Early Learning Illinois: Access. Options. Opportunities is a statewide campaign with a familiar but important theme. Action for Children, Ounce of Prevention Fund and Voices for Illinois Children - along with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois, Chicago Metropolis 2020 and hundreds of other organizations across the state - have teamed up to make the improvement and expansion of early learning services for all children, starting at birth, a top priority for Illinois policymakers. Read about "Preschool for All."

The Early Learning Illinois campaign wants Illinois to lead the nation in making available voluntary, high-quality preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds; supporting parents as their children’s first teachers; and producing a highly qualified early childhood workforce. The Early Learning Illinois vision builds on existing initiatives offered by schools, Head Start programs and child care centers and homes. 

The campaign kicked off in 2002 with a voter-registration drive that signed up thousands of new voters who care about children's early learning needs. The Early Learning Illinois campaign has:

• Worked to improve funding for early learning with a $90 million funding increase for the Early Childhood Development Block Grant in FY04, FY05 and FY06;

• Taken important steps toward providing better-quality early learning in all settings with the creation and work of the Early Learning Council;

• Worked to expand access to child care for low-income, working families by updating income eligibility guidelines that had been frozen since 1997; 

• Rallied hundreds of concerned parents, early childhood teachers and providers and others at meetings throughout the state; and

• Distributed hundreds of copies of a new short film on early education in Illinois.

The Early Learning Illinois campaign is funded by the Trust for Early Education and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Contact Sean Noble for more information.