The Illinois Policy Team at Start Early is pleased to release our annual Illinois Legislative Agenda, a snapshot of the budget requests and legislative priorities for which Start Early will be advocating during the spring 2023 legislative session in the state.

With the new legislative session underway, our team is focused on moving forward funding requests and legislation that will support families and providers across our early childhood system.

Our goals for the year include:

• Growing and strengthening the state’s early care and education system through an FY24 budget that includes the funding levels outlined in Governor Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois proposal
• Creating a state family and medical leave insurance program
• Extending the sunset re: staffing flexibility in state preschool programs
• Codifying the state’s existing IDHS home visiting programs in law, among other priorities

Frigid winter weather hits the Du Pen Fountain in front of the Joel Pritchard Building.
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia

For this week’s trivia, let’s play a game. What jumps out to you from this “class picture” from 1889?

State Tax Collections Update

The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council is meeting at 8 a.m. on March 3 to receive an economic review. Meeting materials provide a preview of the topics of discussion. With regard to revenue, tax collections are $89 million (or 1.1%) over November 2022 projections. Consumer spending was also stronger than expected, but questions remain about whether the nation is headed toward a recession in 2023.

The next full revenue report will be released on March 20.

Floor Activity

This week’s legislative activity was squarely focused in the Legislative Building with both the Senate and House deliberating bills that passed their respective policy and fiscal committees. This action is expected to continue over the weekend as the 5 p.m., March 8 “House of Origin” deadline looms.

During Floor activity, lobbyists congregate on the third floor of the Legislative Building in clusters reminiscent of a high school quad, waiting to track down lawmakers with a nudge or question about a bill. This week also serves as a painful reminder that hours standing on marble floors wear on one’s feet and back.

The Transitional Kindergarten bill passed the Appropriations Committee with amendments. The House Appropriations Committee passed House Bill 1550 on Feb. 24. A discussion on the bill can be seen on TVW at the 2:01 mark and the vote at the 3:24 mark. As a reminder, this bill would convert the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program to a new Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program with new standards and would remove basic education as the funding source. The committee made several amendments to the bill including:

• Conversion of TK programs run by public school districts during the 2023- 24 school year to the new TTK program if they meet new program standards with intent to continue funding
• Requires the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to develop a process for public school districts to apply to operate or expand a TTK program by Dec. 31, 2023
• Requires TTK instructors with an early elementary education endorsement to have 24 college credits or 60 clock hours in early childhood education within five years of assignment to the program
• Changes the TTK funding formula from the estimated statewide allocation per kindergarten student (currently about $12,773/child) to the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) average rate (currently about $12,621/child) adjusted for the school district’s regionalization factor
• Provides TTK eligibility to children who lack access to an early learning program or have been referred by a licensed early learning provider
• Adds a null and void clause to the bill meaning that if the Legislature does not allocate funds for this purpose, the legislation is not enacted

An amendment to add charter schools and state-tribal education compact schools failed. Currently, charter schools have 288 students in existing TK programs and state-tribal compact schools do not currently operate TK programs. The bill is now in the House Rules Committee.

Legislative Lowdown

Committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives play key roles during this period of intense Floor activity. Before a bill that has passed out of a Policy and/or Fiscal Committee can be moved to the Floor, it must first pass through the Rules Committee, whose members determine which bills will move forward and in what order. In short, the Rules Committees have the power to decide if and when legislation will go to the Floor for debate and a vote. The Rules Committees provide legislative leadership with an additional tool to manage and oversee the bills heading to the full chambers.

In both the Senate and House, the Rules Committee are made up of members from both parties. The House Rules Committee is led (or Chaired) by the House Speaker, currently Rep. Laurie Jinkins, and has 24 members, including 15 Democrats and 9 Republicans, this session. The Senate Rules Committee is chaired by the Lieutenant Governor, currently Lt. Gov Denny Heck, and has 16 legislators comprised of 10 Democrats and 6 Republicans. Rules Committee meetings can be scheduled or held “on the fly.” For example, the Senate Rules Committee issued a notification earlier this week of a Wednesday meeting “following adjournment or during the dinner break.”

