The Illinois Child Care Collaboration Program promotes collaboration between child care and other early care and education providers, including Early Head Start (EHS), by creating policies to ease blending of funds to extend the day or year of existing services. While no funding is provided through the initiative, participating programs may take advantage of several child care rule exceptions that make it easier to access child care subsidy dollars to extend the day/year of EHS services, including: (1) Annual re-determination of family eligibility; (2) Ninety-day job loss grace period; and (3) Indefinite eligibility for families whose Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Responsibility and Services Plan specifies the child or family's participation in the collaboration. The program was piloted in 1997-1998 when the needs of families started to change due to Head Start expansion and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which instituted TANF and increased work requirements for benefit recipients. Using lessons learned from the pilot, state administrators implemented the program statewide in 2003, with the goal of supporting quality collaboration among early care and education providers and minimizing transitions for children in full-day care.