Each year the Illinois General Assembly passes legislation that can have an impact on families, or the organizations in our communities providing early childhood or related supportive services to families. Start Early leads on some of these legislative changes, often in coalition with others, and in other cases we contribute our early childhood lens and expertise to support the efforts of another lead organization. The 2024 Legislative Summary provides a listing of those bills that became law in the spring 2024 session that we thought would be relevant to families with young children and the field. We hope that this is a resource you will download and share with colleagues and families alike. We are happy to provide additional information about any of these initiatives or connect you with other advocates where needed. Initiatives that were led by Start Early are marked “*”.
Download Our Legislative Summary
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Stay up to date on early childhood policy issues and how you can take action to ensure more children have access to quality early learning and care in Illinois.
Illinois Policy & Advocacy
For decades, our policy team has been a leading voice and advocate for early learning and care in Illinois.
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Connect with our team to learn more about our work or discuss how we can support policy and advocacy work for your organization.
We are excited to share the Start Early 2024 Year in Review, celebrating a year of growth, innovation and transformative milestones during the last fiscal year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024).
At Start Early, we strive to ensure that every child has equitable access to high-quality early learning opportunities. This year, we expanded our reach to underserved communities, opening new programs in Lake County, Illinois – a diverse region with significant unmet needs – while advancing initiatives that help families thrive nationwide.
2024 Year in Review: Empowering Families to Thrive
From our roots in Chicago’s South Side and rural Illinois, we now influence early childhood programs and policies across all 50 states. Our commitment to creating a sustainable early learning system drives lasting positive outcomes for children, families and generations to come.
With the support of our donors and partners, we continue to lead the way in transforming early learning into a public good—accessible, equitable and locally tailored so that every child has an opportunity to reach their full potential.
Thank you for your dedication to our mission. With your partnership, we’ve deepened our impact, building a brighter future for America’s youngest learners. Together, we are stronger, and together, we transform lives.
Why Early Childhood?
Quality early childhood is one of the best ways to level the playing field. Learn why and about the impact we’re having.
Support Our Work
Together, when we start early, we can close the opportunity gap and ensure every child has a chance to reach their full potential.
Our Impact
Learn more about how we are supporting children, families and early childhood professionals as we improve the state of early learning in America.
Home visiting organizations across the nation are embedding diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) into their values and mission statements. Despite these efforts, the home visiting field still struggles to prioritize nurturing leadership among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) professionals, including learning about the circumstances, experiences, and structures that influence BIPOC home visitor career pathways and leadership development.
In November 2022, Start Early launched a national field engagement, Leadership Pathways for Home Visitors of Color: An Exploration. The project centered the voices and experiences of home visitors of color to define leadership within the home visiting field and to determine a vision and needed supports for developing and sustaining leadership pathways. The expertise of home visitors involved in the project also informed a series of recommendations around upstream system changes aimed at addressing leadership and advancement for this vital component of the workforce.
Key Findings
This project generated several deliverables. The main article, Leadership Pathways for Home Visitors of Color: An Exploration, provides an overview of the project along with key findings and recommendations for policymakers, funders, state systems, and programs. Key findings from the field engagement include:
- A definition of leadership from the perspective of BIPOC home visitors
- Description of key barriers to staying and advancing in the field faced by BIPOC home visitors
- Recommendations for supporting and sustaining leadership and advancement for BIPOC home visitors
Two BIPOC home visitors, Clare Williamson (Home Visitor/Parent Educator, Georgetown University Parent Support Program) and Claudette Kabera (Family Case Manager, Community of Hope) served as project leaders. In addition to providing leadership and guidance on the overall project, Clare and Claudette shared their personal reflections and experiences, which were captured in two white papers and a blog post:
- In Voices from the Field: Moving from Conversation to Demonstration, Claudette and Clare share their insights on actionable ways across the home visiting field to support leadership pathways for home visitors of color.
- In Voices from the Field: Supportive Environments for BIPOC Leadership Growth, they discuss what is needed for home visiting organizations to promote and sustain leadership for home visitors of color.
- In a blog post, What It Means to be a Leader: A Journey of Empowerment in Home Visiting, they share their thoughts on key leadership traits and abilities, as well as the impact leading the Leadership Pathways project had on them.
Publications & Resources
Research & Evaluation Teams & Collaborators
Funders
Start Early is grateful for the Pritzker Children’s Initiative for its investment and partnership that allowed for this project to happen.
