In September 2025, the Transition Advisory Council funding design workgroup shared a series of preliminary recommendations for how IDEC may approach redesigning funding for the early childhood system in Illinois. These recommendations, if adopted, would take effect in July of 2027. Here, Start Early provides suggestions for what the state might consider next.
Alignment Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Cluster early learning & care funding streams
We support the state’s goals of simplifying funding streams and decreasing the administrative burden that programs face, though questions remain about how this will be achieved.
Our recommendations:
- Allocate a designated portion of funds to infant and toddler services.
- Provide clarification on how funding streams with different eligibility, use, and monitoring requirements will be aligned to ensure that programs do not lose flexibility.
- Provide additional clarification on the role of Head Start in IDEC’s aligned funding plan.
- Maintain flexibility to allow for the development of new program models in the future.
- Develop a comprehensive plan for state or regional infrastructure to provide programs with supports such as health and I/ECMH consultation, pyramid model, and inclusion support.
Recommendation 2: Cluster home visiting funding streams
We are supportive of combining Home Visiting (HV) funding and aligning administrative requirements, which advocates and the state funding commission have previously recommended.
Our recommendations:
- Maintain flexibility, ensuring that the restrictions of certain funding streams are not imposed on others.
- Consolidate HV infrastructure supports (e.g. a single vendor for professional development, one for monitoring, etc.); ensure vendors have demonstrated HV expertise and prioritize continuity in effective vendors for system stability.
- Encourage the use of models best designed to meet family needs, even if some models are more costly to implement.
- Prioritize maximizing HV funding across all available sources, including Title IV-E (FFPSA) and Medicaid.
Recommendation 3: Continue to fund early intervention and early childhood special education separately
We agree with and support the state’s decision to continue to fund Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education separately from other programs.
Our recommendations:
- Explore the need for dedicated funding outside of ECSE and IDEA to support the inclusion of children with disabilities and developmental delays across all learning settings.
- Significantly increase funding for Early Intervention.
Distribution Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Expand use of non-competitive grants or contracts for providers serving priority populations
We support the state’s goals of both decreasing administrative burden and improving programs’ financial stability by expanding the use of non-competitive grants.
Our recommendations:
- Ensure that non-competitive grant allocations increase year over year, allowing programs the ability to maintain financial stability in the face of rising costs.
- Provide clarification on how new programs will apply to receive funding under a non-competitive model, and the avenues available for existing grantees to request increased funding for additional slots.
- Develop a plan to approach monitoring for long-term non-competitive grants, to ensure accountability.
- Prioritize flexibility and develop support options available to programs to ensure that providers are able to address future challenges in a changing landscape.
Recommendation 2: Continue to use vouchers to maximize family choice
While we recognize the flexibility that vouchers offer both parents and programs, we hope that the state will address longstanding concerns that families and providers have raised regarding their use.
Our recommendations:
- Ensure that payments are made in a timely manner.
- Offset the instability programs experience that is inherently caused by attendance-based payments, or remove the attendance-based component altogether.
- Increase reimbursement rates without relying on additional family contributions.
Recommendation 3: Reserve use of competitive grants for short term or specialized funding
We applaud the state’s willingness to maintain all distribution mechanisms, to account for future funding needs and unique scenarios.
Our recommendation:
- Ensure that competitive grant processes are streamlined and simplified to be inclusive of all providers, without creating an undue burden on small providers or community-based organizations.
Adequacy Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: Define adequacy-based funding targets
As the state develops funding targets, we encourage careful evaluation of existing assumptions and definitions of priority populations and adequacy to ensure that targets are reflective of current community needs.
Our recommendations:
- Account for programs that exist outside of state or federal funding structures, such as slots in private programs that affect saturation and regional needs.
- Consider the true cost of care, paying special attention to variations in needs such as facilities and transportation, as well as provider ratios.
- Consider the funding needed to ensure investment in technical assistance and coaching needed to build capacity, grow infrastructure, and strengthen quality across the system.
Recommendation 2: Prioritize “next dollar in”
We approve of the state’s plan to prioritize and address the greatest needs first, and we look forward to additional information about how these priorities will be determined, and the role of local and regional infrastructures in these decisions.
Our recommendation:
- Plan for how to consistently balance expansion with quality investments, ensuring that existing programs continue to receive needed support.
