAY CARE CENTERS), 2009 (LICENSING STANDARDS FOR GROUP DAY CARE HOMES) and 2010 (BACKGROUND CHECKS) exist in Title 23. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302007 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 as served today.

Source of every verbatim quotation in elements 01-14 and 16: the heading block "TITLE 23: EDUCATION AND CULTURAL RESOURCES / SUBTITLE A: EDUCATION / CHAPTER XI: DEPARTMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD"; the AUTHORITY note ("Implementing and authorized by Public Act 103-0594, the Department of Early Childhood Act [325 ILCS 3]"); the SOURCE note ("Transferred from the Department of Children and Family Services (89 Ill. Adm. Code 406)... recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917"); the 2007.2 definitions of "Department", "Supervising agency", "Licensing representative", "Authorized representative of the Department" and "Attendance"; Sections 2007.4(b)-(f), 2007.6(a)-(k), 2007.7(a)-(i), 2007.8(a)(1)-(29), 2007.8(d)-(f), 2007.9(u), 2007.12(b),(e),(f),(h),(i),(j), 2007.13(g), 2007.14(c),(e), 2007.16(b), 2007.17, 2007.24(a),(d),(f),(g),(h),(i),(j),(k),(l),(m),(n),(p),(q),(s), 2007.25(b), 2007.26(a)-(b), and Appendix E in full. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302008 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2008 (day care centers), used only for the negative element 15. Establishes the five centre-only postings with no counterpart in Part 2007: 2008.100(i) Choke Saving Methods Poster; 2008.200(d) "The daily program shall be posted in the facility"; 2008.330(g) and (g)(1) menu planning, one-year retention and posting; 2008.370(f)(1) floor plan posted in every room; 2008.370(t)(2) emergency numbers and full address "posted next to each telephone"; 2008.380 Poison Control "posted at each telephone". https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02302009 — full text of 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2009 (group day care homes).

Establishes that the group-home rule mirrors 2007 on postings (2009 license/permit prominently displayed, Poison Control and other emergency numbers posted, radon next to the license, lead-in-water results posted, violations-and-corrective-plan posted) and that its programme section says "The daily program shall provide" WITHOUT the centre's "shall be posted" clause. https://www.ilga.gov/agencies/JCAR/EntirePart?titlepart=02001231 — 20 Ill. Adm. Code 1231 (Illinois State Police, Firearm Concealed Carry Act Procedures). Section 1231.150(a)-(d) and Section 1231.Appendix A supply the sign template rules and the physical specification quoted in element 05 (white background, handgun in black ink in a red circle with diagonal slash, circle 4 inches in diameter, black rectangle 4 inches tall by 6 inches wide). https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=022500100K5.8 — 225 ILCS 10/5.8 as currently compiled.

Source of the verbatim radon posting command (subsection (c)) and the prescribed parent statement (subsection (d)) in element 03. Its source note "(Source: P.A. 103-594, eff. 7-1-26; 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)" is the primary confirmation of both the transfer to the Department of Early Childhood and the P.A. 104-480 rename, read on the statute itself rather than taken from the brief. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=022500100K2.18 — 225 ILCS 10/2.18, "'Early care and education homes' means family homes which receive more than 3 up to a maximum of 12 children for less than 24 hours per day", "(Source: P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26.)". Independent confirmation of the category rename. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=022500100K5 — 225 ILCS 10/5. Source of 5(g) (unannounced visits) quoted in element 16, and of 5(a), "This Section does not apply to any early care and education center, early care and education home, or group early care and education home", which is what makes the 2007.2 definition of "Licensing representative" (defined by reference to Section 5) a stale internal pointer. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=022500100K7 — 225 ILCS 10/7, the standards-setting section, including paragraphs (12)-(15) on firearms, handguns, disassembled storage and parental notification, which 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(a)(17)-(18) implements.

NOTE: the page served today is labelled "(Text of Section before amendment by P.A. 103-594)"; I did not read the post-amendment text of Section 7 and have therefore cited Section 7 in element 05 only through the rule's own bracketed reference, not for any independent proposition. https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/FullText?DocName=043000660K65 — 430 ILCS 66/65. Source of 65(d) (uniform design, 4 inches by 6 inches, "unless the building or premises is a private residence") and 65(a)(2) (the family-home child care carve-out) quoted in element 05. CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BRIEF AND OF ILLINOIS' OWN TEXT, ESTABLISHED HERE: 1. The coordinator's brief for Illinois cited 89 Ill. Adm. Code Parts 406/408 under DCFS. Verified today against the JCAR index of Title 23: the day care home standards are 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007 under the Department of Early Childhood, recodified at 50 Ill. Reg. 9917 pursuant to P.A. 103-0594. Every citation in this field is to Part 2007. The brief is stale; the recodification the METHOD note describes is correct, and I confirmed it from the index rather than accepting it. 2. Appendix E to Part 2007 carries at least three wrong internal cross-references, all verified against the substantive sections in the same document: item 12 cites 2007.8(a)(18) for the written fire emergency response plan (that plan is (a)(19); (a)(18) is firearm storage); item 14 cites 2007.8(a)(24) for the monthly fire safety inspection (that duty is (a)(20); (a)(24) is in-ground pool fencing); item 17 cites 2007.8(a)(11) for the 20% combustible-artwork limit (that limit is (a)(12); (a)(11) is lead and peeling paint).

Elements 07 and 09 name these explicitly. 3. Part 2007 still uses "day care home" throughout while 225 ILCS 10 now says "early care and education home" (P.A. 104-480, eff. 7-1-26), and 2007.2 defines the licensing representative by reference to a statutory section that no longer applies to homes. Elements 03 and 16 flag both gaps. 4. Illinois requires NO posted menu, NO posted daily schedule, NO choke-saving poster, NO per-room floor plan, NO emergency-number list at each telephone and NO abuse-hotline placard in a day care HOME. All six are either centre-only rules in Part 2008 or absent from Illinois law entirely. Element 15 proves this by quoting the centre rules and the absence of any counterpart in Part 2007. UNVERIFIED: 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2006 (Day Care Information Line) — the EntirePart page returned only the heading, section list, AUTHORITY and SOURCE notes and Section 2006.10 before truncating; Sections 2006.20 and 2006.30 were not read, so nothing is asserted from them. The toll-free number 1-877-746-0829 is quoted in this field only as it appears verbatim inside 23 Ill. Adm. Code 2007.8(f), which I did read.

UNVERIFIED: Public Act 104-0480 in full text. The Legislation/PublicActs/View/104-0480 page rendered as a site shell with no act text, and I did not open the 104-0480 PDF or HTM. The rename and its 1 July 2026 effective date are asserted here only from the compiled ILCS sections 2.18, 5, 5.8 and their source notes, which I did read. UNVERIFIED: the Department of Early Childhood's own licensing pages and any IDEC-issued posting form or provider handbook. Not opened for this field. Per METHOD rule 3, the agency's manual is not the law; nothing here rests on one.

Verified 2026-08-26. General information, not legal advice and not a guarantee of licensure — confirm with your state’s licensing agency before applying.