State funding will help Belleville school district expand to serve ‘preschool deserts’
Many parts of the metro-east and the state are considered “preschool deserts” where there aren’t enough publicly-funded preschool seats to meet community needs.
This means thousands of kids in Illinois don’t have access to a first step educators say is crucial to setting them on a path for academic success in Kindergarten through their senior years.
Now, nearly 6,000 kids across the state will have access they didn’t previously have to preschool due to a surge in early education funding as part of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Smart Start Illinois” plan.
Some local school districts, like Harmony-Emge 175 in Belleville, are benefiting from those additional dollars to expand their preschool programs.
Harmony-Emge’s pre-K program has three classrooms currently. One is at Ellis Elementary and two are at Belleville 201’s Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence, which opened the two classrooms last fall as it expanded its curriculum for early childhood education. CAVE students can earn observation and teaching credits in the classrooms that serve pre-K students from Harmony-Emge’s program.
With the help of a state grant of about $200,000, District 175 will soon be able to add another pre-K classroom and teacher at the elementary school, enrolling 70% of the students who were previously on the waitlist, according to Superintendent Dustin Nail and Ellis Elementary Principal Krista Lunz.
“We had a large number of families … who were on the waitlist and we just couldn’t just get into the program because of the overwhelming demand,” Nail said.
The additional funding from the state is allowing the district to expand its services to meet the growing needs of Belleville.
“Exposing students to a rich and diverse curriculum at a young age has proven to close academic gaps and improve social-emotional learning,” Lunz said. “We are so thankful for the opportunity to increase the number of families that will benefit from the early support offered by these vital early childhood programs.”
Nail and Lunz were joined in the gym of Ellis Elementary Wednesday by Pritzker, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, State Superintendent Tony Sanders and Belleville Mayor Patty Gregory for a press conference.
Pritzker initially pitched the Smart Start plan last February in a statewide tour that included a stop at the Vivian D. Adams Early Childhood Center in East St. Louis.
The goal of the four-year plan is to eliminate preschool deserts and provide access to preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds in Illinois by increasing the number of desks by 5,000 in the first year and 20,000 in total.
That involves a $250 million increase in investment in early childhood education and child care, which the General Assembly appropriated as part of the fiscal year 2024 budget.
Of that, $75 million is going to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant program, which includes grants for half- and full-day pre-K programs as well as for programs that provide services for expectant parents and children from 0- to 3-years old. The total fiscal year 2024 appropriation for the Block Grant program is $673.1 million.
The state has added 5,886 new preschool seats, Pritzker said Wednesday, surpassing its goal of 5,000 in the first year. That brings the total number of preschool seats to more than 82,000, he added.
The rest of the $250 million goes to the Illinois Department of Human Services and includes $130 million more for childcare workforce compensation contracts to stabilize wages for child care workers, $40 million more for early intervention programs and $5 million more to expand the the department’s home visiting program.
“Best in the nation in all early childhood services, that is our mission for the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “Best in the nation. I won’t accept less than that.”
He said that’s why he recently proposed the consolidation of the relevant agencies to simplify parents’ access to early childhood services.
In October, Pritzker and other elected officials announced their intent to create a new, unified state agency to oversee all early childhood programs and funding and signed an executive order to begin the multi-year process.
The agency will address the difficulties child care providers and parents experience when navigating the three agencies currently responsible for early childhood services: the Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Department of Human Services and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Pritzker appointed Ann Whalen, the director of policy at Advance Illinois, as early childhood transition director for the consolidation process, and he established an 18-member advisory committee composed of early childhood providers, teachers, school administrators, parents and policy experts.
“At the end of the day, Smart Start is about all of our futures, not just the littlest kiddos in the state, but all of us. It’s about where Illinois is going,” Pritzker said. “It’s about making sure the parents have the support that they need to raise a family and giving our children the resources that they need to succeed.”
Others in the metro-east to receive the grants
In fiscal year 2024, the following organizations and school districts in southwestern Illinois are receiving grants through the Early Childhood Block Grant program:
Adventures with Rita (Granite City)
Broken But Not Shattered Ministries (Pontoon Beach)
Chester Community Unit School District 139
Children Of Promise Christian Dayschool (Millstadt)
Edwardsville Community Unit School District 7
Harmony-Emge School District 175
Mascoutah Community Unit School District 19
New Athens Community Unit School District 60
Red Bud Community Unit School District 132
Regional Office of Education 13 (serving schools, students and the families of Clinton, Jefferson, Marion and Washington counties)
Riverbend Head Start and Family Services (Alton)
Tree of Life Childcare (Fairview Heights)
Valmeyer Community Unit School District 3