Contact Us
For questions or to learn more, contact Jessie Gillard, Assistant Director, Policy Partnerships.
Our Policy Work
We work at local, state and federal levels to create effective, equitable and interconnected educational opportunities for our youngest learners.
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The Strengthening Inclusion for Young Learners in Chicago pilot is a collaboration between Start Early, Chicago’s five other federal Head Start grant recipients and Chicago Public Schools to bring inclusive special education services into community-based early childhood settings.
Overview
In early 2022, Start Early, Chicago’s other five federal Head Start grant recipients and Chicago Public Schools formed an Advisory Committee to begin exploring how to achieve community-based services for children with IEPs enrolled in Head Start. After a year of research on other district models, gathering of parent and staff input and joint planning through frequent committee meetings, the pilot model was developed and launched in the fall of 2023.
Parents in Chicago often enroll their children ages 3-5 in community-based organizations because they love and trust their local early learning program and because the program provides more convenient hours and comprehensive, year-long services for families. At the same time, Chicago Public School (CPS) is the agency that provides special education services for all children ages 3-5 who qualify for these services. Currently, most young children with disabilities must leave their community-based classroom, board a bus, transition to a CPS classroom and travel back to their community-based program in one day to receive their special education services. Some families choose to forgo services due to the disruptive nature of this transition. The goal of this pilot is to develop, implement, assess and institutionalize feasible strategies for delivering special education services to children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) onsite in the Head Start programs in which they are enrolled.
Are you an educator currently participating in this pilot? Access orientation and pilot training recordings here.
Have questions about this pilot? Reach out to inclusionpilot@startearly.org to get in touch with a member of the planning team.
Overview Video
Learn about how the current model for special education service delivery presents barriers for families and how Start Early and our partners are working to remove these barriers.
Program Eligibility
CPS Itinerant teachers and related service providers (which currently includes speech language pathologists and social workers) travel to each participating Head Start program to deliver services in the Head Start classroom. Because this is a pilot program, eligibility is currently limited. Children are eligible to participate in the pilot if they meet all of the following eligibility criteria:
- They attend one of the six participating Head Start programs: Educare Chicago, Paulo Freire Family Center, Chinese American Service League, Christopher House (Belden Ave), Henry Booth House– Near South, and Carole Robertson Center for Learning – Little Village
- They have fewer than 275 special education minutes per week on their IEP
- Their parent or guardian has given consent
CPS itinerant teachers and Head Start teachers have dedicated planning time to discuss needs and goals of children in the classroom and develop strategies using both of their expertise to support all children. This time is important for teachers to develop a teaching relationship and implement inclusive classroom strategies together.
All staff also have the opportunity to participate in annual professional development trainings and on-going joint communities of practice hosted by STAR NET, a statewide network that provides evidence-based training for teachers to implement inclusive strategies in their classrooms.
Learnings to Date
Start Early conducted a thorough qualitative and quantitative evaluation during school year 2023-2024 through surveys and focus groups with pilot stakeholders, including the planning team, staff, and parents. Findings from the first year of implementation indicate:
- Pilot staff expressed stronger belief in the importance of inclusion, the collaborative teaching model and the importance of children receiving services in the community-based setting after participating in the first year of implementation.
- Pilot staff felt that they had developed new and improved skills related to early childhood special education after participating in the first year of implementation.
- Pilot staff are building strong relationships across the Head Start and Chicago Public Schools systems.
- Staff and parents alike report improved outcomes for children and are glad to be a part of the pilot.
Additional Resources
Additional resources and first year learnings from this pilot.
Related Coverage
Related coverage for those interested in advancing inclusion in Chicago and across Illinois.
Strengthening Inclusion for Children with Disabilities in Chicago
A blog post announcing the partnership which developed this pilot program.
Federal Policy Statement on Inclusion of Children With Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs
Statement from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on Early Childhood Inclusion.
Building Inclusive State Child Care Systems
A blog exploring what the latest federal inclusion policy means for states.
Team & Collaborators
This project is executed through a public-private partnership thanks to the many contributions of staff from Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, Carole Robertson Center for Learning, Chicago Commons, Easterseals serving Greater Chicago and Rockford and Henry Booth House.
Special thanks to: This pilot project was made possible with generous support from Crown Family Philanthropies.
