Building a statewide regional and community infrastructure to improve quality, equity, and access

Visit our maps page where you can find your Region by county. For those who live in Cook County, you can identify your Region by your township.

Misaligned regional boundaries for our Early Childhood infrastructure have been a barrier to integrating across Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) funding streams. Though operating independently, the Birth to Five Illinois Action and Family Councils share geographic boundaries with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Regional Offices of Education (ROE) to start the process of streamlined coordinated service. You can find your Region based on your county here.

This major undertaking will only provide the equitable representation of family needs if we provide the necessary infrastructure, including staffing. Birth to Five Illinois has hired three full-time staff in each Birth to Five Illinois Region, including a Regional Council Manager, Family & Community Engagement Specialist, and Administrative Support. We can no longer expect equity by setting up systems reliant on volunteer labor.

If/when more positions with Birth to Five Illinois become available, they will be posted to our Jobs page.

Yes. www.birthtofiveil.com/about/#offices

Birth to Five Illinois Racial Equity Definition

Racial equity is achieved when an individual’s racial/ethnic identity is not a factor that determines their life trajectory. Racial equity is the result of long-standing and present day embedded systemic practices and policies, not the ability of the individual or oppressed racial/ethnic group. Eradicating racial inequities requires intentional and bold efforts to address not only individual bias, but also systems and policies.

Priority Populations

Birth to Five Illinois has adopted the Illinois Early Learning Council’s (ELC) list of identified priority populations. The ELC priority populations are available in English, Spanish, and Polish.

Birth to Five Illinois utilizes the scope and definition of ECEC that was included in the Report of the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding. According to the Commission Report (page 10):

This Commission is focusing specifically on the Early Childhood Education and Care system, which fits within this broader ecosystem of comprehensive Early Childhood development supports, and includes:

• Home visiting (parent coaching and support)

• Child care centers and homes

• Child care subsidies that make care more affordable

• Preschool, including Illinois’ Preschool for All program

• Supports for Family, Friend, and Neighbor care

• Head Start and Early Head Start centers and services

• Early Intervention services for infants and toddlers with or at risk of disabilities and delays

• Early Childhood Special Education for preschool aged children with disabilities

We know! We keep an evolving list at www.birthtofiveil.com/acronyms. If there is one missing that you would like defined, please contact us.

In Spring of 2021, the Governor’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding made several recommendations to provide more equity in the State’s ECEC services. A priority of the report is to design a system that centers family voice and racial equity in the allocation of funding. The development of 39 Birth to Five Illinois Action Councils and 39 Birth to Five Illinois Family Councils provides a mechanism to engage local stakeholders, gather family voice, and create a strategic plan that clearly identifies the need for expansion of quality early learning in each Region.

In year one, the Councils and local community members contributed their expertise and experiences to craft an Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment focused on identifying the available programs, gaps in services, strengths, needs, and recommendations for all 39 Regions of the State. The Birth to Five Illinois Councils released 39 Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessments of the ECEC service landscape in July 2023. www.birthtofiveil.com/reports/#needs

In year two, our Councils:

• Continued to build relationships with local community stakeholders

• Shared their Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessments with the community to gather additional input

• Supported the community in developing Regional Action Plans based on the recommendations identified in the needs assessment

• Released another community needs assessment, focused on Mental and Behavioral Health

This year, the Birth to Five Illinois Councils will:

• Share, and collect feedback on, the Mental and Behavioral Health Needs Assessments

• Continue to advocate for the successful implementation of activities identified in the Regional Action Plans (using the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process)

• Update the Regional Action Plans to address the needs identified in the Mental and Behavioral Health Needs Assessments

• Support the development of the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood

Each Regional Birth to Five Illinois Action and Family Council determines their own meeting schedule, location, and time based on the availability of the Council members.

Early Intervention (EI) and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) are critical parts of the ECEC system of support for children and families and both are included in the scope of services the 39 Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessments assess. Providers and educators in EI and ECSE are encouraged to join their Region’s Councils.

www.birthtofiveil.com/councils

The Birth to Five Illinois website and all materials are available in English and Spanish to increase access and encourage participation. Birth to Five Illinois’ Regional Family & Community Engagement Specialists conduct targeted outreach to Spanish speaking families to encourage their participation. Bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) Specialists are on our list of the types of expertise we hope to include and are encouraged to join their Regional Action Council, particularly in those Regions with a threshold of 1,000 or more English Learners. Additionally, each Region’s Early Childhood Needs Assessment includes data on household English proficiency (mapped) and priority populations (including recent immigrants and refugee families).