The vernacular used to describe the process of a bill moving from the Rules Committee to the Floor is called a “Rules pull.” There are a variety of ways bills can be “pulled.” Individual Rules Committee members can be provided a specific number of “pulls” where they request bills move to the Floor for debate and consideration. Here’s an example of the results of some of these individual member pulls during the March 1 Senate Rules Committee meeting tracking which members requested specific bills move to the Floor. Note Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig used one of his “pulls” to move SB 5225 relating to Working Connections Child Care eligibility to the Floor.

Another way is a “package pull” (seen below, again from the March 1 Senate Rules Committee meeting). Package pulls are when a package of bills is voted on by the Rules committee all at once. This can happen before a cutoff, at the end of the legislative session, or when a body is going to address a topic with several bills.

The final way is called a “consent package bill.” This represents a consent list containing bills that have faced little to no opposition thus far in the process. Here is an example of a consent pull:

There are any number of reasons why a committee member may choose a bill to move out of the Rules Committee and onto the Floor including choosing a bill important to them or their constituents, or per a request by a legislator or stakeholder group, among other reasons. The Rules Committee hearings can now be seen on TVW throughout the legislative session. This coverage began during the pandemic and has continued, making these hearings much more accessible.

I already geeked out enough, so won’t describe the meaning behind the “green” sheet or “white” sheet, but check out the description provided on the legislative website if you want to learn more.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

As a parent, you want to ensure that your child is being compassionate and empathetic towards the people around them. However, according to research, children in preschool and kindergarten are still developing the cognitive skills to understand empathy.

In order for children to grasp the concept of “empathy”, they must first be able to recognize their own emotions. Understanding what we are feeling and why will give children the tools they need to talk about deeper concepts of feeling and emotion as they grow.

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia

When Washington state legalized marriage equality in 2012, it joined how many other states in recognizing same-sex marriages?

Potato Day!

The excitement was palpable as the Washington Potato Commission held the first in-person “Potato Day” since 2020. Lines of potato fans stretched around the third floor of the Legislative Building well before the lunch hour as the common refrain of “did you get your potato yet?” rang throughout campus.

All joking aside, it is fiscal cutoff this week (see more information below about fiscal cutoff) and folks are tired/stressed/irritable. Friendly faces offering free comfort food is sometimes just what’s needed to put a pep back in your step! Potatoes are unifying.

The Washington Potato Commission brings comfort food to campus

(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Cutoff Time – Again

This week, legislative focus – when not on potatoes – was on fiscal committees as they held marathon meetings to work through public hearings, amendments and votes on hundreds of bills prior to today’s fiscal cutoff deadline. After today, bills with a financial impact that have not been approved by the fiscal committee in its house of origin are considered “dead.” Frequently, bills heard in fiscal committees are amended to include two clauses – “null and void” or “subject to appropriation.” These clauses allow bills to proceed through the process but provide “escape hatches” if the policies put forward in the bill are not funded in the final adopted budget. Put another way, inclusion of these clauses makes implementation of the bill contingent upon budget funding.

Now, there are always exceptions to the rules, particularly in the legislative process, and the reality is no bill or idea is dead until the Legislature adjourns April 23. One exemption is that bills deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (or NTIB) are not subject to cutoff dates. Further, concepts surfaced in bills can be amended into other bills or reflected in the budget.

Starting next week, action will turn to the respective Senate and House floors as those bodies work through all of the bills approved by the fiscal and policy committees. The next legislative cutoff is Wednesday, March 8 at 5 p.m. with the deadline for bills to be voted out of their house of origin (e.g., House bills must be approved by the House, and Senate bills approved by the Senate). We are at the time of session where you need to grab sleep when you can – kind of like living with a newborn. It is not unusual for one of the bodies (typically the House) to pull an all-nighter during this period.