Our Policy Work
We work at local, state and federal levels to create effective, equitable and interconnected educational opportunities for our youngest learners.
Contact Us
Connect with our team to learn more about our work or discuss how we can support policy and advocacy work for your organization.
Illinois Policy & Advocacy
For decades, our policy team has been a leading voice and advocate for early learning and care in Illinois.
Homelessness among pregnant and postpartum persons and young children and their families is a significant, growing problem in Illinois. Housing insecurity and homelessness while pregnant contributes to an array of adverse maternal health outcomes. Similarly, homeless experiences during early childhood years can have lasting impacts on child health and development. Unfortunately, child and family homelessness is often less visible than homelessness among other populations and is therefore often overlooked by government officials and other community leaders. The result is that national, state, and local responses to persistent homelessness do not adequately address the unique needs and conditions that families experiencing homelessness experience.
To address this critical issue, Start Early, the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Research on Women and Gender, and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless are collaborating on the Housing Insecurity and Homelessness in Illinois among the Pregnant and Parenting project (HIHIPP). The project team will lead the development of an action plan to prevent and end homelessness for expectant parents, young children, and their families in Illinois.
Project Overview and Timeline
March-May 2024: Discovery
This phase includes a review of existing policies, research and data on family/child homelessness, identification of gaps in policies, research and data, and creation of an inventory of relevant past or current initiatives focused on child/family homelessness in Illinois or elsewhere across the country.
June-November 2024: Theory of Change
In this phase, the project team will collaborate with stakeholders, including people with lived experience, to create a Theory of change that clearly identifies the primary drivers of homelessness for Illinois families at the local, state, and federal level and articulates a strategy for preventing and ending homelessness among expectant parents and young children and their families in Illinois, complete with identified impact goals, objectives, and outputs/activities.
December 2024-March 2025: Action Plan
In the final phase of the project, the project team will continue partnering with stakeholders to create an action plan that identifies a set of levers that are most likely to reduce homelessness among pregnant people and families with young children in Illinois over the next 5 years.
Other Project Activities and Components
- Convene an Advisory Committee of cross-systems experts and leaders, including individuals with lived experience, to provide support and guidance on project activities.
- Compile and examine policies, research and data, and promising initiatives as it relates to homelessness among pregnant people and families with young children, with an intentional focus on youth who are pregnant or parenting, individuals experiencing homelessness who are living with or at high risk of HIV infection while pregnant, formerly incarcerated women parenting young children, and women and children experiencing domestic violence.
- Conduct listening sessions and other engagement opportunities to gather input and feedback from experts, people with lived experience, and system leaders to inform development of the Theory of Change and Action Plan.
- Create a public facing report detailing findings from the project, including a comprehensive Action Plan aligned to the Theory of Change that identifies priorities for impact in the current landscape.
Reports
Our Policy Work
We work at local, state and federal levels to create effective, equitable and interconnected educational opportunities for our youngest learners.
Contact Us
Connect with our team to learn more about our work or discuss how we can support policy and advocacy work for your organization.
Illinois Policy & Advocacy
For decades, our policy team has been a leading voice and advocate for early learning and care in Illinois.
- Partners: Massachusetts Department of Early Education & Care and Early Education Leaders, an Institute at University of Massachusetts Boston
- Location: Massachusetts
- Start Early Engagement: 5 years
The Challenge:
The state of Massachusetts wanted to improve early education program quality across the state by testing a theory of change: they believed that effective program leadership is a key driver of early education program quality, but lacked rigorous evidence of how leaders’ impact on organizational performance improves child outcomes. To test their theory, the state created an Early Childhood Support Organization (ECSO) initiative to offer childcare leaders three intensive support models. Early Education Leaders, an Institute at University of Massachusetts Boston invited Start Early to co-create one of the ECSO’s by integrating the Start Early Essentials into its model design.
The Results:
Early Education Leaders and Start Early combined their expertise in instructional leadership to design a customized, state-wide leadership support program. Their two-year Essential Leadership Model centered Start Early’s evidence-based Essentials Framework and included the Essential 0-5 Survey for data collection on culture and climate, the Data Use and Improvement Toolkit to address problems of practice, and leadership training in the form of courses, communities of practice, and coaching.
Massachusetts’ theory of improving quality through leadership support is already showing promising results across the state. Third party evaluation of all three ECSOs shows:
- Leaders have more confidence and engage in more positive leader practices.