The Action and Family Councils provide the structure and platform for stakeholders in the Region to mobilize around the specific needs identified from in the community-developed Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment. The information from the Regional Needs Assessment, in addition to the feedback gathered from those in the Region (such as families, providers, educators, business leaders, municipal and legislative leader, etc.) is shared with State Offices so it can be used as a tool to help inform decision-making at the state level.

The information in these reports also serves as information that stakeholders in the Region can use to fulfill the community-developed recommendations and strategize on how to leverage funding (from the business community, municipalities, Regional Offices of Education, community organizations, etc.) that is already available in the Region or that can be applied for by multiple stakeholders in the Region.

Birth to Five Illinois asks all parents, caregivers, and community stakeholders to commit to one year of service on either Council. At the close of the first year of service, members will be asked if they would like to continue for an additional year.

Birth to Five Illinois values the time, commitment, and expertise that parents and caregivers contribute outside of their family, and for that reason we provide a quarterly stipend to all Family Council members and the family representatives serving on the Action Councils.

We actively recruit for new Council members in the summer months.

• Birth to Five Illinois Action Councils: Community members with a wide variety of experience, both in and outside ECEC.

• Birth to Five Illinois Family Councils: Parents and caregivers who have children aged eight and under.

  https://www.birthtofiveil.com/councils

As a parent or family member, your voice is critical to the work of the Birth to Five Illinois Action and Family Councils. Each Region has both a Family Council AND family representation on the Action Council. No planning will be done without prioritizing children’s needs and family choice, which is only understood coming directly from families.

Throughout the year, there are parent engagement opportunities for you to get involved in that do not require Council membership and may have minimal time commitments. For more information, please visit your Region’s webpage where you can subscribe to your Region’s newsletter or contact your Regional Council Manager.

Members of the Birth to Five Illinois Leadership Team, along with Regional Council Managers, Regional Family & Community Engagement Specialists, and Regional Administrative Support collaborate to identify which community perspectives are missing from both the Action and Family Councils. The Interest Forms are scored based on the answers provided by potential Action and Family Council members, and final decisions take into consideration where someone lives and works, the agency/organization they work for, their self-identified gender and racial/ethnic identity, and their family type. People from the States’ priority populations are prioritized to serve on the Action and Family Councils. The goal is to build Councils that not only reflect community stakeholders from a variety of roles and sectors, but to also have Councils that are diverse in race, geography (across the Region), ECEC knowledge and experience, age, gender identity, and other minoritized identifiers (special needs, income, housing status, etc.).

Any recommendations for expansion/improvement of services must center community voice. To find out more about how you can get involved, please visit your Region’s webpage where you can subscribe to your Region’s newsletter or contact your Regional Council Manager.

The Family Council supports in collecting insight and feedback from families in the Region and encourages families to stay up to date on what's happening with their local Action and Family Councils. Regional Action Councils also work to partner with locations in which families are already present to streamline feedback and information to and from families. Additionally, parents and caregivers are encouraged to submit a family story on our Family Stories webpage: www.birthtofiveil.com/storytelling.

If a parent or caregiver was not selected to serve on their Region’s Action or Family Council but are still looking for an opportunity to share their experience and/or perspective, stay connected to your Regional Family & Community Engagement Specialist for opportunities to share your feedback via interviews or surveys. Additionally, through our partnerships with other organizations, Birth to Five Illinois often receives requests for parent engagement and leadership opportunities to which we can connect you.

Birth to Five Illinois partners with local ECEC entities (where they exist) to understand the current engagement work and lends support to increase those efforts with a special emphasis on the State’s priority populations. We regularly engage in collaborative efforts to target these families while uplifting existing relationships. In Regions with no local advocacy, the Regional Family & Community Engagement Specialists continue the groundwork of outreach to families using both traditional and innovative efforts. Learning and engagement opportunities to build relationships with families and connect them with the work of Birth to Five Illinois are ongoing and differ by Region.

