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1 | SENATE RESOLUTION | ||||||
2 | WHEREAS, Decades of research demonstrate that high-quality | ||||||
3 | early care and education programs are effective in supporting | ||||||
4 | the learning and development of young children, increasing | ||||||
5 | their likelihood of success in school and in later life; and | ||||||
6 | WHEREAS, Studies similarly reflect the substantial | ||||||
7 | contributions that early childhood services make in | ||||||
8 | strengthening the well-being of communities, the stability of | ||||||
9 | our workforce, and the quality of our economy, as well as | ||||||
10 | public safety and national security; and | ||||||
11 | WHEREAS, The quality of early childhood services depends | ||||||
12 | largely upon the quality of their infrastructure, ranging from | ||||||
13 | well-qualified teachers to supportive data systems; and | ||||||
14 | WHEREAS, Such infrastructure also includes safe, | ||||||
15 | developmentally appropriate classrooms and related physical | ||||||
16 | space for young children's care and learning; and | ||||||
17 | WHEREAS, The availability and quality of early childhood | ||||||
18 | facilities are an equitability concern for many underserved | ||||||
19 | populations of Illinois, including communities of color, areas | ||||||
20 | of pronounced socio-economic pressure, and rural regions; and |
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1 | WHEREAS, The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has | ||||||
2 | stated that high-quality environments not only help keep | ||||||
3 | children safe and healthy but also facilitate concentration, | ||||||
4 | ease of play, and more positive child-teacher and child-child | ||||||
5 | interactions; providing a high-quality environment includes | ||||||
6 | ensuring such conditions as adequate space, ventilation, | ||||||
7 | thermal comfort, and lighting; and | ||||||
8 | WHEREAS, The national Bipartisan Policy Center has | ||||||
9 | reported that investments in early care and learning | ||||||
10 | facilities should be an element of federal, state, and local | ||||||
11 | economic-development strategies; and | ||||||
12 | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois reflected these realities | ||||||
13 | in establishing the Early Childhood Construction Grants (ECCG) | ||||||
14 | initiative in 2009 and growing the grant's resources to $100 | ||||||
15 | million in 2019, with approximately $40 million of that amount | ||||||
16 | still remaining to be awarded to qualified building-and-repair | ||||||
17 | projects; and | ||||||
18 | WHEREAS, Owing to resource limitations, the number of ECCG | ||||||
19 | grant applications and the needs they represent have vastly | ||||||
20 | outpaced the number of actual grant awards that could be made | ||||||
21 | to early childhood providers over the years; and | ||||||
22 | WHEREAS, In Illinois' mixed-delivery system of early |
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1 | childhood services, community-based providers play an | ||||||
2 | important role by helping relieve capacity pressures on | ||||||
3 | maxed-out school facilities while also meeting the specific | ||||||
4 | needs and choices of many parents in their own localities; and | ||||||
5 | WHEREAS, Community-based service providers typically have | ||||||
6 | far less access to capital, including the technical assistance | ||||||
7 | required to seek building resources, than do schools; and | ||||||
8 | WHEREAS, The vast scope of the State's | ||||||
9 | construction-and-renovation needs is also evidenced by Early | ||||||
10 | Childhood Regional Needs Assessments produced in 2023 by Birth | ||||||
11 | to Five Illinois in which stakeholders from approximately | ||||||
12 | one-fifth of Illinois counties, ranging from Jo Daviess to | ||||||
13 | Kankakee to Pope and beyond, expressly named capital matters | ||||||
14 | among their most pressing concerns; and | ||||||
15 | WHEREAS, School districts participating in the Illinois | ||||||
16 | State Board of Education (ISBE) 2024 Capital Needs Assessment | ||||||
17 | Survey identified the need for building 269 additional | ||||||
18 | school-based preK classrooms statewide; and | ||||||
19 | WHEREAS, ISBE's biennial Capital Needs Assessment Survey | ||||||
20 | captures only a portion of Illinois' early childhood | ||||||
21 | facilities needs, considering that fewer than half of | ||||||
22 | elementary and unit districts took part in the most recent |
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1 | assessment and that the assessment does not extend to | ||||||
2 | community-based service providers; and | ||||||
3 | WHEREAS, A national report from the Reinvestment Fund and | ||||||
4 | National Children's Facilities Network declared that "limited | ||||||
