High-Quality Early Education For All of Illinois' Children - Ounce of ...

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COMMUNITY COLLABORATION: Building an early learning system requires the participation of people andorganizations from all walks of life. Engaging all stakeholders in a community is a key challenge. To maximizecommunity resources and promote partnerships, the monitoring process would review evidence of communitycollaboration in planning and service provision. Over the longer term, Preschool for All would also establish localcommunity collaborations to foster partnerships at the local level between schools, early care and educationproviders, child care resource and referral agencies, colleges and universities, businesses, government, servicegroups, and parents. These local community collaborations would distribute information about available services,enhance service coordination and resource sharing, ensure successful transitions between settings, identify gaps inservices and local infrastructure needs, and measure progress.We Have Made a Strong Start—But We Can and We Must Do BetterIn Illinois, our strong State PreK program serves tens of thousands of children across the state who are at risk ofschool failure. Despite difficult budget environments, over the past three years, Governor Blagojevich and theGeneral Assembly have recognized the value of early education by increasing funding for State PreK by $90 millionso that up to 25,000 more at-risk children can participate. In addition, the Governor and General Assemblyexpanded family eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program to help 11,000 more families pay for child care.But we can't stop there. We can and we must do better—the children and their parents are counting on us. Toomany are on waiting lists or do not qualify for preschool programs. And too many children whose families pay forprograms spend their days in settings of mediocre or poor quality. In coming decades, our civic institutions andworkplaces will need the participation and productivity of all Illinoisans. That is why we make public investmentsin education. Researchers have unquestionably proven what many parents and educators have been saying foryears—the preschool years matter. Now we must begin that investment sooner.Preschool for All is a sound economic investment. The evidence is overwhelming that early childhood educationpays financial dividends by reducing future costs for special education and other forms of remediation. By makinggreater investments in early education, our state can increase the odds that the billions of dollars we spend onK-12 education will have the greatest, most positive impact.It is also the right thing to do. Preschool for All is a matter of fairness. We expect a great deal of our children.We owe it to them—to all of them—to provide the best possible start in life.vi
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Page 1: Preschool for AllHigh-Quality Early
Page 4 and 5: Preschool for AllSummary of Recomme
Page 6 and 7: Illinois Early Learning Council Ove
Page 9 and 10: Executive SummaryPreschool for All
Page 11 and 12: • All families need assurance tha
Page 13: 4. BUILDING ON ALL WE'VE ACCOMPLISH
Page 17 and 18: Part 1Why Preschool for All?Illinoi
Page 19 and 20: How Are We Serving Infants and Todd
Page 21 and 22: This finding rests on a large body
Page 23 and 24: This ReportThis report provides an
Page 25: 6Preschool for All means peace of m
Page 28 and 29: ✓Make preschool programs accessib
Page 30 and 31: ✓Create a pipeline of qualified s
Page 32 and 33: ✓Promote social and emotional dev
Page 34 and 35: Which providers are eligible to par
Page 37 and 38: Part 3Putting the Pieces TogetherIl
Page 39 and 40: When It All Comes TogetherWhat Will
Page 42 and 43: Appendix ARecommendations for Futur
Page 44 and 45: have access to affordable child car
Page 47 and 48: Part 4Illinois Early Learning Counc
Page 49 and 50: Raydeane JamesIllinois State Board
Page 51: AcknowledgementsThis report was wri

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