On March 4, Start Early along with our partners at Child Care For All, COFI, Evanston Early Childhood Council, Illinois Action for Children, Raising Illinois, SEIU, and We, the Village brought over 300 advocates down to Springfield to advocate for Illinois’ youngest learners. Advocates shared their perspectives with legislators on the impact that increased funding for the Early Childhood Block Grant, ECACE, child care, home visiting and Early Intervention would have on Illinois families and providers.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to join advocates, home visitors, program leaders, public sector leaders, funders, and researchers at the 2025 National Home Visiting Summit in D.C. I was inspired by the diverse, cross-disciplinary group who shared ideas, built community, and learned and reflected with each other on how we can continue to build high-quality home visiting services, structures, and systems.

In those discussions, I heard several themes around how state and local public sector leaders and advocates can continue to strengthen home visiting systems to better serve children and families.

1. Address workforce challenges by working across sectors and agencies. While policymakers often discuss workforce shortages at a system level, programs still often feel that they must generate the solutions on their own. Speakers at the Summit offered many potential solutions to address workforce challenges in effective, cross-sector ways. For example, state MIECHV administrators are partnering with Early Intervention/Part C coordinators to build relationships and workforce capabilities through shared professional development. Deploying the same professional development to build reflective supervision capacity across an entire state can benefit not only home visitors, but Early Interventionists, early educators, and others. In addition, counties are collaborating regionally to provide mental health supports for home visitors across models.
2. Leverage diverse funding streams to support home visiting. As states seek to expand home visiting services and build more comprehensive, coordinated systems to support children and families, they need new strategies to increase funding and support sustainability. In addition to the two sources traditionally used to fund home visiting – MIECHV and Early Head Start – state systems leaders are leveraging other funding streams, including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5), Medicaid, and private insurance. In Oregon, state system leaders are using a combination of state general funds, Medicaid, and private health insurance to fund Family Connects statewide (Universal Newborn Support Services or UNSS). Also, in Colorado, the Tri-County Health Department (TCHD) leverages TANF funds to support home visiting services through their Nurse Support Program and Brief Parenting Program.
3. Center the voices of families and providers for a demonstrated positive impact in systems building. State and local system leaders are challenging old mindsets and creating new infrastructure to place families and home visiting professionals at the center of decision-making in policy, practice, and research. When they do so, they find that the insights, suggestions, and buy-in generated helps drive strong outcomes for children and families. For example, state leaders scaling Family Connects (a universal postpartum short term home visiting approach) in New Jersey surveyed nurses to determine what makes the nurse home visiting role particularly attractive. Based on the results of that survey, they have built new supports and features in competitive requests for proposals and partnered with nursing schools to offer service-commitment scholarships. Additionally, the Seeds of Success program in Washington includes parents as board members and partnered with them to design a more collaborative approach to trauma-informed home visiting services.

At Start Early, we know that reading is fundamental to a child’s development. As we celebrate Read Across America Day, we recognize the importance of making reading with your little ones a priority every day! By reading with your young child, you are not only bonding and inspiring a love of reading, but also developing strong early language and literacy skills that are key to future learning and success.

Whether your child is a newborn or about to head to kindergarten, here are some great books to read during storytime:

• Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
• Smile, Baby Faces Board Book by Roberta Grobel Intrater
• Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
• Peekaboo Morning by Rachel Isadora
• We’re Different, We’re the Same by Bobbi Kates
• Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
• Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang and Max Lang
• What If by Samantha Berger
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni
• The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Other Early Learning Resources:

• 7 Books for Teaching Young Children How to Be Great Leaders
• 12 Tips to Boost Early Literacy

An Empty and Quiet Legislative Building… For Now!

(Photo Courtesy: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

This week we are talking license plates! Hang with me, it’s actually rather interesting…

Other than commemorating special occasions, in what year did Washington state begin issuing specialty license plates? Bonus question: What was the subject of the first specialty plate?

Highlights of the Week

Governor Ferguson – Budget Reduction Exercises
On February 27, Governor Bob Ferguson held a press availability to preview a recommended $4 billion in savings and efficiencies to help address the state’s budget crisis. His approach is summarized in this press release. These reductions would be in addition to the approximately $3 billion in savings proposed in Governor Inslee’s “Book Two” budget.

