Funding for early childhood education in Chicago is complex and ever-changing based on decisions made by lawmakers and agency leaders at the federal, state, and city levels. As the City prepares to engage in 2026 budget planning, the Illinois General Assembly prepares to approve Governor Pritzker’s proposed budget, and the new federal administration considers nationwide cuts to core early care and education programs, Chicago residents should take note of how these impending changes will impact some of the most crucial programs that serve Chicago’s youngest residents and their families. Here is an outlook on what’s to come: 

Federal Head Start and Early Head Start funding currently provides early care and education services to over 11,000 Chicagoans ages 0-5 in over 150 programs across the city. Any decisions made by the new federal administration or Congress on cuts to this Department of Health and Human Services-funded program could impact Chicago’s Early/Head Start programs, staff, and families. A loss or decrease in these funds could result in a greater need for state and city investment to sustain Chicago’s early childhood system.  

The state of Illinois’ Early Childhood Block Grant, which Chicago currently receives $284M of by state statute, is level-funded in the governor’s proposed budget, which means the largest source of funding for CPS pre-k and the Chicago Early Learning infrastructure remains the same and there will be no increases in funding for the upcoming RFP for community-based programs to apply for or re-apply for the 40% of these funds that are sub-granted by the City’s Department of Family and Support Services.  

And, while state budget increases to the Child Care Assistance program and Early Intervention will have the same limited impact on Chicago stakeholders as the rest of the state, the increase in funding for the Smart Start Workforce Grants will have an even more limited impact in Chicago, given the portion of Chicago’s young children who are served in programs that blend and braid public funds and therefore do not qualify for these grants.  

The City of Chicago’s Corporate Fund investment in early childhood education took a roughly $2M hit in the 2025 budget after being level-funded at $13M for several years. What this means remains to be seen, but this fund typically supports staffing at DFSS, in addition to key early childhood system infrastructure supports like the Chicago Early Learning Workforce Scholarship and Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System. This decrease in Corporate Fund dollars happened despite the child care workforce crisis gaining increased attention from members of City Council during the 2025 budget process.

The 2025 City budget also lacked sustainable funding for Family Connects Chicago, an essential program that ensures all families have access to the services they need following the birth of a child.  

On March 4, Start Early along with our partners at Child Care For All, COFI, Evanston Early Childhood Council, Illinois Action for Children, Raising Illinois, SEIU, and We, the Village brought over 300 advocates down to Springfield to advocate for Illinois’ youngest learners. Advocates shared their perspectives with legislators on the impact that increased funding for the Early Childhood Block Grant, ECACE, child care, home visiting and Early Intervention would have on Illinois families and providers.

Despite the devastating delays thousands of families across Illinois are experiencing when trying to access the Early Intervention (EI) services they are legally entitled to receive, Governor JB Pritzker’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal does not include any additional state funds for the EI program, which provides critical services to infants and toddlers who have or are at risk for significant developmental delays and disabilities. Instead, the administration is recommending a small rate increase for providers at a cost of $10 million supported by Medicaid funds. While we applaud IDHS and HFS for ensuring we are maximizing Medicaid funds, the funding increase is not nearly enough to address the historically high service delays and long waitlists that are directly tied to the workforce shortage.   

The proposal to flat fund EI is concerning and a departure from the multi-year investments announced in 2023 as part of the administration’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, which included a “commitment to regular increases in SFY25-SFY27 on Early Intervention funding mechanisms” following efforts to study and improve EI infrastructure and funding methods. Since then, a cost model study commissioned by IDHS-DEC found that the state needs to raise current spending by an additional $168 million annually to adequately compensate the workforce and stabilize the program. IDHS also invested in cross-state research, which shows that Illinois EI provider reimbursement rates are significantly lower than other states, forcing professionals to leave the field for higher-paying jobs in hospitals, schools, and private practice. These findings underscore a massive funding gap in pay for the workforce and a need for immense investment.  

