In May of this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a $7M investment of the City’s Corporate Fund dollars to be distributed to 3,000 early care and education workers across Chicago, recognizing the need for increased compensation for this essential workforce. This investment resulted directly from the hard work of early care and education workers and advocates during last year’s budget engagement process and this year they are back to say the work is far from over. More investment is needed in 2026 to ensure children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn—and to support the professionals who care for and educate them in the years before school entry. 

Research shows that children who participate in high-quality early childhood programs are 25 times more likely to graduate from high school and four times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree. They also experience better lifelong health outcomes and are less likely to become involved in the criminal justice system. Economists have found that these programs yield a 13% return on investment annually. 

Despite this evidence, too many Chicago children still enter kindergarten underprepared in math, literacy and social-emotional skills. This is due, in part, to ongoing gaps in access to early learning programs. 

2026 Chicago Early Childhood Budget Priorities 

To address these challenges, advocates are calling for targeted increases in the City’s 2026 budget: 

• $10 million increase for the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) Children’s Services Division to: 
  • Sustain 2025 wage increases for 3,000 early care and education providers 
  • Expand these wage increases to reach thousands of additional early childhood educators 
• $1 million investment to expand the Chicago Early Learning Workforce Scholarship, allowing over 100 additional early educators to pursue degrees and enter the workforce. 
• $2 million restoration funding to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Family Connects Chicago program, which experienced a $4.7 million funding cut in 2025. Family Connects provides postpartum nurse home visits to ensure birthing families get a healthy start. 

Contact your alderman now to ask them to support these requests.  

While the immediate budget requests are vital, stakeholders are also calling on the Mayor’s Office and City Council to begin building toward a long-term vision: establishing a dedicated revenue stream to sustainably support early childhood services across Chicago. 

Cities like Denver, San Antonio and Seattle have successfully created voter-approved children’s funds to guarantee stable funding for early learning, afterschool and youth development programs. Chicago can—and should—do the same. 

Over the weekend, the Illinois General Assembly approved a Fiscal Year 2026 state budget that includes a substantial increase in funding for the state’s child care system. Unfortunately, the spending plan maintains current funding levels for other critical early childhood programs – a departure from the multi-year investments pledged by Governor JB Pritzker in 2023 as part of the administration’s Smart Start Illinois initiative. We expect the governor to sign and approve this final budget package soon.

“Start Early commends Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly for their continued commitments to ensure Illinois families have the resources they need to thrive,” Start Early Illinois’ Executive Director Celena Sarillo said. “Although this final budget does not include all of the early childhood funding for which families and providers advocated, we are ready to work with policymakers, advocates and families this upcoming year to continue expanding access and strengthening programs and services, like preschool, home visiting and Early Intervention, that give children their best chance at success in school and in life.”

The budget package contains $85 million in new state funding for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and $90 million in new funding for Smart Start Workforce Grants (SSWG). The CCAP dollars will allow the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to raise reimbursement rates for home providers while accommodating a growing caseload and avoiding harmful waitlists and delayed payments. Additional funding for the SSWG program enables IDHS to maintain existing grants to programs.

Start Early is disappointed by the decision to flat-fund the Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG), the Maternal and Child Home Visiting (MCHV) program and the Early Intervention (EI) program despite an earlier commitment from the Pritzker Administration to increase spending on the programs in FY26 as part of its original Smart Start Illinois plan.

“Amid an uncertain and evolving federal landscape, Start Early is grateful that our state’s leaders remained focused on moving forward a balanced budget that aims to protect Illinois communities first and supports families and those who care for them,” Start Early Vice President of Illinois Policy Ireta Gasner said. “However, additional funding is needed to ensure timely services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays and a well-prepared and compensated workforce – both of which are foundations of an equitable early childhood system. This budget is a small step forward, but much is left to be done.”

Notably, in April, IDHS announced a rate increase for Early Intervention providers, which is to be funded by accumulated Medicaid dollars. The rate increase, informed by the new EI cost model and service delay data, prioritizes service providers with reimbursement rates currently below 50% of the modeled cost. While the administration’s plan to increase rates for many providers next year is a welcome one, the increase represents only a fraction of what is needed to stabilize the EI system. As such, we are disappointed with the final appropriation for EI, as we believe the approved budget is inadequate to address the ongoing workforce crisis and distressingly high service delays.

Here are the specifics of what’s in the final package:

• $85 million increase for the Child Care Assistance Program at the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) for caseload growth and rate increases for home providers
• $90 million increase for the Smart Start Workforce Grants at IDHS to replace expiring federal funds
• Early Intervention provider rate increase (learn more)
• $7.5 million increase in operations funding for the Illinois Department of Early Childhood

No additional funding for the following programs was included:

• The Early Childhood Block Grant at the Illinois State Board of Education, which supports the state’s Prevention Initiative, Preschool for All and Preschool for All Expansion programs
• The Early Intervention program at IDHS
• Evidence-based home visiting programs at IDHS
• The Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) scholarship program

These legislative victories and increased appropriations were achieved only because of the unwavering dedication of parents, providers, and advocates across Illinois. With substantial work still needed to close critical funding gaps for programs like EI and ECACE, we look forward to continuing the work of making Illinois the best state in America in which to raise young children.

