After this summer’s budget crisis, which ended with a 10 percent cut to early childhood programs, Illinois continues to have serious budget problems. The state is still delaying  payments to early childhood programs, some of which have yet to receive payments for their FY10 contracts. While the national economy is recovering, Illinois’s sales and income tax revenues are down and the deficit is growing. 

Advocates around the state, including the Ounce, have formed the Responsible Budget Coalition to urge the General Assembly to act so that the state can meet its obligations. The Coalition argues that this fiscal crisis, brought on by a long-standing structural budget deficit and an economic downturn, cannot be solved without significant new revenue. We are calling on the legislature to pass a comprehensive tax reform bill. For more information about the Responsible Budget Coalition, please contact Ireta Gasner at igasner@ounceofprevention.org.

Illinois Early Childhood Updates

Recent activity of importance to the Illinois early childhood community includes additional federal funding for child care, changes to bilingual education in preschool, and the creation of the Office of Early Childhood Development.

New Child Care Funding Aids Working Parents
Low-income working parents who participate in Illinois’s Child Care Assistance Program will receive greater assistance thanks to $74 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.

The additional funds will reduce parent co-payments by 15%, extend the time families can receive child-care subsidies while job searching, eliminate the need for a waiting list, and help improve child-care quality by creating a statewide network of infant-toddler specialists. The ARRA funds will run through September 2011. Read more about the changes (pdf).

The Child Care Assistance Program provides access to child care to more than 90,000 low-income, working families. Families are required to contribute to child-care costs on a sliding scale based on family size, income, and number of children in care.

Proposed Rules Benefit Bilingual Children in Preschool
The Illinois State Board of Education is proposing rule changes that will affect how preschoolers are served by bilingual education programs. A January change to the state’s bilingual education law expanded service eligibility criteria to include preschool students with limited English-speaking ability for the first time.

The proposed changes will:

• Define how children will be screened
• Determine how language-support services will be provided
• Offer transitional bilingual instruction to preschoolers
• Identify qualifications for certain teachers in transitional bilingual preschool classrooms

The State Board of Education is accepting public comments on the rule changes until February 15, 2010. Learn more about the rules (scroll down to Part 235 - Early Childhood Block Grant). Submit your comments to rules@isbe.net.

New Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development
Governor Quinn recently announced the creation of an Office of Early Childhood Development. Recommended by the Illinois Early Learning Council, the office will provide staffing and support services for the council and will staff the council’s Oversight and Coordination Committee, which recommends strategies to improve coordination and integration across early childhood programs and systems. 

The Office of Early Childhood Development will ensure that the Illinois Early Learning Council’s recommendations are implemented across the state’s various early childhood systems. The office will be partially funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars available for state early learning advisory councils, which were required in the Head Start Reauthorization Act.

Legislation currently being discussed in Congress could benefit young children and families across the country by offering unprecedented new funding for early childhood programs.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibilities Act (SAFRA), an $87 billion higher education bill, includes a broad federal initiative that will give states an incentive to establish comprehensive, high-quality early learning systems. The Early Learning Challenge Fund would offer competitive grants worth $8 billion over eight years to states to reform standards, improve parent supports, collect and use data, and coordinate systems for programs that serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The House of Representatives passed the bill on September 18, and now the Senate is developing companion legislation. E-mail your senators to ask them to pass a version of SAFRA that includes the Early Learning Challenge Fund and prioritizes at-risk children from birth to five.

Home visiting programs have also received federal attention, with new funding included as part of the health care reform legislation recently passed in the House and currently being debated in the Senate. Home visiting was a key piece of the Obama administration's pledge to strengthen programs for children from birth to age five. In voluntary, evidence-based home-visiting programs, a social worker, child development specialist, or nurse visits at-risk families on a regular basis to nurture parenting skills and ensure successful child development.

Vist our Advocacy Action Center frequently for updates on these issues and opportunities to contact your legislators.

Illinois’s capital plan, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Quinn in July, included $45 million for early childhood construction grants. However, the capital funds are not yet available to programs because of a number of unresolved issues.

Two problems involve state bonding requirements to support approved capital projects and legal challenges to some of the plan’s funding streams. There are also problems with the legislative language in the capital plan that will need to be addressed in the spring. The Ounce and the Illinois Early Learning Council’s Space Capacity Committee will press for the language changes needed to ensure the success of the program.

The state’s capital plan created one of the nation’s first dedicated capital grants for early childhood programs. Eligible early childhood organizations will have an opportunity to apply for new construction, renovation, or facility-improvement grants.

New and renovated facilities are essential in order for Illinois to continue providing high-quality early childhood services. While state policymakers have provided funding over the years to expand services to more vulnerable children, they have not addressed the lack of quality early learning spaces. Many areas of the state, particularly in growing Latino communities, are faced with a demand for preschool and infant-toddler services that far exceeds the availability of appropriate learning spaces.

Unfortunately, capital funding is simply unattainable for most early childhood centers in our state. Many early childhood programs, especially those serving low-income families, are “neither adequately capitalized nor sufficiently market-oriented to react to growing demand as other businesses do,” states a report from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). “Moreover, because it can take years to obtain sites, secure permits, arrange financing, and construct or renovate facilities, supply will tend to lag behind demand in any event.”

We know that young children need safe, welcoming, and developmentally appropriate environments to stimulate learning. The NIEER report showed that well-designed physical spaces decrease behavior problems in the classroom, increase teacher-child interactions, promote productive child-initiated play, support curriculum goals, and raise staff morale.

While unresolved issues have delayed the rollout of the capital plan, early childhood construction grants represent a major landmark in the development of Illinois’s early childhood system and an unprecedented opportunity to expand space in growing communities.

Every day we are affected by public policies that impact our lives and well-being. Learning how to communicate and influence those in decision-making positions enables us to advocate for ourselves and for others.

The Ounce has created an Early Childhood Advocacy Toolkit to help advocates for young children and families successfully educate policymakers about early childhood issues and encourage communities to support early childhood initiatives. 

For questions or to get involved with early childhood advocacy, contact us at advocacy@ounceofprevention.org.

Inspiring Innovation: Creative State Financing Structures for Infant-Toddler Services
This policy brief from the Ounce and Zero to Three highlights four states that serve as models of early childhood investment and offers recommendations for other states.

Building Relationships: Parallels Between Infant-Toddler Development and the Public Policy Process
This Zero to Three article explores relationship building in both the early childhood and the policy worlds. The authors argue that a deeper understanding of relationships can strengthen the work of early childhood advocates.

Promoting Social-Emotional Wellbeing in Early Intervention Services 
This National Center for Children in Poverty report highlights state policies and strategies that support the social and emotional development of infants and toddlers, with a particular focus on early intervention services.

The Family Child Care Network Impact Study: Promising Strategies for Improving Family Child Care Quality
This Erikson Institute policy brief analyzed the effects of participation in family child care networks on child care quality.

Home Visiting Resource Brief
The Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University collected resources about home visitation programs, including an overview of home visitation in the president's FY 2010 budget proposal, testimonies and policy statements, research findings, and state and local program guidelines.

Quality Rating Improvement Systems as the Framework for Early Care and Education System Reform
This Build Initiative brief focuses on the potential for quality rating and improvement systems to be the unifying framework for creating the early childhood systems.

Improving Urban Service Systems for Children and Families
Thursday, November 19, 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Chicago and Online Webcast

Join Chapin Hall and the Urban Institute for a public policy forum on the nation’s urban service systems for children and families. This event is free and a live audio webcast is offered.

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