Bill Hearings

SHB 1550. The House Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on Substitute House Bill 1550 Tuesday, which can be seen on TVW starting at the 34:45 minute mark. As a reminder, this bill would sunset Transitional Kindergarten (TK), replacing it with a new Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program to be administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with a role for the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The Appropriations Committee hearing began with a panel that included State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter and Maddy Thompson, Governor Jay Inslee’s Senior Policy Advisor on Education and College Access. The opening panel spoke in opposition to the bill, stressing the importance of maximizing preschool access as well as the positive outcomes children are receiving from existing TK programs. Following that panel, several school district and education stakeholders reiterated the positive developmental outcomes from TK program participants as well as concerns that removing basic education as the funding source for TK could eliminate current programs as well as other supports for families such as school bus transportation.

Several early learning providers spoke in favor of the bill, focusing on the importance of the quality of services available in existing early learning programs. Additionally, early learning advocates stressed the importance of strong collaboration between school districts and community-based early learning providers so as not to negatively impact early learning programs.

As of this publication, SHB 1550 is on the possible executive session (vote) list for the Friday, Feb. 24 hearing.

Updates on additional early learning related bills include:

• Senate Bill 5225, which would increase eligibility for subsidized child care such as eligibility for dependents of child care employees and children regardless of immigration status, was passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee Wednesday.
• Senate Bill 5580, which would create a post-delivery and transitional care program and update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program, has a vote scheduled Feb. 23.
• One bill that did not receive a hearing is House Bill 1511, which would remove certain forms of income, such as Social Security benefits and child support, from income considerations related to child care subsidy and ECEAP. However, there are other avenues for priorities to move forward without a bill, including amendments onto other bills or as a proviso in the operating budget.

Legislative Lowdown

What is the state’s four-year balanced budget requirement? While much of the budgeting focus is on the upcoming two-year biennial budget cycle, 2012 legislation required the Legislature to pass four-year balanced budgets beginning in 2013. This means that our current budget writers must ensure both the 2023-25 and 2025-27 biennial budgets are balanced with a positive ending fund balance.

The Budget Outlook Workgroup holds a key role in this process by preparing an official state budget outlook for state revenues and expenditures. This outlook must include costs forecasted in the upcoming four years for continuing existing programs, projecting for future growth as well as implementation costs of various laws. The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council then approves this budget outlook and the Legislature uses this information to craft and pass a budget ensuring the state’s expenditures do not exceed projected revenues for the following four years.

Proponents of the bill establishing the four-year balanced budget requirement argued that a four-year balanced budget would move the state from reactionary, short-term budgeting to a more long-term view, resulting in more sustainable budgets that reduce out-year expenditure commitments that cannot be supported with existing revenues.

The requirement for a balanced four-year budget means that budget writers are keeping both a keen eye on the state’s recent and projected revenues (what they will have to spend) and its current spending commitments to ensure the final budget is balanced not just for the 2023-25 biennium, but also for 2025-27. As a result, it is not uncommon to see the strategy of “pushing a cost outside of the four-year” to mitigate projected costs. This can result in extending implementation dates for expanding services, so the law is on the books, but the costs do not hit the four-year budget.

To learn more about the budget process and related terminology, check out this helpful guide from the Office of Financial Management at the Governor’s Office which is updated annually.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

In this peri-Covid period, it would be fair to ask, “How can we go beyond recruitment and retention given the shortage of home visitors right now?” After all, supervisors in community-based programs have never worked so hard to find and onboard new home visitors who are racially, culturally, and linguistically representative of families served while also trying to retain the ones who remain. For those of us connected to home visiting who are not supervisors, it is time to examine the systemic conditions that fuel pervasive vacancy and turnover, and to consider changes that could make a real difference both now and in the future for local programs.

