By John Gregory/Illinois Radio Network

CHICAGO – Another human services program will be funded despite the lack of a state budget, and this time, no court order was necessary.

Providers in the state’s Early Intervention program, which assists young children with developmental disabilities, will now have their payments processed. Comptroller Leslie Munger said her office and the Illinois Department of Human Services determined the program falls under an existing consent decree, and therefore providers have to be paid despite the lack of the budget.

“There are a lot of social service organizations that are now being covered under these various consent decrees, and we’ve had so many phone calls on Early Intervention that we went back and worked with the agency to see if some of these weren’t covered under some of the consent decrees,” Munger said.

Munger said without these payments, many providers may have shut down at the end of the month, adding the cost of funding the program is “small in the scheme of things.”