Before I get to the specific early learning items Governor Ferguson proposed, here are some take-aways from his press conference:

• The actual amount of the four-year budget shortfall varies depending on who you ask. In his press availability today, Governor Ferguson stated his administration is assuming a $15 billion shortfall over four years.
• Governor Ferguson’s recommendations are based on potential savings identified by state agencies. The Governor’s recommendations do not include every agency identified savings opportunity. Governor Ferguson said state agencies identified about $1 billion more in potential savings that he is not advancing to the Legislature for their consideration. Each agency’s suggested reduction list will be posted on the Office of Financial Management website by February 28. We will report on these in next week’s Notes from Olympia.
• Not surprisingly, right out of the gate the press asked the Governor about his appetite for new revenue. He replied that it is still too soon to consider revenue from his perspective. He also said the state is not in a position to tax its way out of its budget hole.
• Governor Ferguson acknowledged his team did not have sufficient time to perform a thorough review of the full budget. He also recognized the upcoming March 18 Revenue Forecast could change the budget outlook for the better, or the worse.
• Governor Ferguson proposes funding Collective Bargaining Agreements with state employees but he also suggests a $300 million savings by instituting a one-day a month furlough for state employees for a two-year period.

Governor Ferguson released a 152-page document detailing potential savings. Related to early learning, the Governor proposes a total of $254.8 million in savings for DCYF in the following areas:

A Busy Week of Fiscal Committee Meetings Before Today’s Fiscal Cutoff

The focus of week seven was almost exclusively on fiscal committees in advance of the Friday, February 28 fiscal committee cutoff. With the state’s budget shortfall, it was not uncommon to see bills get scheduled – and then unscheduled – for hearings or executive sessions. We also saw adoption of a number of amendments as bill sponsors and advocates worked to reduce the costs of bills to keep them moving.

Each Thursday, Start Early Washington updates its  bill tracker  with the latest information on bills we are following. As we reach each cutoff, we transfer the bills that are not “moving” into a separate chart below to make the active bills easier to identify.

Below we have included updates on key early learning bills. Please note that with fiscal cutoff scheduled after the release of this newsletter, it’s a good idea to check the legislative website for the latest information.

Changes to Fair Start for Kids Act Advance

On February 25, the Senate Ways and Means Committee held a public hearing on SB 5752 (C. Wilson) which would modify many aspects of the Fair Start for Kids Act. You can watch the hearing beginning at 3:18 on TVW.

The real-world impacts of the legislation were noted in this week’s Democratic Media Availability in opening comments by Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen who referenced this particular bill hearing and the “wrenching testimony from the real human beings who are going to be affected by the cuts we are likely going to have to make…”

The fiscal note prepared for the bill assumes $332.5 million in savings for the 2025-27 biennium and $547.6 million in savings for the 2027-29 biennium as well as additional indeterminate savings. (The fiscal note was prepared prior to the amendments adopted in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on February 27, so those changes are not reflected in the fiscal note). Fiscal notes are an estimate of the fiscal impact of a bill prepared by the relevant state agency and approved by the Office of Financial Management.

On February 27, the Senate Ways and Means Committee took executive action to approve SB 5752 with amendments.

The substantive parts of the amendments relate to co-payments, setting in place a new family co-payment schedule effective October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, to be replaced by a per child co-payment schedule effective October 1, 2026.

These changes to co-payments apply to new applicants and re-applicants for subsidies. We believe this means a family’s co-payment would not change in the middle of their 12-month authorization. Additionally, student parents and children participating in Working Connections Child Care as a result of their engagement in Child Protective Services would not have a co-payment.

Following are the new co-payment structures:

Family Co-Payment Structure
Effective October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026

Per Child Co-Payment Structure
Effective October 1, 2026

For information on the underlying bill details, refer to the February 14 Notes from Olympia. Be sure to note the amended co-payment approach above replaces what was included in the original bill.

The bill now moves to Senate Rules.

New Transition to Kindergarten Bills Introduced

This week, two new bills were introduced related to Transition to Kindergarten, HB 2012 (Bergquist) and SB 5769 (Wellman).

Both bills seek to pause the growth of the Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) program in slightly different ways. HB 2012 limits TTK program enrollment for each school district, charter school or state-tribal education compact school to its 2024-25 school year enrollment, beginning in the 2025-26 school year. SB 5769 limits Transition to Kindergarten Program funding beginning in the 2025-26 school year to the threshold set by enrollment during the 2024-25 school year.

