Early Learning in Illinois: Landscape, History and Key Issues

Governor Blagojevich strongly believes that all Illinois children should be safe, healthy, eager to learn and ready to succeed by the time they enter school. Beginning during his campaign and continuing during his first year in office, the Governor has demonstrated his strong commitment to early childhood. Despite a tight fiscal situation, Illinois is one of the only states that is making a significant additional investment in early learning this year to provide preschool to more three- and four-year olds. The overwhelming majority of voters (86%) in Illinois agree that state government should do more to improve the learning experiences of very young children.

In addition to the critical financial resources, to truly develop a comprehensive early learning system in Illinois, early childhood leaders inside and outside of government must come together to implement initial changes and improvements and plan for long-term policy change and coordination. The Governor has charged the Illinois Early Learning Council to build a comprehensive early learning system in Illinois to enhance, coordinate and expand programs and services for young children.

Successful development of an early learning system in Illinois will yield the following results:

• All three- and four-year olds have access to quality preschool if their parents choose
• All parents have access to services that support their role in the optimum development of their children, starting at birth
• Parents can choose from a range of options - including schedules, locations and program offerings - that fit their needs
• Programs can collaborate more freely and blend funding streams
• Communities can help shape programs to meet local needs
• Early childhood workforce boosts its training, credentials and compensation to best meet children's needs
• Programs are supported in maintaining stable and well-prepared staffs
• Children enter school ready to learn

Early Learning Landscape in Illinois

Children birth to five

Illinois has consistently averaged approximately 185,000 births annually. There are currently 876,549 children under five years of age in Illinois, one quarter of whom live within the City of Chicago. Children birth to five years of age comprise 7.1 percent of the state's population and 35 percent of the child population (under 18 years of age). Illinois has an increasingly diverse child population:

• 66.8 % White
• 18.7 % Black
• 16.0 % Hispanic
• 8.0 % Other
• 3.1 % Asian
• 0.3 % American Indian/Alaska Native

Programs and Services

Key programs and services include:

• Early Care and Education: Head Start, State PreKindergarten At-Risk Program (Early Childhood Education Block Grant), Child Care Assistance Program, Chicago Child-Parent Centers
• Early Childhood Development: Cradle to Classroom (Chicago), Early Head Start, Healthy Families, Parents Too Soon, Prevention Initiative (Early Childhood Education Block Grant)
• Health - Coverage, Screening and Case Management: Kid Care, Newborn Hearing Screening Program, Family Care, High Risk Infant Follow-Up
• Early Literacy/Parent Support: Even Start, Parental Training (Early Childhood Education Block Grant)
• Specialized Developmental Services: Early Intervention (Part C of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and Special Education (Part B of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
• Systems Development Initiatives: Child Care Resource and Referral, All Our Kids: Early Childhood Networks, Local Interagency Councils
• Community Services for Families with Young Children: Park districts (preschool, mom and tots groups), Libraries (lap sits and programs), Communities of faith (support groups, child care, preschool)

Collaborative efforts and initiatives

• Birth to Five Project
• Born Learning: Mayor Daley's Early Childhood Initiative
• Chicago Partners for Children
• Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care
• Financing Universal Early Care and Education Project
• Illinois Child Care Strategic Planning
• Illinois Children's Mental Health Task Force
• Healthcare and Family Services [Formerly known as Public Aid, Dept. of] Perinatal Task Force
• Healthcare and Family Services [Formerly known as Public Aid, Dept. of] Assuring Better Child Health and Development Initiative
• Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention
• Illinois Task Force on Universal Access to Preschool
• Professional Development Advisory Committee

Key Issues and Next Steps

Program Quality and Quality Assurance

How can Illinois enhance the quality of existing early childhood programs for children birth to five years of age, ensure high quality services are provided in all publicly funded early learning programs and design a high-quality, voluntary, universal preschool model for all three- and four-year olds?

The Illinois Early Learning Council must explore the following issues:

• Program model designs that meet a variety of family needs
• Program standards
• Program monitoring systems
• Incentives to enhance quality in child care and other birth to five programs
• Comprehensiveness
• Accessibility

Evaluation and Assessment

How can Illinois ensure programs are providing effective, high-quality early learning opportunities? How can programs appropriately assess and support children's readiness to succeed in school?

The Early Learning Council can help ensure programs are providing quality early learning opportunities and are appropriately assessing and supporting children's readiness to succeed in school by addressing the following issues:

• Framework for continuous evaluation of program effectiveness
• Guidelines for assessment of individual children
• Use of child outcomes data across programs and service systems

Expansion

How can Illinois expand access to high-quality preschool for all three- and four-year-olds by building upon and enhancing existing programs and beginning with those children most at-risk for school failure? How can Illinois expand access to high-quality early childhood programs for all at-risk children under three years of age?

Building upon and expanding early learning programs in Illinois for children birth to age five requires consideration of the following issues:

• Inventory of public and private early learning programs and ongoing assessment of need
• Serving at-risk three- and four-year olds
• Universal, voluntary access to high-quality preschool in a variety of settings for all three- and four-year-old children
• Serving at-risk children birth to three
• Infrastructure costs
• Financing, i.e. cost estimates and method of fund distribution

Linkage and Integration

How can Illinois improve coordination and integration across early childhood programs and systems to address the comprehensive nature of children's healthy development and readiness for school?

Such challenges, identified by previous planning efforts in Illinois, represent important work for the Council to consider in creating a coordinated early learning system:

• Unaligned program requirements
• Linking license-exempt child care to early education programs
• Smooth transitions between 0-3 and 3-5 programs and between 3-5 programs and school
• Linking early learning programs to other early childhood providers, programs and services (i.e. specialized development and mental health services, pediatric and perinatal health services, and public benefits programs).

Workforce Development

How can Illinois develop a statewide workforce development system to enable more early childhood practitioners to improve their skills through training and higher education?

Building a statewide workforce development system that can meet the demand for highly qualified practitioners requires addressing the following most pressing challenges:

• Access to and availability of education and training
• Compensation, benefits, recruitment and retention
• Teacher certification
• Bilingual providers
• Capacity issues in institutions of higher education
• Content and quality of education and training
• Early Childhood Career Lattice implementation
• Articulation between 2- and 4-year higher education institutions

For more information, contact the Governor's office at (217) 782-0244 or Ounce of Prevention Fund at earlylearningcouncil@ounceofprevention.org