Supervisors Know What’s Wrong With the Home Visiting Sector at the ‘Front Door’:

Interested candidates don’t meet educational job requirements set at the systems level. Are we turning away candidates with racial, language and community experience in common with the families served because they didn’t have an opportunity to pursue a degree? Perhaps we could make progress in achieving greater cultural alignment in the workforce with the families in home visiting, if we re-weighted personal attributes, life experience, and competencies as ‘proxies’ for job requirements based on economic opportunity.

Salaries are not competitive nor commensurate with the nature of the work. Let’s face it, there are many jobs that require less training, breadth of expertise, and emotional resiliency that pay the same or more. To retain this critical workforce, we need to advocate for higher salaries that match the expertise that home visitors bring to their work with families, nurture existing job benefits (e.g., partnership and support of peers; ongoing on-the-job professional development), and support opportunities for advancement.

Supervisors Also Know What’s Wrong with the Home Visiting Sector at the ‘Back Door’:

Job expectations keep expanding. Constantly expanding and/or changing expectations for breadth of expertise to keep the job they have, and at the same salary, is experienced by some home visitors as an invitation to leave their work with families.

Lack of opportunities for advancement. There is a need for better defined career ladders driven by the goals and aspirations of the workforce. This isn’t new, but we seem stuck in thinking about this as a challenge at the community, program, or agency level and not more broadly at a systems level.

Perhaps we need to expand our thinking about how to expose practitioners to other sectors of the home visiting field: research, training, administration, CQI, policy, etc. Gains could be made especially with a focus on BIPOC practitioners whose perspectives in these leadership and decision-making sectors are largely missing and yet, who are uniquely qualified to represent the perspectives of the minority families served in home visiting.

For those who have found a sense of calling in direct service with families, we have an obligation to improve the conditions that support them to stay doing what they feel called to do. At a systems level, ensuring equal access to high quality professional development that reflects the lived experience in the language of practitioners is a critical component. For those who want their experience with families to be a foundation for something next, we have an obligation to support their exploration of where in the field of home visiting they could be.

Home visitors often don’t have a seat at the table. Too often decisions are made that directly impact the work that home visitors do – without their feedback involved in the process. Engaging and authentically incorporating practitioner voice from the very beginning in decision-making processes brings critical expertise to the table.

Our Challenge to the Field:

We invite you to engage in further exploration of these issues with us and others from across the home visiting field at the upcoming virtual National Home Visiting Summit in March, 2023. The National Home Visiting Summit is a great opportunity to become personally and professionally inspired to explore who is involved and what is happening across the field of home visiting. The Summit emphasizes the importance of attracting, retaining, and advancing BIPOC representation and voice in all sectors of the field. It’s an opportunity to ask yourself what else you could do to open the ‘front door’ to a racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse, next generation of home visitors and to inspire today’s practitioners to find the place where they can make a valued contribution to the field.

The Legislative Building from the north side on Super Bowl Sunday.
Note the third flagpole is not flying the Seahawks flag. There’s always next year …
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

How old were the “Keepers of the Capsule” who, during Washington state’s Centennial celebration in 1989, pledged to preserve the time capsule designed to commemorate the Centennial and to enlist future generations to update the capsule contents and continue the tradition?

Cutoff Time

Policy Cutoff. The first cutoff is today (Friday, Feb. 17), with a deadline for bills to pass out of policy committees. After this cutoff, we will have a better idea of what is still in play. It is not uncommon for bills to be amended (sometimes substantially) to keep the issue alive. We are at the stage in the legislative process where bills can change on a dime, so it’s wise to keep the legislative website handy and check it frequently for bills you care about.

Fiscal Cutoff. Next week will be filled with marathon (likely late night) meetings in the fiscal committees as the Feb. 24 fiscal cutoff looms. As of this writing, the Senate Ways and Means Committee has a Saturday Feb. 18 meeting scheduled.

Testimony in fiscal committees differs from policy committees in that fiscal chairs request testifiers to speak to the fiscal aspects of the bill, rather than make a policy case. Short and sweet and a minimal number of testifiers is advised!