- Educators maintain a positive perception of program climate and are more likely to stay in the field.
- Supports for leaders may be moving programs toward improvements in quality.
(As a leader,) you’re changing your mindset. You’re giving up a little of your power and giving it back to (the staff) and they feel included in what’s happening in the program. They’re not just being told what to do, they’re helping. ... It makes them feel empowered, like we’re collaborating more. When they feel that way, they’re going to be just as excited as you are.
Mandy Chaput, Director, YWCA Northeastern MA Early Childhood Center
Participant Spotlight
The YWCA of Northeastern Massachusetts offers one of many examples of how child care leaders are changing the way they lead. They explain how working with the Essential Leadership Model “changed their entire program:”
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- When leaders give up power, staff engagement increases. With autonomy to choose the Collaborative Teachers Essential as their first area of focus, staff became immediately invested in program improvement outcomes.
- Using root cause analysis changes mindsets. By following the Essential Toolkit’s visual root cause analysis exercises, the YWCA team discovered that recommitting to being child centered shifted their collective mindset from defensive behaviors to constructive, professional peer engagement.
- Focusing on data works. Program leaders found that having visual Essentials data was key to moving staff improvement efforts forward. It replaced guessing and gossip with facts.
- Seeing incremental change motivates staff to keep improving. When staff saw immediate improvements from their first 30-day Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle, they became eager to tackle more problems together.
- Essentials work creates a clear roadmap for strategic investment. Through root cause analysis and PDSA cycles, the team saw that investing in classroom observation and coaching was most critical to increasing quality and positive outcomes – and created a new Preschool Curriculum Coordinator position to sustain this focus for years to come.
- Continuous improvement cycles become routine ways of operating. The protocols in the Essential Toolkit became so embraced by YWCA staff that they now routinely apply the root cause analysis and PDSA cycle across any problem of practice in their program – from raising CLASS scores to implementing a new curriculum. These cycles are now baked into the program culture.
(Adopting) the child-centered mindset was a huge thing. Everybody’s understanding this is about coming together, working together. All the teachers and the admin – everybody working together towards a common goal.
Gabby Giunta, Preschool Curriculum Coordinator, YWCA Northeastern MA Early Childhood Center
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The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS) declared a “renewed commitment and urgency” in supporting young children with disabilities and developmental delays when updating their policy statement on early childhood inclusion at the end of 2023. They noted that many key early childhood leaders “used the 2015 policy statement to drive changes in policies and practices to support the inclusion of young children with disabilities across multiple levels of the early childhood system.” The updated Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) rules reflect the urgent need to increase the supply and quality of inclusive child care and embed strategies to reach this goal.
Despite the positive change noted in the updated policy statement, the latest report using CCDF administrative data suggests that the percent of children receiving CCDF reported to have a disability was still low compared to several data points. So, while children with disabilities and delays are supposed to be prioritized, there is still work to be done to build more inclusive state child care systems.
“Building Inclusive State Child Care Systems” (April 2024) is a tool to continue driving this type of change. It is intended to support child care administrators, IDEA Part C and Part B 619 Coordinators, early childhood advocates, and other relevant groups by providing an overview of the requirements for inclusion of children with developmental delays and disabilities in child care programs and concrete ideas for taking action to make inclusion a reality. It can also be used by states who are eligible to apply for the next round of the Preschool Development Grants Birth through Five (PDG-5) program.
Key Findings/Components
Creating high quality inclusive child care settings requires intentional collaboration, alignment of policies and practices, a holistic approach, and the implementation of multiple strategies. States can maximize opportunities in the new requirements to promote good inclusion by:
- Leveraging existing infrastructure
- Providing grants and contracts to support providers and individualized supports
- Establishing differential payments or tiered reimbursements for individual children
- Providing training and support to child care providers
- Collecting and report data on children with disabilities served in child care
- Ensuring children receive developmental screening and referrals
“Building Inclusive State Child Care Systems” (April 2024) provides a brief overview of inclusion, requirements for inclusion in child care programs specifically, examples of state-level policies and practices that may improve the quality and supply of inclusive child care environments, and ideas for taking action to further full inclusion in child care.
Need more support? Start Early Consulting invites leaders to leverage our consultants as strategic advisors to support more equitable early childhood systems. Please reach out to us at Consulting@StartEarly.org to learn more.