Illinois’ EI program is at a breaking point and the crisis has recently received more media attention than ever before. For the past several months, EI families, providers, doctors and advocates have raised their voices to call for an additional $60 million in the FY26 budget through statewide rallies, 2,200+ petition signatures, and meetings with the Governor’s Office about this issue. It’s time for the state to show their voices have been heard. What will it take for our state to prioritize the needs and rights of infants and toddlers with delays or disabilities and their families? How much more harm will be done before we decide to take action?  

While the Governor’s proposal does not include an increase in state funding, the Illinois General Assembly has an opportunity to address the EI program’s stubbornly high service delays and workforce crisis. We urge the legislature to increase funding for the EI program by $60 million in the FY26 budget, allowing IDHS to authorize a meaningful rate increase for providers and get closer to the investment needed to stabilize the program. Without additional state funding this year, paired with substantial rate increases, providers will continue to leave the EI program and thousands more children will be denied the services they need. No one wins when we deny these services – the families suffer, developmental outcomes worsen and become costlier to address, and the state places itself at increased risk for the failure to meet its legal obligation to provide services to children and families. The time to act is now.   #babiescantwait.  

Earlier today, Governor JB Pritzker issued his Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 2026) budget proposal, which outlines considerable funding increases for the state’s child care system, but maintains level funding for its remaining early childhood programs – a departure from the multi-year investments announced in 2023 as part of the administration’s Smart Start Illinois initiative. 

Start Early recognizes the state’s financial position, combined with uncertainties in federal funding, made it difficult for the administration to propose significant funding increases across early childhood programs. While we are pleased with the Governor’s request to improve funding for child care assistance ($160 million increase for Child Care Assistance Program; $90 million increase for Smart Start Workforce Grants), the proposal does not provide additional state funds for Early Intervention, evidence-based home visiting programs and the Early Childhood Block Grant (Prevention Initiative and the Preschool for All programs). This lack of investment will limit the state’s ability to support the early childhood workforce and ultimately, to serve more young children through strengthened programs and services. 

“We thank Governor Pritzker for his longstanding support for early learning and, particularly, the administration’s decision to prioritize child care access in Illinois,” Start Early Illinois’ Executive Director Celena Sarillo said. “Yet, when we fail to provide sufficient state funding for programs like Early Intervention and home visiting, we fail children during their most crucial developmental periods, and we leave families unsupported in caring for their little ones.” 

The Illinois Policy Team at Start Early is pleased to release our annual Illinois Legislative Agenda, a snapshot of the budget requests and legislative priorities for which Start Early will be advocating during the spring 2025 legislative session in the state.

With the new legislative session underway, our team is focused on moving forward funding requests and legislation that will support families and providers across our early childhood system.

Our goals for the year include:

• Increasing funding for the Early Intervention (EI) program, maternal and child home visiting programs, the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), the Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) and the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE)
• Supporting legislation to improve the licensing process for child care providers
• Supporting legislation to create an advisory committee on preschool special education
• Supporting legislation to creating the Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program

The Illinois Department of Public Health’s 2024 Illinois Infant Mortality Data Report sheds additional light on the critical public health challenges impacting Illinois families and emphasizes the need for a strategic policy response. As Illinois continues to work to enhance infant health statewide, a comprehensive prenatal-to-three system of support for families must be a critical piece of the solution.  

As highlighted in the IDPH report, though it has declined over the last decade in 2021, Illinois’ infant mortality rate was 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, with profound disparities particularly affecting Black families. Illinois has not yet met the Healthy People 2030 goal of no more than 5.0 infant deaths per 1,000 live births and had the 28th lowest state infant mortality rate out of the 50 US states in 2021.  

Significant and concerning racial disparities in infant mortality persist. In Illinois, the infant mortality rate among infants born to Black women is nearly three times that of infants born to White, Hispanic, and Asian women. The leading causes of infant mortality in Illinois are effects of prematurity and fetal malnutrition, birth defects, sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and pregnancy/delivery complications. The Black-White inequity in infant mortality is heavily influenced by trends in deaths due prematurity and SUID, with non-Hispanic Black infants more than four times as likely to die of SUID than non-Hispanic White and Hispanic infants. 

