Early Childhood Education

Promote access to early childhood education programs for all Latinos and Multilingual Learners to build a strong foundation for ongoing academic success.

All Latino and Multilingual Learners have a right to access quality birth-5 educational programming. The Forum collaborates with community, state agencies, and decision-makers to advocate for funding and workforce initiatives to support expansion and quality efforts, full-day preschool, and bilingual/ESL programming across settings.

State Budget Priorities

Increased Access to Quality Early Education

Advocate with the State Board of Education to support preschool expansion and birth to three programming through Prevention Initiative.

Increased Investment in Early Care Services

Advocate with the Department of Human Services for increases in the Child Care Assistance Program, Home visiting, and Early Intervention.

Increased Compensation for the Early Childhood Workforce

Advocate for investments within SMART START early childhood initiatives to benefit the workforce.

Scholarship Supports for Educators

Advocate for investments within the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity Scholarship to support the incumbent workforce.

Accomplishments in Early Childhood Policy

As a longstanding leader in early childhood education, the Forum is proud to partner with advocates and decisionmakers to promote quality access to early childhood programming that is responsive to language and cultural diversity.

Protections for immigrant children within the Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

In collaboration with partners, successfully advocated for a new state department to streamline programs and services. Illinois is the first state in the nation to ensure all children birth-to-five are eligible for services regardless of immigration status.

Annually, through collective advocacy, accomplish sustained investments in early childhood education programs and services.

Forum advocacy is fueled by a longstanding partnership with the UChicago Consortium on School Research whose studies demonstrate the powerful benefits of full-day bilingual preschool for English Learners.

Informed the Every Child Ready Chicago Strategic Framework, a vital guide to strengthen Chicago’s early childhood system.

The Forum helped inform the framework, alongside advocate partners and stakeholders, to set the stage for focused action on critical areas such as funding, equity, data access, and family engagement.

Advocate for the Sustainability of Early Childhood scholarship supports.

The Forum advocated for continued funding and the establishment of the Early Childhood Access for Equity Consortium (EC-ACE). The EC-ACE initiative is designed to provide scholarships that support upskilling members of the Early Childhood workforce.

In the Works

Research-Policy Partnerships

The Forum collaborates with the Illinois Workforce and Research Collaborative, Western Illinois, and EC-REACH on a research-practice partnership to create a common way to identify multilingual children in birth-to-3 and English Learners in preschool. These findings will inform additional considerations for funding to support Multilingual Learners identified for programming.

Advocating for Pay Equity for Early Childhood Workforce

The Forum collaborates with advocates and cross-agency partners to promote bilingual compensation for early childhood staff within the Smart Start Quality Supports Program.

Supporting Transition to New Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

The Forum team works alongside advocates and lawmakers to protect and promote state investments that enable a strong early childhood system. This includes representation on the Transition Advisory Committee along with workgroups to support Multilingual Learners and Funding Redesign Workgroup.

Convening Early Childhood Providers

The Forum convenes the early care and education Acuerdo network, a coalition of Latino-serving early childhood providers.

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Training

Our workshops have empowered over 1,500 bilingual families, equipping them with the tools to support their children during the crucial first five years of development. Learn how parents and caregivers can access our trainings here.

Research Reports & Resources

The Forum has a longstanding collaboration with the UChicago Consortium of School Research on an array of studies on English Learners (ELs) to better understand the differing trajectories of new arrivals, long-term ELs, and former ELs.

Education