“Building Inclusive State Child Care Systems” was originally published in September 2017. If you are interested in viewing the original resource, please email us at the address above.
Publications & Resources
Policy Team & Collaborators
Take Action
- Learn more: Begin by increasing your familiarity with issues related to inclusion and child care. The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services’ joint policy statement on inclusion in early childhood programs contains resources available to deepen your understanding of the available supports for children with disabilities, inclusive early care and education environments, child care subsidy systems, and more.
- Take stock: Evaluate the current status of inclusion in your state’s early childhood system and the resources available to you. The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center recently published a guide that can assist with a state system scan.
- Build or strengthen relationships: Working with colleagues across systems can be very challenging. Establishing and maintaining positive and productive working relationships requires time, consistent engagement, and careful balancing of competing priorities and divergent perspectives. As you start or continue conversations with your partners about how to work together to incorporate the policy strategies discussed in this resource in your state, anticipate disagreement but remember to always look for common ground. Recognize that you will need to dedicate time and energy to building trust and learning about unfamiliar systems in order to be successful.
- Employ your knowledge of statute and policy and relationship-building to use CCDF to improve high-quality inclusive child care and early education opportunities for children ages birth to five with or at risk for delays and disabilities.
Stay Connected
Stay up-to-date on early childhood policy issues and how you can take action to ensure more children have access to quality early learning.
Contact Us
For questions or more information contact,Karen Berman, Managing Director, Illinois Policy Team
Resources for Professionals
From interactive courses to engaging events, we support educators in building powerful practices that transform teaching and learning.
Start Early’s vision is for every child in the City of Chicago to have access to a continuum of high-quality early childhood services before birth and through age five that is equitable and culturally, linguistically and ability- responsive. Our work is cemented in our commitment to advancing racial equity and heavily informed by research, practice and the lived experiences of the families and professionals we serve at Start Early. Our latest Chicago policy agenda, covering city fiscal years 2024 through 2027, lays out our vision for policy and systems change that will promote access to quality early care and learning programs and services and effectively meet the needs of the children and families who need them most.
Our Goals
Start Early organizes its work in Chicago toward a sustainable, equitable, and accessible system of high-quality early care and learning around four primary systems-level goals. These goals include:
Strong Infrastructure
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Promote state-level policies and regulations that promote an inclusive, well-resourced early childhood system in Chicago.
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Grow city funding for Chicago’s early childhood programs, system infrastructure and supports.
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Deepen city investment in an early childhood local collaboration system with defined functions connected to aligned, effective regional and state council infrastructure.
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Establish a coherent, consolidated early childhood administrative/governance structure in the city of Chicago, centering the experiences of families and providers, especially those families furthest from opportunities and with the most complex circumstances.
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Strengthen the Every Child Ready Chicago public-private advisory and other policy making tables to improve bi-directional communication across families, communities and system leaders.
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Promote early childhood, bilingual, and special education expertise on public policy-making bodies, including the Chicago Board of Education and City Council.
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Improve the mechanisms by which providers receive public funds to preserve the mixed-delivery system of school- and community-based programs and provide greater stability and adequacy.
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Establish a system to provide inclusive special education services to children with disabilities in early care and learning programs across all settings.
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Work with Chicago Public Schools to ensure delivery of special education services in community-based early childhood programs.
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Promote the sustainability and expansion of a city-wide system for Universal Newborn Screening and Support services.
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Identify public and private funding for and ensure integration of Family Connects Chicago into broader prenatal-to-three health and early learning services.
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Strengthen early childhood data systems, capacity, and the utilization of data in policy/decision making.
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Promote sustainability of the Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System (CECIDS) and the Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago (EC-REACH).
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Well-designed and administered programs and services
Early Intervention
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Increase number of Chicago children served in the Early Intervention program, with a focus on children under age 1 and children who meet automatic eligibility criteria.
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Improve the process of transitioning children from Early Intervention to Special Education.
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Strengthen direct communication with providers and families to increase active engagement in improving the system and their ability to advocate for their children.
Early Childhood Block Grant
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Ensure the supply of adequately funded early childhood slots in a range of settings (including full-day, full-year), particularly in areas of highest need.
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Increase equitable distribution of funds and program slots across Chicago Public Schools, community-based programs, and family child care.
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Increase supply of adequately funded center-based slots for children birth-three.
