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.
