A child’s education begins long before he or she enters kindergarten. Research shows that learning begins at birth, and that the experiences and interactions children have from their first days create an intellectual and emotional foundation for how they will do in school.  

Developing confidence, curiosity, self-control and the ability to communicate in the first few years of life is as important to a child’s future success in school as his or her ability to recite the alphabet, count or identify shapes. Quality early learning experiences also arm children with the personal attributes and skills they need to graduate from high school and avoid such costly problems as delinquency and teen pregnancy.

All Illinois children should be healthy, eager to learn and ready to succeed by the time they enter school. But some young children don’t have the same opportunities as others, and national teacher surveys indicate that one-third of children enter kindergarten unprepared. While existing programs such as state-funded preKindergarten and child care assistance make a positive difference in children’s lives, they face many limitations. Good early learning programs can be hard to find and often are too expensive for the average family. Too many early childhood professionals lack the training, compensation and other support they need – and that children need them to have.

Our state must improve and expand upon voluntary, high-quality early learning options so that all children have the opportunity to do their best, now and in the future. It’s a chance every child deserves.

  The Benefits of Early Learning     

Children with high-quality early learning experiences:

n      Can demonstrate a 10-point increase in their IQ scores when compared with their peers. (Chicago Child-Parent Center study)

n      Are 41 percent less likely to need special-education services and 30 percent more likely to graduate from high school. (Chicago Child-Parent Center study)

n      Are 33 percent less likely to be involved in criminal activity. (Chicago Child-Parent Center study)

n      Are judged by high school teachers to be “average” to “above average” in behavior in 75 percent to 85 percent of cases. (Illinois PreKindergarten Program for Children At Risk of Academic Failure: FY2000 Evaluation)

n      Are more advanced at age 3 in language, problem solving and social development and score higher on kindergarten-readiness tests and standardized measures of reading, math and language in first through fourth grades. (Parents As Teachers evaluation reports)

The Need for Early Learning

n      Thirty-eight percent of third graders do not meet state standards for reading and 43 percent fall short of state standards in writing. Among low-income children, those figures are even worse: 60 percent and 61 percent, respectively. (Illinois Standards Achievement Test, 2002)

n      State officials estimate that at least 140,000 of Illinois ’ 3- and 4-year-olds were at risk of school failure in fiscal FY2000 – and that perhaps 53,200 of them went without the preK and Head Start services for which they were qualified. (Illinois PreKindergarten Program for Children At Risk of Academic Failure: FY2000 Evaluation)

n      Eighty-five percent of Illinois voters name an age younger than 6 as “the most important age for developing a child’s capacity to learn.” (Market Strategies, Inc. poll, May 2001)

Illinois has a patchwork of good but limited programs that can serve as strong building blocks for improving and expanding early learning options.

n      Thirty-five percent of Illinois children are under age 6, but only 2 percent of the state’s education budget is spent on early childhood programs. Illinois spent an average of $2,654 on the education of each child in its state-supported preKindergarten program in FY2000, the same year it set a minimum basic-education funding level of $4,325 per student in grades K-12. This disparity does not signal a need for fewer resources at grades K-12, but a greater commitment of resources in early education. (Illinois State Board of Education)

n      Subsidized child care helps many low-income families afford care that fits their needs. Eligibility is frozen at 1997 income levels, barring more and more low-income families from receiving subsidies. Rates paid to providers who accept child-care subsidies are below market and lead to low pay and high employee turnover. An employee in a child-care center or home that accepts state subsidies earns an average of $8.21 an hour. A tollbooth attendant earns an average starting salary of $12.05. (Who’s Caring For the Kids? Krajec et al, 2001)

n      Head Start and Early Head Start help many low-income children with health and social services as well as educational support. However, the programs are only for children from extremely poor families, and limited funding allows only about half of eligible children to receive services. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Bureau)

n      Families who receive home visits have fewer low-birthweight babies, fewer reports of abuse and neglect, higher rates of immunizations and breastfeeding and more age-appropriate child development. Yet, the need and demand for home visiting programs such as Healthy Families Illinois, Parents Too Soon and the Doula program exceed supply. The geographic distribution of programs has left unserved and underserved areas throughout the state.

A new campaign, “Early Learning Illinois: Access. Options. Opportunities,” is working to build support for development of a cohesive early learning system that expands upon existing programs and benefits all Illinois children. Early Learning Illinois calls for greater:

n      Access – All 3- and 4-year-olds have the chance to benefit from early learning services, if their parents choose. All parents have access to services that bolster their role as children’s first teachers and that help them support their children’s development, beginning before birth. All families have access to programs and services that fit with work schedules.

n      Options – Parents can choose from a range of options – from schedules to locations to program offerings – that fit their families’ needs. The various early childhood programs can collaborate more freely to strengthen their offerings for the benefit of children’s learning and parents’ choices. Communities help shape programs to meet their needs, through some measure of local planning.

n       Opportunities – Children enter school ready to learn and succeed. Teachers have the chance to boost their own education, preparation and credentials for children’s benefit. Programs are supported in maintaining stable and well-prepared staffs. Illinois can take advantage of the opportunity to improve learning for its schoolchildren – especially given the new federal education requirements – as well as the preparation of its future workforce.