Policymakers in Illinois have launched early care and education workforce scholarship programs in recent years, in an attempt to curb the high rates of staff turnover. At city and state levels, scholarship programs were created with the intent of providing career advancement opportunities to current staff, while also recruiting new members into the workforce. The number of scholarship applications across programs has largely surpassed the amount of financial aid available, underscoring the need to support our early learning workforce. 

Financial aid opportunities for higher education are a necessity for those aspiring to become early childhood educators. To become an early childhood lead teacher in a child care program, Illinois’s licensing standards require at least 6 semester hours/9 quarter hours of college course credit in child development or early childhood. However, child care staff are typically paid near minimum wage, making college courses financially out-of-reach without financial assistance. 

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 “*”. 

Illinois’ Early Intervention (EI) system is currently in crisis, resulting in thousands of families of eligible infants and toddlers with delays or disabilities across the state experiencing long waitlists for services, with service delays having nearly doubled in just the past two years. EI providers, many of whom have advanced degrees, are choosing to leave EI and work instead in hospitals, school, private practice or other settings with better benefits and higher pay. The state has invested in cross-state research and cost modeling that shows Illinois provider reimbursement rates are significantly lower than other states, and far below the true cost of delivering services. This provider shortage, combined with high caseloads and low compensation have led to high turnover within the field and unfilled vacancies, all of which have a substantial impact on the children and families waiting for EI services to begin. 

To address this crisis, this October, Start Early and Raising Illinois launched the Babies Can’t Wait: We Need Early Intervention campaign with a virtual kick-off event and held nine local rallies and press conferences across the state over ten days. In partnership with our hosting organizations (Advance Preschool, Autism Society, Champaign County Home Visiting Consortium, COFI, Early Childhood Forum of Central IL, Good Shepherd Center, Illinois Developmental Therapy Association, SAL Community Services, Southern IL Coalition for Children and Families, SPARK, and United Palatine Coalition), we were able to bring over 1,000 advocates together in-person and virtually to call for the urgent need for a $60M additional investment to address the current crisis in our state’s Early Intervention program. In addition to making their voices heard at the rallies, EI families have started an online petition which has garnered over 2,100 signatures in support of the $60M increase for EI in the FY26 state budget, and many families and providers have been featured in media coverage of the campaign in outlets like Capitol News, Chicago Tonight and Chronicle Illinois. 

With just a few months left before Governor Pritzker shares his budget proposal, we aren’t slowing down! We’re proud to share that over 40 organizations have signed onto our fact sheet calling for a $60 million budget increase for EI in FY26. We urge you to join us in taking action for Early Intervention by signing the parent-led petition and by sharing your EI story. Together, we can make a better EI system for our providers and the families they serve. Our #babiescantwait. 

Start Early is excited to announce the launch of Every Child Ready Chicago’s (ECRC) Strategic Framework, a living document that will guide our work for the next several years. Building this Framework was made possible by the insights and expertise of those on the ECRC Executive and Advisory Committees. Almost a full calendar year’s worth of multiple rounds of brainstorming and feedback sessions allowed us to identify the most salient areas of work to focus our actions over the next several years in pursuit of strengthening Chicago’s early childhood system to allow it to meet the needs of all families. We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our community and city partners who contributed their time to making this Framework a reality. 

Every Child Ready Chicago is a public-private partnership led by the Mayor’s Office in partnership with Start Early working to ensure all children in Chicago enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and life. ECRC is guided by a vision of a coherent prenatal-to-five system that provides equitable access to supports and services that ensure the highest outcomes for our city’s youngest learners. This initiative first launched in 2019 and has continued working to build on Chicago’s robust history of investing in early learning opportunities.  

The ECRC Strategic Framework describes the next phase of our work together and the strategic action we plan to take that will be supported by Working Groups that will launch in 2025. The three inaugural Work Groups will be a Governance & Funding Work Group, a Data Work Group, and a Family & Community Engagement Work Group.