Day care providers participating in a state subsidy payment program protested yesterday at the Maryland Child Care Administration, claiming the agency has been late with their checks.

The American Home Daycare Association, a national organization with about 200 members in Baltimore, stormed into the agency's downtown Baltimore headquarters and tried to deliver to its executive director, Linda Heisner, a "Turkey of the Year" award.

About 20 protesters eventually were granted a 20-minute meeting with state officials -- including Heisner's boss, Calvin Street, who is deputy secretary for programs.

Heisner is on vacation this week, her office said.

The complaints stem from the state's Purchase of Child Care program, a voucher system that helps low-income families pay for child care.

Qualifying families are given a voucher that pays part or all of their day care expenses. The day care provider accepts the vouchers and then turns them in to the agency for a monthly payment check.

But some providers say too often their checks from the state come weeks, even months, late.

"We demanded an end to late paychecks," said Stuart Katzenberg, the group's spokesman. "Just about every [child care] provider in the city in the voucher program has had this problem at least once. ... One provider hadn't been paid in six months."

Officials said yesterday that there have been problems.

"There were some people that had not been receiving payments in a timely manner," said Erlene Wilson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Resources, which oversees the Child Care Administration.

The agency is "looking into each individual issue with each individual [day care] provider and where their payment is in the queue and resolving it on a case-by-case basis," Wilson said. She did not know when those late payments would be made.

The day care group also asked for a direct deposit payment system, a service that will be offered soon, Wilson said.