{"id":36066,"date":"2026-04-22T14:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=36066"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:50:40","slug":"report-illinois-stalls-in-efforts-to-expand-preschool-compared-to-other-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/36066-report-illinois-stalls-in-efforts-to-expand-preschool-compared-to-other-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Illinois Stalls in Efforts to Expand Preschool Compared to Other States"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students are pictured at a Rochester Elementary School pre-K classroom. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report found Illinois has made slow progress on funding and enrollment<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Article Summary<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 2025 nationwide report on statewide early childhood education found that Illinois stalled in efforts to expand preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent governor-led initiatives aimed at promoting preschool access to low-income children have increased enrollment, but Illinois is outpaced by other states.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A flat budget for the upcoming fiscal year may further stall Illinois\u2019 progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By JENNA SCHWEIKERT\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"mailto:jschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">jschweikert@capitolnewsillinois.com\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new report from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nieer.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Institute for Early Education Research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found Illinois\u2019 rate of growth in enrollment and funding for universal preschool is slowing, despite state efforts to expand preschool programming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the report noted Gov. JB Pritzker\u2019s Smart Start initiative increased access in recent years, flat funding for the current year has stalled progress in the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pritzker introduced Smart Start Illinois in 2023, a program that aims to expand high-quality, publicly funded preschool programs to low-income children. In January 2025, Pritzker announced the addition of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/news\/pritzker-announces-the-addition-of-over-5000-publicly-funded-preschool-seats\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">over 5,000 seats<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the program, for a total of 11,000 since it began.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nieer.org\/yearbook\/2025\/state-profiles\/illinois\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Per the report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the state ranked fourth in 3-year-old enrollment in the 2024-25 school year. However, it ranked 22<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nd<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in state funding and 20<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for 4-year-old enrollment out of all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Over the past five years, 3-year-old enrollment in Illinois slowly increased to 26%, although it remains lower than enrollment for 4-year-olds, which plateaued at 35%. Most state-funded preschool programs primarily serve 4-year-olds, with nationwide enrollment reaching 37% for 4-year-olds but only 9% for 3-year-olds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIllinois rises to the top of 3-year-olds because most states aren&#8217;t doing anything, and Illinois serves similar percentages of 3- and 4-year-olds,\u201d said the report\u2019s authors, Steve Barnett and Allison Friedman-Krauss. Illinois has a two-year preschool program that targets both ages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read more from the Associated Press: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/free-preschool-pre-k-for-all-tk-ac3cbd08f8f3d019b2cb5a6207bad06d\"><b>More kids than ever are attending state-funded preschool, with California\u2019s surge leading the way<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the 2024-25 school year, Illinois preschools enrolled about 83,000 children in total, an increase of over 1,000 students from the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report released Wednesday found that the state met eight of the 10 quality benchmarks the institute set for early childhood education in 2024-25. Illinois\u2019 rating was in line with the national trend: Enrollment and funding saw record highs, but the pace of growth in those categories slowed from the previous year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2018About setting priorities\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The governor\u2019s Smart Start initiative includes the Early Childhood Block Grant program, which makes grants available for children in \u201cpreschool deserts\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report found that Illinois\u2019 spending per child has increased to $6,641 over the past two years, reversing a decrease from 2021-2023. State spending increased 7% in total from the 2023-24 school year to the 2024-2025 year when adjusted for inflation, an increase of about 5% per child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The General Assembly allocated an additional $75 million for Early Childhood Block Grants in fiscal year 2025 but kept funding the same for the current fiscal year ending in June. Beginning in July, in fiscal year 2027, preschool grant programs will be housed under the new Department of Early Childhood. Lawmakers are working to finalize that budget by May 31.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt is partly about setting priorities. If you have a universal pre-K program, and you&#8217;re flat funding it, you&#8217;re never going to get there,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cIf it&#8217;s going to happen, (legislators) may have to prioritize it over other things in their budget.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The institute defines true universal preschool as any program that does not have barriers to entry, like parental salary or education requirements. Indiana, for example, has a state-funded program, but the institute doesn\u2019t count it because the program requires certain salaries and education levels from the parents of the child.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 44 states and D.C. that have state-funded preschool programs, according to the institute. It measures those programs through 10 benchmarks in areas such as early learning and development standards; curriculum supports; teacher and assistant teacher degrees and training; professional development; class size; staff-to-student ratio; health screening and referrals; and quality improvement systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illinois meets all benchmarks but those for staff professional development and assistant teacher degree requirements. Only six states met all 10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The benchmarks can be a little \u201cclunky,\u201d the authors said, because it\u2019s a yes or no question. A state might meet part of the requirement, but not all, and still miss the benchmark.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt&#8217;s worth looking at some of these to see, is your state close?,\u201d Barnett said, adding that improvement is often driven by advocates and reports like this one. \u201cLegislatures have a lot of things to worry about. They don&#8217;t necessarily know this unless somebody points it out to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitolnewsillinois.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Capitol News Illinois<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students are pictured at a Rochester Elementary School pre-K classroom. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)\u00a0 The report found Illinois has made slow progress on funding and enrollment Article [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":36067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Report: Illinois Stalls in Efforts to Expand Preschool Compared to Other States - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/36066-report-illinois-stalls-in-efforts-to-expand-preschool-compared-to-other-states\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report: Illinois Stalls in Efforts to Expand Preschool Compared to Other States - 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