City of Chicago Receives $600 Million in Early Childhood Education

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) renewed Chicago’s Head Start Funding due to the strength of the city’s programs. According to HHS’ website, Head Start promotes school readiness of children under 5 from low-income families through education, health, social and other services.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) renewed Chicago’s Head Start Funding due to the strength of the city’s programs. According to HHS’ website, Head Start promotes school readiness of children under 5 from low-income families through education, health, social and other services.

On Jan. 6, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the City of Chicago was awarded $600 million for early childhood education programming by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funds will be allotted to the city over the next year five years and were awarded because of the strength of Chicago's Head Start programs.

According to HHS’ website, Head Start promotes school readiness of children under 5 from low-income families through education, health, social and other services.

After taking office in 2011, Mayor Emanuel established the Early Childhood Education Task Force to overhaul the City’s programs; serve the most at-risk children in high–quality programs; and increase transparency and accountability of the City and individual programs.

“The single most important investment we can make in the future of Chicago is in the children of Chicago and their education,” said Emanuel. “Every child in every neighborhood deserves access to a quality education that begins in their earliest years. By starting early, we will open up more doors of opportunity for more children to succeed at every level from cradle to a great career.”

Following the implementation of full-day kindergarten last school year and leveraging the federal government’s guaranteed funding over the next five years, Mayor Emanuel and the City will triple the number of full-day pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs – from 100 today to 300 – by 2019. This expansion will bring full-day programs to 4,000 additional children at CPS.

"If we want young people to succeed, we need to continue to invest in proven strategies like quality early learning," said Ric Estrada, CEO of Metropolitan Family Services (MFS), which opened the Learning and Wellness Center in February 2014 in collaboration with the Mayor's office, CPS and local leaders.

According to the Dept. of Education, the U.S. ranks 25th in the world in early learning enrollment.

Under regulations announced by the Obama Administration in 2011, HHS reviews the quality of Head Start grantee programs to determine whether they must compete with other potential early childhood education providers to receive future Head Start funds. Since issuing these regulations, HHS has required nearly 450 grantees to re-compete for funding. This competition is designed to ensure that children have access to the highest quality program possible.

"If we make high-quality preschool available to every child, not only will we give our kids a safe place to learn and grow while their parents go to work; we'll give them the start that they need to succeed in school, and earn higher wages, and form more stable families of their own,” said U.S. President Barack Obama. “By the end of this decade, let's enroll 6 million children in high-quality preschool. That is an achievable goal that we know will make our workforce stronger."

In addition to increasing access to programs, the Administration has improved the quality of its early education programs. In August 2012, the City conducted a “Race to the Top” for any and all providers of early childhood education. For the first time, all schools and community-based organizations — public, nonprofit, for-profit, faith-based and charter — were invited to apply.

To ensure high-quality programming through this local re-competition of early education funds, top early learning programs were given additional dollars to expand their services while 28 substandard early learning programs were eliminated. For the first time, the City also required that all early education instructors across the system have a bachelor’s degree.

To improve accessibility for parents, the City developed an Early Learning Portal that serves as a one-stop-shop to help parents find programs, assess program quality, and understand their child’s eligibility for programs. The online portal is also accessible to families without Internet access through a text messaging service and phone hotline.

For more information, www.chicagoearlylearning.org.

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