* * * *

Several other important measures impacting the early care and education system – and the families and workforce who are a part of it – were approved by the legislature this session, including:

• HB3439 (Rep. Mason, Sen. Johnson) – improves basic child care licensing functions in the short-term by codifying into law existing DCFS guidance regarding provisional hiring and requiring staff background checks to be completed every five years instead of every three years.
• HB3327 (Rep. Yang Rohr, Sen. Villivalam) – improves the Early Intervention (EI) referral process for babies born into a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by requiring hospital staff to initiate a written referral for families whose children are automatically eligible for EI services.
• SB1555 (Sen. Loughran Cappel, Rep. Hirschauer) – adds the Secretary of the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) as an ex-officio voting member to the Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities
• HB3446 (Rep. Canty, Sen. Loughran Cappel) – requires IDEC to publish and update annually a comprehensive list of college early childhood courses child care teacher and director candidates can take to meet required qualifications. The bill also requires IDEC to create a process to verify which early childhood courses make the list.
• SB406 (Sen. Aquino, Rep. Mason) – requires IDEC to establish an Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) that will be used to make equity driven, inclusive, and data-informed decisions within the early childhood system.
• SB2437 (Sen. Aquino, Rep. Moeller) – the Medicaid omnibus, which includes language that requires hospitals and birthing centers to allow patients to have Medicaid-approved doulas present during all phases of labor and birth. The doula will not count toward the number of guests permitted to a patient.

On July 1st, 2026, the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) will officially administer our state’s early childhood programs and services and child care licensing will move from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to IDEC. In the meantime, IDEC officials are busy not only planning the transition to ensure a smooth launch, but they have also set redesigning Illinois’s licensing system as a priority over the next year. 

Start Early believes that by improving some basic child care licensing functions now, IDEC could turn their focus to important long-term aspects of reforming child care licensing. Therefore, in response to years of child care educators’ complaints and concerns with our current licensing system, Start Early introduced House Bill (HB) 3439. This bill provided common-sense solutions to improve licensing functions and reduce the state’s background check processing delays, which have been a constant problem for several years and there simply haven’t been any significant improvements from the state.  

According to a survey conducted by Start Early, child care directors are consistently waiting more than 5 weeks for background check clearances for prospective staff. In neighboring states like Iowa, full background check clearances are typically issued within one week. In Wisconsin, there’s a portal that allows prospective staff to request background checks and simplifies the submission of documents. Without a streamlined background check process in Illinois that is transparent, efficient and easy to navigate, child care directors will continue to lose qualified staff to other industries.  

After months of bill negotiations with both DCFS and DEC, the final version of HB 3439 includes the following: 

• Probationary Hiring: child care facilities may hire prospective staff on a probationary basis, after their Illinois State Police (ISP) or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background check has been cleared. Prospective staff may not be left alone with children until they have been issued a full background check clearance.  
  • If prospective staff have lived out-of-state over the past 5 years, federal regulations also require them to receive a criminal history clearance from that state(s) before they can be hired probationally. 

• Background check cycle: Requires staff background checks to be completed every 5 years, instead of every 3 years. 

Last week, HB 3439 passed the Illinois General Assembly and will make its way to the Governor for his signature before becoming law. Although we celebrate that this legislation will bring some relief to child care directors and prospective staff, we also recognize that child care educators need more help than what is provided in the negotiated version of HB 3439. In IDEC’s effort to reimagine licensing, we urge the Department to focus its immediate efforts on reforming the entirety of the background check process, from beginning to end. If the goal of IDEC officials is to reform the state’s early learning infrastructure to one that is “simpler, fairer, better,” the child care background check process is a perfect place to start. 

In April of this year, the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) announced a proposed rate increase for Early Intervention (EI) providers, funded by $10 million in one-time accumulated Medicaid dollars, pending approval of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. The increase, informed by the new EI cost model and service delay data, prioritizes services where provider rates are currently below 50% of the modeled cost and for services that have the greatest waiting lists. Developmental Therapy (DT), Physical Therapy (PT) and Vision services are slated to receive an 8% rate increase, while Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech Therapy, Audiology and Aural Rehabilitation will receive a 5% boost. Service coordinators will also see a 5% increase. Many essential services—including Nursing, Nutrition, Psychology, Social Work, Interpretation and Medical Diagnostics—will see no increase at this time. 

While the Department’s plan to increase rates for many providers in FY26 is a welcome one, it represents only a fraction of what is needed to stabilize Illinois’ EI system. A recent New America blog post by Abby McCartney, Senior Director at Afton Partners, highlights findings from the state-commissioned cost model developed with extensive input from hundreds of EI providers and families. Their research shows that EI providers currently earn about half of what they could make in other fields requiring similar credentials—worsening Illinois’ growing provider shortage, ballooning caseloads, and increasing wait times for families. The model calls for increasing provider rates by an average of 95%. 

The proposed rate increases are an important acknowledgment of the crisis but not nearly enough to address it. Even with these targeted adjustments, many provider rates remain significantly below the modeled cost of delivering services. Without deeper investment, staffing shortages and harmful service delays will persist. The newly developed cost model offers a powerful, data-driven tool to guide future policy and investment decisions—but it will only be effective if Illinois continues to act on what the data clearly shows. Service delays have nearly doubled over the last three years, reaching historically high levels. 

The fight for greater investment in EI for FY26 is far from over. We urge all EI stakeholders—providers, families, and advocates—to urge the Illinois General Assembly to appropriate an additional $60 million in funding in the upcoming state budget. This critical investment would allow IDHS to authorize more substantial rate increases, move closer to covering the full cost of services and stabilize the EI system for infants, toddlers and their families. 

Join us in calling on the General Assembly to substantially increase EI funding in the FY26 state budget — and help ensure infants, toddlers, and their families can get the services they need and are entitled to receive! 

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.