Bill Hearings

The Transitional Kindergarten bill passed Education Committee with amendments. The House Education Committee passed a Substitute House Bill 1550 Tuesday, which can be seen on TVW starting at the 42:30 minute mark. This bill would codify (make official in law) the Transitional Kindergarten program and convert it to a new Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program with distinct roles for both the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).

Changes made to the bill as compared to the original version include:

• Clarification that school districts can play a vital role in providing services to young children, particularly in early learning deserts
• Legislative intent to convert existing Transitional Kindergarten programs to TTK if the program standards outlined in the bill are met
• A requirement that school districts applying to operate or expand a TTK program must consider the availability of existing early learning providers and enact a memoranda of understanding between the district and other early learning providers and the development of a model memorandum of understanding by OSPI and DCYF
• TTK sites must implement the following elements in alignment with Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) performance standards: classroom environment, pedagogical approach and safety measures
• Direction that OSPI and DCYF consider existing availability of ECEAPs, Head Start and licensed child care when coordinating authorization of school districts to offer a TTK program, approval of TTK program sites, and capping of eligible child enrollment
• The elimination of the requirement for full school day and full school year programs and instead directs OSPI to prorate funding for partial day and partial year

Education Committee members stressed that their goal is to ensure school districts and other early learning providers work together to expand access to high quality opportunities for young children. The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee and awaits a hearing.

The Senate Committee amended and approved the “Improving Maternal Health Outcomes” bill. The Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee passed Senate Bill 5580, which can be seen on TVW beginning at the 1:40:30 minute mark. This bill would create a post-delivery and transitional care program and allow five additional days of hospitalization after birth for women with a substance use disorder. The bill would also update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program to address perinatal outcomes and increase equity and healthier birth outcomes. The committee amended the bill to extend the deadline for implementing the post delivery and transition care program and changes to the Material Support Services (MSS) program from Jan. 1, 2024, to no later than Jan. 1, 2025. The bill now awaits a hearing in the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Caseload Forecasts Released

On Feb. 10, the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council met to receive updated caseload forecasts. These caseload forecasts inform the writing of the budgets by providing insight into expected costs for forecasted programs like K-12 education, nursing home usage and foster care.

Following are caseload forecasts for early learning related programs. Two items of note: 1) the changes reflect projected increases or decreases from the November 2022 forecasts and 2) Transitional Kindergarten is not separately forecasted.

Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 11,012 (+16/+.1%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 11,649 (+78/+.7%)
•  State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 12,226 (+167/+1.4%)

Early Childhood Education Assistance Program (ECEAP)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 11,962 (-697/-5.5%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 14,168 (-269/-1.9%)
• State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 14,490 (-415/-2.8%)

Working Connections Child Care (WCCC)

• State Fiscal Year 2023 projected caseload: 24,079 (-221/-.9%)
• State Fiscal Year 2024 projected caseload: 26,520 (-872/-3.2%)
• State Fiscal Year 2025 projected caseload: 28,368 (+233/+.8%)

In the forecast narrative, risks to the ECEAP forecast include a tight labor market and potential competition from other early learning programs. For Working Connections Child Care, the narrative notes that while provider availability has not restricted caseload growth so far, there could be a risk to the caseload associated with supply limits.

Striker and Substitute Bills

What’s the difference between a striker and a substitute bill? The process for a bill to become a law is a lot more complicated than Schoolhouse Rock led us to believe. Like other governmental bodies, the Washington State Legislature deploys many different processes and avenues to add or make changes to law.

At this point in the legislative session, you may hear references to “substitute bills” or “striking amendments” on legislation you are following. A “substitute bill” is a new version of an existing bill substituting the original bill with new content. Substitute bills can only be offered by a committee in the bill’s house of origin during a committee hearing or executive session (voting session). A “striker amendment” or “striker bill” removes – or strikes – everything after the title of the bill and inserts new language, usually major changes to the underlying bill.