5 | supply of licensable facilities, cramped spaces, and deferred | ||||||
6 | maintenance have been common features of child care | ||||||
7 | infrastructure for decades," adding that their findings | ||||||
8 | "suggest a significant remaining need for funding for | ||||||
9 | facilities infrastructure, from maintaining and repairing | ||||||
10 | facilities, expanding existing programs, to developing new | ||||||
11 | high-quality learning environments; and | ||||||
12 | WHEREAS, In 2019, the Governor appointed a bipartisan | ||||||
13 | Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and | ||||||
14 | Care Funding (Early Childhood Funding Commission) that, after | ||||||
15 | a year of research and expert deliberation, issued | ||||||
16 | recommendations for making the State's system of birth-to-five | ||||||
17 | services "simpler, better, fairer" for children and families; | ||||||
18 | and | ||||||
19 | WHEREAS, The Funding Commission's report expressly | ||||||
20 | acknowledged the significance of Illinois' urgent | ||||||
21 | bricks-and-mortar needs, stating that future studies must | ||||||
22 | assess the costs of facility footprint expansion across the | ||||||
23 | mixed delivery system to help adjust projections of future |
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1 | funding needs; and | ||||||
2 | WHEREAS, The Funding Commission recommended substantial | ||||||
3 | increases in birth-to-five programmatic resources that | ||||||
4 | Illinois has begun to pursue through the Governor's multi-year | ||||||
5 | Smart Start Illinois initiative, representing important and | ||||||
6 | desperately needed growth in early childhood program capacity | ||||||
7 | that will understandably increase physical-infrastructure | ||||||
8 | needs even further, over time, as more families are helped to | ||||||
9 | access the services they seek; and | ||||||
10 | WHEREAS, The Commission and the Governor also recommended | ||||||
11 | the creation of a single State agency to streamline, improve, | ||||||
12 | and assume responsibility for the administration of core | ||||||
13 | birth-to-five services that historically have been spread | ||||||
14 | across multiple other departments; and | ||||||
15 | WHEREAS, By an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, the General | ||||||
16 | Assembly accordingly authorized the establishment of the | ||||||
17 | State's new Department of Early Childhood via Public Act | ||||||
18 | 103-0594, which also launched a two-year planning process for | ||||||
19 | development of the new agency; therefore, be it | ||||||
20 | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL | ||||||
21 | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the new Department of | ||||||
22 | Early Childhood and its planning process should prioritize |
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1 | appropriate attention to the facilities needs of our State's | ||||||
2 | mixed-delivery system of early care and education; and be it | ||||||
3 | further | ||||||
4 | RESOLVED, That such prioritization should include | ||||||
5 | development of a biennial measure of physical-infrastructure | ||||||
6 | needs among community-based providers of child care, | ||||||
7 | preschool, and other core early childhood services for | ||||||
8 | children from birth to age five, as well as continue to assess | ||||||
9 | the capital needs of school-based providers of such programs, | ||||||
10 | to better inform state policy decision-making, and reflect the | ||||||
11 | Funding Commission's call for deliberate assessment of | ||||||
12 | facility-expansion costs; and be it further | ||||||
13 | RESOLVED, That the State should move expeditiously to | ||||||
14 | award its remaining Early Childhood Construction Grant monies | ||||||
15 | to qualified applicants, to assist providers of critical | ||||||
16 | birth-to-five programs in meeting their growing | ||||||
17 | building-and-repair demands; and be it further | ||||||
18 | RESOLVED, That the State should also move as quickly as | ||||||
19 | feasible to replenish Early Childhood Construction Grant | ||||||
20 | resources to help Illinois achieve the long-term vision of the | ||||||
21 | bipartisan Funding Commission for making services "simpler, | ||||||
22 | better, fairer" for young children, their families, and | ||||||
23 | communities statewide; and be it further |
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1 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
2 | delivered to the offices of the Governor, the Illinois | ||||||
3 | Department of Early Childhood, the Illinois State Board of | ||||||
4 | Education, the Illinois Department of Human Services, the | ||||||
5 | Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the | ||||||
6 | Capital Development Board. |