Child Care
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Improve supply and quality of center- and home-based child care, with a focus on infant-toddler slots and inclusion of children with delays or disabilities.
Home Visiting & Doula Services
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Raise the profile of and strengthen the role of home visitors and doulas in the broader mixed delivery system of early care and learning.
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Improve family participation rates in home visiting and doula programs through increased public awareness of the program and supporting the development of new models or promising practices to better meet family and community needs.
Head Start & Early Head Start
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Increase family enrollment and participation in Chicago’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
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Increase the availability of center-based Early Head Start slots.
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Improve alignment, collaboration, and cohesion across Chicago’s Early Head Start and Head Start grant recipients.
Thriving, representative workforce
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Increase recruitment and retention of early childhood professionals, including those with specialized skills in bilingual and special education.
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Increase compensation with a focus on pay parity and competitive benefits between community-based providers and Chicago Public Schools teachers.
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Strengthen opportunities for professional development, reflective supervision, and infant and early childhood mental health consultation.
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Strengthen the perception and reputation of the early childhood field by partnering with city agencies to promote early learning careers as desirable for youth.
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Increase credential, degree, license, and endorsement attainment for the early childhood field, including in bilingual and special education.
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Expand access to the Chicago Early Learning Workforce Scholarship and other supports for candidates.
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Healthy, safe and economically secure families
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Strengthen the alignment and integration of the health and early care and learning systems.
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Inform and support policies and initiatives that promote safe and healthy early care and learning environments.
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Increase access to culturally and linguistically responsive health care for families with young children and pregnant people, including preventive and specialty care, mental health and substance use recovery care.
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Improve access to public and private health insurance for families with young children and pregnant people.
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Increase economic supports for families with young children, including paid family and medical leave, access to public benefits and tax credits.
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Inform and support policies and initiatives that promote safe and healthy neighborhoods, housing and environments and positive social and community supports.
Publications & Resources
Our Research
We conduct research and evaluations to elevate the expertise of early childhood professionals and support better learning environments.
Resources for Professionals
From interactive courses to engaging events, we support educators in building powerful practices that transform teaching and learning.
Since early in our organization’s history, Start Early has partnered across states and communities to shape, study, advocate for and enact early childhood programs, research and policies that support young children and their families. Over the past year and a half, we have engaged people from within our broad early childhood ecosystem – including from across the Educare Network – to develop our first-ever research and policy agenda that describes priorities identified by parents and practitioners. Families and staff across home visiting, Early Head Start and Head Start, child care, Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education programs shared insight about critical federal policies that could best support their families and could ensure all young children thrive.
Core Beliefs
- Family and practitioner voices must inform federal policy and related research priorities.
- Researchers, policymakers and advocates must ensure their efforts reinforce and build on one other.
- Equitable and participatory research methods must be implemented in collaboration with parents and practitioners.
- Publications, resources and tools should use communication methods that are accessible and readily reach families, practitioners and communities
Read the Shaping Futures Together: An Early Childhood Research & Policy Agenda
Additional Resources
En español
Research & Evaluation Teams & Collaborators
Contact Us
For questions or to learn more, contact Jessie Gillard, Assistant Director, Policy Partnerships.
Our Policy Work
We work at local, state and federal levels to create effective, equitable and interconnected educational opportunities for our youngest learners.
Stay Connected
Sign up to receive noteworthy developments in state and federal early childhood news, policy trends and stories highlighting work across our network.
Each year the Illinois General Assembly passes legislation that can have an impact on families, or the organizations in our communities providing early childhood or related supportive services to families. Start Early leads on some of these legislative changes, often in coalition with others, and in other cases we contribute our early childhood lens and expertise to support the efforts of another lead organization. The 2023 Legislative Summary provides a listing of those bills that became law in the spring 2023 session that we thought would be relevant to families with young children and the field. We hope that this is a resource you will download and share with colleagues and families alike. We are happy to provide additional information about any of these initiatives or connect you with other advocates where needed. Initiatives that were led by Start Early are marked “*”.
Download Our Legislative Summary
Stay Connected
Stay up to date on early childhood policy issues and how you can take action to ensure more children have access to quality early learning and care in Illinois.
Illinois Policy & Advocacy
For decades, our policy team has been a leading voice and advocate for early learning and care in Illinois.
Contact Us
Connect with our team to learn more about our work or discuss how we can support policy and advocacy work for your organization.