The main difference between the two is where the change to the bill happens: “substitutes” can only happen in committee in the house of origin and “strikers” happen on the floor or in the opposite chamber. If you’re interested in learning more about the legislative process, the legislature has a host of information including a detailed guide to reading bills. The University of Washington Office of Budget and Planning also provides a great overview.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

Earlier today, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker delivered a bold plan to advance our collective vision for Illinois to be the best state in the nation in which to raise young children. His comprehensive, multi-year plan, Smart Start Illinois, aims to expand and strengthen early care and education services to help ensure all expecting families, infants, toddlers and preschoolers across the state have what they need to be happy, healthy and ready to learn.

Moreover, Start Early applauds the Governor and his administration for releasing a Fiscal Year 2024 (FY 2024) budget framework that proposes a historic $320 million in increased state funding for key early care and education programs, like child care, home visiting, preschool and Early Intervention.

“We thank Governor Pritzker for proposing the Smart Start Illinois initiative, a robust structure for strengthening and growing early child supports that are so vital for families with young children,” Ireta Gasner, Start Early vice president of Illinois policy, said. “This is a banner day for early childhood in Illinois, and Start Early looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to enact a budget that does right by infants and toddlers across the state.” 

The budget proposal includes, among other provisions, the following funding increases: 

• $40 million for the Early Intervention program (34.5% over FY 2023) to increase provider reimbursement rates (10%), to address service coordination challenges, and to accommodate the program’s growing caseload
• $5 million for evidence-based home visiting programs (27.9% over FY 2023) to serve an additional 500-650 families
• $130 million to establish workforce compensation contracts with child care providers that will allow programs to increase staff wages
• $70 million for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) (17.0% over FY 2023) to cover the program’s growing caseload and to improve its data system
• $75 million for preschool services and prenatal-to-age 3 programs (12.5% over FY 2023) to create thousands of new slots and improve existing program quality
• $100 million for the Early Childhood Construction Grant (ECCG) program

We are heartened by the administration’s acknowledgement that investing in the early learning workforce and facilities are foundational to sustainable program expansion. Today, too many early childhood programs, particularly those serving infants and toddlers, struggle to attract and retain educators and staff, most of whom are overworked and underpaid.

Start Early is eager to work with the Illinois General Assembly to approve a FY 2024 budget this spring that includes, at a minimum, the funding proposals laid out today. We couldn’t agree more with the Governor that now is the time for bold action.

Join Start Early in calling on our state legislature to prioritize our youngest learners today and during this new legislative session. Babies can’t wait.

Chicago’s mayoral and aldermanic election is just around the corner and recently candidates had the opportunity to weigh in on how they would tackle Chicago’s complex issues related to early childhood education. During a candidate forum hosted last Wednesday evening by over 20 organizations that serve families with young children across the city, seven of Chicago’s nine mayoral hopefuls spoke to an audience of hundreds of early childhood educators, parents, advocates, researchers, and other stakeholders.  

The Early Childhood Education Forum, led by Child Care Advocates United, put early childhood education issues front and center and enforced the notion that any successful mayoral candidate has a mandate to take action once in office to support the early care and education workforce and the families they serve. Participating candidates all gave recognition to the important role that early childhood education plays in addressing the needs of the whole child and their family and community. They uplifted the prenatal to five period as critical for intervention and spoke of the value of high-quality early childhood experiences in preventing later challenges in life.   

While all candidates participating in the forum demonstrated an understanding of the challenges faced by the early care and education system in Chicago, they offered few details on just how they would address the ongoing early childhood workforce crisis, better support community-based organizations, reconcile the competing priorities of Chicago’s mixed delivery system for pre-k, address issues arising as a result of fractured funding sources, and further support families to access the program that best meets their needs.  

Fortunately for the next mayoral administration and city council, early childhood advocates have provided a clear roadmap for addressing these challenges through their release of a Mayoral and Aldermanic Candidate Brief, which was distributed to every candidate running for one of these offices. Advocates have outlined steps for the city’s elected officials to work in partnership with stakeholders to invest in more capacity to lead the planning and administration of Chicago’s system of early childhood services and supports, address gaps in access to high-quality early care and education for all of Chicago’s children, and acknowledge the critical work of early childhood professionals by increasing support and compensation for the workforce.