The entire community will be invited to participate in their Region’s Action and Family Council’s work, including those who do not use ECEC programs. However, the perspective of families using care AND providers giving care is prioritized due to their personal experience with the ECEC system. It is our goal that regardless of personal need, the entire Region will become advocates of high-quality ECEC service for all children in the State.

View Birth to Five Illinois Regional Data Reports on the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM) website: https://iecamregionalreports.education.illinois.edu/dash-snapshot-report/landing

IECAM data is regularly updated. Visit the Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM) website to see when data will be updated: https://iecam.illinois.edu/about/data-availability

Birth to Five Illinois Councils used both Regional and county-level data in the development of their Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessment. Some data reported to IECAM can be disaggregated to the Regional level, but other data is only available at the county level. IECAM makes this distinction on its website. In general, though, demographic data (race, poverty, population, etc.) is reported by where a child lives. ECEC service data is reported by program site with no breakdown of where the children receiving services live. If data is analyzed at the county level, it can create an inaccurate picture of whether services being provided in an area are meeting the needs of the children who live there. Additionally, if county boundaries are used as the boundary for Birth to Five Illinois Regions, many school districts will be divided between counties, which will result in some children in a district being counted in one county and others in the same district being counted in a neighboring county. This discrepancy is particularly important since school districts provide many ECEC services across the State.

IECAM data does not include license-exempt child care homes or informal Family, Friend, and Neighbor care because that data is not publicly available. We recognize that the care provided by family, friends, and neighbors is vital for many families across the State, particularly as they often provide the missing night/weekend care. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism currently in place to capture data from all license-exempt providers or friends or relatives providing child care. However, there is a seat for these care providers as Council members to provide this key perspective, and feedback from license-exempt providers was collected through focus groups, interviews, and surveys to include in the Regional Needs Assessments to understand the area’s ECEC limitations and provide supports that are needed.

No, that data is not currently available. However, data on the number of children served by Early Intervention programs and young students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) is available on the IECAM site.

Birth to Five Illinois defines Local Early Childhood Collaborations as organized groups of stakeholders working together to improve the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system in their area.

Birth to Five Illinois Action Councils work as partners with Local Collaborations throughout the State, both to help them build capacity where possible and to share relevant information. Action Councils do not replace or duplicate the work of Local Community Collaborations.

Birth to Five Illinois works in partnership with Local Early Childhood Collaborations where they exist throughout the State. For those organizations already working on the regional level, our leadership team has engaged in conversations about aligning efforts and several Memoranda of Understandings (MOU) have been signed. In areas with more localized efforts, the regional staff is working to build on the work of the Collaborations by ensuring that the gaps, barriers, and expansion needs they have already identified are highlighted in the Early Childhood Regional Needs Assessments. In addition, regional staff have engaged families, caregivers, and providers that have historically been left out. Birth to Five Illinois hopes to be seen as a part of the community system and an additional ECEC advocate.

Birth to Five Illinois has provided funds to establish new Collaborations in areas of the State that are high-priority and to support existing Local Collaborations in their efforts to increase enrollment in Early Childhood programs and services.

https://www.birthtofiveil.com/grants

The Birth to Five Illinois website (www.birthtofiveil.com) is available in English and Spanish and is updated regularly with information and news. We send out newsletters at a minimum monthly with important updates for our growing list of subscribers. (Click here to subscribe if you are not signed up to receive our e-newsletters.) Birth to Five Illinois also regularly engages the community on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. We invite you to follow us on social media. All our social media links are at the bottom of our website.

Each Region has a dedicated webpage on our website, where you can meet your Regional Team, view Council information, subscribe to receive your Region’s newsletter, click to your Region’s Facebook Group, or contact your Regional Council Manager. Find your Region’s website here: www.birthtofiveil.com/about/#offices

In FY23, Birth to Five Illinois was funded by Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) II funds and Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funding. In FY24, Birth to Five Illinois was funded by IDHS. In July 2024, ISBE selected Birth to Five Illinois to be the contracted vendor for Illinois’ ECEC Regional and Community System infrastructure. This funding will cover operations, as they currently exist, for two fiscal years.

The Illinois Cares for Kids website has a search function that allows families to search for early learning and child care options by zip code. If you are looking for a program in the City of Chicago, you can also visit and search the City of Chicago's Early Learning portal.