The Kindergarten Transition Advisory Committee was established by the General Assembly in 2017 (HJR0024) to review and report on the transition into kindergarten. On September 28, 2018, they submitted a report to the Governor, State Board of Education, and General Assembly that includes recommendations to help streamline the transition for children, families, communities, educators, districts, and the state. Check out the report here!
The Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (INCCRRA) released a workforce report that provides rich, descriptive data about Illinois’ early childhood education workforce, as shown by analysis of the data within the Gateways Registry. INCCRRA’s hope is that this report will be a valuable resource for leaders and policymakers to inform conversations that will further support and advance the early childhood education workforce in Illinois.
Read the Executive Summary Read the Full Report View the PowerPoint Presentation Joellyn Whitehead, Director of Data & Research at INCCRR, gave at the June Early Learning Council meeting.
On June 8, 2018, Erikson Institute’s Policy and Leadership Department and the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development hosted a breakfast symposium on the Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education report. Featured speakers included Elizabeth E. Davis, Ph.D., professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota and Harriet Dichter, J.D., fellow at ICF International. Our panel of representatives from local early childhood partner organizations included: Jennifer Alexander, Director of Early Learning Programs, Metropolitan Family Services; Theresa Hawley, Senior Vice President for Policy and Innovation, Illinois Action for Children; Cathy Main, Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator, University of Illinois; and Sam Aigner-Treworgy, Chief of Early Learning, City of Chicago.
View the Transforming the Financing of Early Care and Education: Executive Summary Full Report PowerPoint Presentation
The 2017 Illinois Early Childhood Workforce Survey Report was published in October 2017 by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Education and the Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD), supported by Illinois Innovation to Incubation and funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The survey provides insight into the relationship between the need for qualified early childhood teachers and assistants and the hiring experiences of program administrators across targeted age ranges, program types, and funding sources. This report will accompany a larger report on the early childhood workforce to be published in 2018 through the National Academy of Medicine Innovation to Incubation Project.
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