Rainstorms usher in Week Five
(Photo Credit: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

In 1932, John H. Ryan became the first Black man elected to the Washington State Senate. Ryan served nearly 20 years in both the State Senate and House of Representatives. He was elected representing how many different political parties?

Legislative Session Temperature Check

On Sunday, we will officially be one-third through the 2023 legislative session and it feels like a good time to check in on where things stand. Some things top of mind for me include:

• The hybrid approach works. Thanks to great prep work from TVW and legislative staff, the hybrid nature of testimony that allows for a mix of in-person and virtual, is going very well. The campus feels markedly quieter on many days as many people appear to be taking advantage of virtual opportunities to testify and meet with legislators. As a result, the anticipated fears of a parking shortage have not materialized. However, the lines for food at the Dome Deli are still long, with the Pritchard Cafeteria only open intermittently.
• Policy Cutoff is coming. The legislative process is structured to reduce the number of issues under consideration as the session progresses via “cutoff deadlines” for action on bills. That first cutoff is rapidly approaching with a Feb. 17 deadline for policy committees to take action. The fiscal committee “cutoff” is just one week later on Feb. 24. These cutoff dates serve as a natural filter as it is not feasible for lawmakers to partake in mindful debate on the approximately 1,600 bills introduced to date. As a result, many bills fall victim to timing rather than concerns over merit. It can be very frustrating when a bill you care about does not make it through these filters, but there is always next year. (At least that’s what we tell ourselves).
• The budget is starting to take shape. Budget writers continue to receive briefings on the various aspects of the operating, capital and transportation budgets. Major items with large price tags that continue to be in play include housing (impacting both the operating and capital budgets), workforce needs and special education funding. At the end of the day, budget writers need to secure sufficient votes to pass the budgets and we will see trade-offs as these negotiations intensify.

Collective Bargaining Agreements and the State Budget

Prior to the start of each legislative biennium, the Office of Financial Management (on behalf of the Governor) negotiates with respective labor unions to create tentative collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that address wages, hours and working conditions.

Following negotiations, these tentative CBAs are submitted to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) by October. After the state’s Revenue Report is released in November, OFM determines the financial viability of the various agreements. After that step, the Legislature approves the agreements during its legislative session through a yes or no vote without any amendments allowed. If the Legislature does not approve any of these agreements, the state must go back to the bargaining table. Check out the Office of Financial Management for more information on the process of collective bargaining.

For the upcoming 2023-25 biennium, OFM negotiated a total of 32 separate agreements, with general government employees representing the highest number of employee count (54,656) and total agreements (11). The cumulative cost for the negotiated agreements for the 2023-25 biennium totals $1.33 billion. The largest portion of this expense can be found in the agreements for general government employees.

According to an OFM presentation to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations in October 2022, major common bargaining themes include staff recruitment and retention, investments to employees who provide direct services, modernizing language related to hybrid work conditions and wage increases. General government employees are slated to receive a wage increase, lump-sum COVID-19 booster incentives and recognition and retention bonuses, among other increases.

Related to early learning, family child care providers are unionized through the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 925. The tentative negotiated agreement heading into the 2023-25 state budget cycle includes an increase in the hourly rate of care provided by family, friends and neighbors (FFNs) from $3.00 to $3.85 that would go into effect July 1, 2023 and an increase to $4.00 on July 1, 2024. The agreement also increases the base subsidy rates for licensed family child care providers to the 85th percentile of the 2021 market rate survey, increases the cost-of-care subsidy base rate enhancement from $2,000 to $2,100 per month per licensed provider and eliminates background check and fingerprinting fees on behalf of licensed family child care providers. Budgeted cost for the Family Child Care agreement totals $217 million.

