Prioritizing Background Check Reform in the IDEC Transition

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.