SR0085 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0085 LRB101 10801 MST 55930 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, High-quality, early childhood care and education have been shown by decades of respected research to play a positive role in the learning and development of young children, including greater chances of entering school prepared to succeed academically and behaviorally, graduate high school on time, and avoid criminal trouble; and

WHEREAS, Early learning is essential for reaching the State of Illinois' overarching objectives for improving education and its outcomes, including the goal of at least 60 percent of residents holding a post-secondary education degree by the year 2025; and

WHEREAS, In 2006, the State of Illinois adopted in statute the "Preschool for All" goal of increasing young children's access to voluntary, high-quality, early learning programs, over time and as resources allow, with priority attention focused on children who struggle the most; and

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has accordingly and wisely increased its investments in early learning over the course of several years, gradually strengthening access to preschool and birth-to-3 services for communities statewide; and

WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of young children still lack access to the high-quality early learning programs that their parents seek for them; and

WHEREAS, Too many low-income, working parents still struggle to find affordable, reliable, high-quality options for ensuring their children are in good child care settings during the hours when parents are on the job; and

WHEREAS, The quality of early childhood services depends in large part on solid program infrastructure, ranging from well-qualified teachers and support personnel to supportive data systems; and

WHEREAS, Infrastructure also includes safe, developmentally appropriate classrooms and related physical space for young children to learn; and

WHEREAS, High-quality, early childhood facilities have been shown to help children grow by improving play interaction, lessening conflicts, and advancing their school readiness, as characterized by Temple University's Family and Children's Policy Initiative; and

WHEREAS, The national Bipartisan Policy Center recently declared that "safe and developmentally appropriate early care and learning programs are an essential component of building healthy and economically sustainable communities in which families and young children thrive", and that "early learning programs are critical to the health and success of local communities and the national economy"; and

WHEREAS, The Bipartisan Policy Center adds that "investments in early care and learning facilities should be an element of federal, state, and local economic-development strategies"; and

WHEREAS, Illinois policymakers responded to communities' brick-and-mortar early learning needs and set a sensible precedent in their 2009 capital plan by including a $45 million appropriation from the Build Illinois Bond Fund for this State's first Early Childhood Construction Grant program; and

WHEREAS, The Capital Development Board received 227 applications totaling more than $539 million in requests for these construction and renovation resources, or about 12 times the amount of grant funding available, illustrating the enormous scope of communities' early childhood capital needs; and

WHEREAS, Funding limitations in 2011 restricted resulting grant awards to only 6 percent of the project applicants from school districts and not for profit providers in communities with particularly underserved populations of children under age 5; and

WHEREAS, Funding delays, exacerbated by the State's recent budget impasse, prevented some of this funding from ever being delivered to approved grantees for desperately needed early childhood projects; and

WHEREAS, The urgent demand for such assistance remains, as demonstrated in the 2018 Capital Needs Assessment Survey of Schools conducted by the Illinois State Board of Education, which reveals the need for over 200 additional preK classrooms statewide; and

WHEREAS, Those ISBE survey results reflect only the needs of the 350 school districts that responded to the board's query and do not include the needs of still other school systems; and

WHEREAS, Those ISBE survey results also exclude the needs of the hundreds of non-school, community-based providers of early childhood services that help relieve capacity pressure on maxed-out schools, while also meeting the needs and choices of parents in their own neighborhoods and localities; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that one of the most urgently required, realistic, and important ways to accommodate the early childhood program needs of today and to accommodate growth for meeting their future needs is to provide stronger support for such programs' physical infrastructure; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the next state capital program to meet Illinois' physical infrastructure needs should reflect that reality, upholding the important precedent set in the 2009 Early Childhood Construction Grant Program; and be it further

RESOLVED, That Illinois is urged to dedicate a minimum of $250 million from state bond sources for the purpose of supporting critical, early childhood building and renovation projects for approved grant applicants from school districts and community-based service providers; and be it further

RESOLVED, That our State should prioritize such help for applicants from communities with particularly underserved populations of children under the age of 5 years of age; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the offices of the Governor, the Capital Development Board, the Illinois State Board of Education, and the Illinois Department of Human Services.