Why am I including this information in the newsletter? As the legislative session progresses, budget writers must balance available revenue and priority expenses. These collective bargaining agreements represent a significant budget expense that will factor into the availability of funding for other state priorities.

Maternal Health

On Feb. 7, the Senate Health Care Committee held a work session on maternal health followed by public hearings on a number of maternal health related bills. Senator Yasmin Trudeau, the prime sponsor of SB 5470 related to lactation consultants, testified with her infant daughter. The visual of Senator Trudeau and her baby reminded me of the importance of representation!

Senator Yasmin Trudeau and her effective assistant
(Photo Credit: TVW hearing screenshot)

One of the bills heard in the Senate Health Care Committee that day was SB 5580 (Muzzall). SB 5580 would create a post-delivery and transitional care program at the Washington State Health Care Authority for birthing people experiencing substance use disorder. The program would provide five additional days of hospitalization after birth and provide the birthing parent access to a number of parental, behavioral health and other supports. The bill would also update the current Maternity Support Services (MSS) program to address perinatal outcomes and increase equity and healthier birth outcomes.

Bill Tracker: Key Early Learning Bills

As the legislative session progresses, our resource page will update with a weekly bill tracker. Please note that legislation changes quickly, so the version on our website may not represent a bill’s latest version as it is published the Thursday of each week.

For far too long the early care and education workforce has been undervalued and underpaid, despite the essential care and services they provide to children and families. This historic undervaluation has created a crisis–wages are so low that approximately half of early educators qualify for public benefits. According to fiscal year 2021 salary data gathered by the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, this inadequate compensation helps explain why almost 70 percent of child care centers stated they had early childhood teacher turnover over the past two years. Simply put, the workforce is in crisis. Without significant financial resources, our early childhood system is at risk of crumbling.

We’re listening. Start Early has been busy urging the state to direct more funding to the early childhood system so that it can finally begin to stabilize and the workforce can be better compensated at a wage they deserve and that is reflective of the important work they do to educate and care for our youngest learners.

Every year, our legislative and administrative policy teams, along with external partners, work on budget advocacy to secure higher investment across the entirety of the early childhood field. Last year, we pressed Illinois state legislators for a 10 percent increase for every building block in Illinois’ early childhood system: the Early Childhood Block Grant, Early Intervention program, the home visiting programs Maternal Child Home Visiting (formerly Parents Too Soon) and Healthy Families Illinois through the Department of Human Services, and the Child Care Assistance Program. These investments would go towards areas like child care programs, services for children with potential disabilities or developmental delays, and programs for pregnant parents and their babies.

Recognizing the need to stabilize our early childhood system, state legislators provided $64.4 million in additional funds for early childhood programs for fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1st. Through administrative advocacy, we’ve pushed state agencies to funnel a portion of this money toward compensation.

But these financial resources aren’t nearly enough to create a conducive early learning environment that serves all children aged 0-5 and it certainly isn’t enough to ensure our workforce is well compensated.  Due to the complicated nature of our early childhood system and its reliance on the blending and braiding of various funding sources, providers and directors struggle to keep classrooms open and cannot meet the needs of all children and families across the state. Even with our wins in fiscal year 2023, we still need more resources so we can serve more families.

That’s why during the Spring 2023 legislative session, Start Early will continue to work with our partners to advocate for a 20% budgetary funding increase for early childhood. This increase would mean an additional $119.6 million for the Early Childhood Block Grant, $23.2 million for the Early Intervention program, $2.1 million for the Maternal Child Home Visiting program, $1.5 million for the Healthy Families Home Visiting program, and $82.1 million for the Child Care Assistance Program. Governor Pritzker has indicated his intentions to make preschool available for every family throughout the state and to provide economic security for families during his second term. Ambitious plans require sizeable appropriations and a compensated and valued workforce.

We’ll continue to push the Illinois legislature and state agencies to invest in and improve early care and education programs so more people can view working in the field as a career and not just a temporary job.