SB 5769 received a public hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on February 27 and, at the date of this writing, was scheduled for executive session on February 28. HB 2012 was referred to the House Appropriations Committee but has not received a hearing as of this writing. The other TTK bill, SHB 1450 (Santos), has also been referred to House Appropriations and has also not been scheduled for a hearing. We can presume these bills are all “NTIB,” or Necessary to Implement the Budget.

Provider Qualifications Bill Passes Fiscal Committee

On February 26, the House Appropriations Committee took executive action to approve SHB 1648 (Dent), as amended in committee. The amendment requires DCYF to convene the required stakeholder group and produce the directed report within existing resources.

The bill now moves to the House Rules Committee.

It’s Official – it’s Secretary Senn!

On Tuesday, February 25, the Senate unanimously voted to confirm Tana Senn as the second official Secretary of the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Congratulations, Secretary Senn!

What’s on Deck for Next Week

On the Floor Again…

Like clockwork, following fiscal committee cutoff, activity on the Capitol campus will shift to the Legislative building as lawmakers will debate bills that have made it to the floor in their respective house of origin prior to the next cutoff date of March 12 – aptly named the House of Origin Cutoff.

During floor activity, there are typically few committee hearings and legislators tend to spend a lot of time in their party caucuses being briefed on bill details and preparing for floor debate. Lobbyists spend hours on end on the “3rd floor” desperate for their priority bills to be approved (or defeated) so they can leave the circus.

Start Early is proud to announce the development and building of Educare Lake County, a state-of-the-art early learning school in Zion, Illinois that will serve 174 children, ages 6 weeks to 5-years-old, and their families. Educare Lake County will be the newest Educare school and the second to be directly operated by Start Early through partnerships with Schreiber Philanthropy and other generous donors, the Office of Head Start, and Lake County community members.

Currently, 66% of children in Lake County do not have access to early childhood programming. Educare Lake County will add to existing efforts to bring early learning resources to the community upon its completion and licensing in late 2027. The school will provide full-day, year-round Head Start and Early Head Start programming in six preschool-age classrooms and nine infant and toddler classrooms. Educare Lake County will also include plenty of space for outdoor play and community gatherings. Our caring and bilingual staff and teachers will further support parents through providing information and guidance on goal setting (for children and the family as a whole), getting access to additional services, joining parent support groups, and applying for leadership roles within the school’s Parent Committee and Policy Council.

Despite the devastating delays thousands of families across Illinois are experiencing when trying to access the Early Intervention (EI) services they are legally entitled to receive, Governor JB Pritzker’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal does not include any additional state funds for the EI program, which provides critical services to infants and toddlers who have or are at risk for significant developmental delays and disabilities. Instead, the administration is recommending a small rate increase for providers at a cost of $10 million supported by Medicaid funds. While we applaud IDHS and HFS for ensuring we are maximizing Medicaid funds, the funding increase is not nearly enough to address the historically high service delays and long waitlists that are directly tied to the workforce shortage.   

The proposal to flat fund EI is concerning and a departure from the multi-year investments announced in 2023 as part of the administration’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, which included a “commitment to regular increases in SFY25-SFY27 on Early Intervention funding mechanisms” following efforts to study and improve EI infrastructure and funding methods. Since then, a cost model study commissioned by IDHS-DEC found that the state needs to raise current spending by an additional $168 million annually to adequately compensate the workforce and stabilize the program. IDHS also invested in cross-state research, which shows that Illinois EI provider reimbursement rates are significantly lower than other states, forcing professionals to leave the field for higher-paying jobs in hospitals, schools, and private practice. These findings underscore a massive funding gap in pay for the workforce and a need for immense investment.  

Illinois’ EI program is at a breaking point and the crisis has recently received more media attention than ever before. For the past several months, EI families, providers, doctors and advocates have raised their voices to call for an additional $60 million in the FY26 budget through statewide rallies, 2,200+ petition signatures, and meetings with the Governor’s Office about this issue. It’s time for the state to show their voices have been heard. What will it take for our state to prioritize the needs and rights of infants and toddlers with delays or disabilities and their families? How much more harm will be done before we decide to take action?  

While the Governor’s proposal does not include an increase in state funding, the Illinois General Assembly has an opportunity to address the EI program’s stubbornly high service delays and workforce crisis. We urge the legislature to increase funding for the EI program by $60 million in the FY26 budget, allowing IDHS to authorize a meaningful rate increase for providers and get closer to the investment needed to stabilize the program. Without additional state funding this year, paired with substantial rate increases, providers will continue to leave the EI program and thousands more children will be denied the services they need. No one wins when we deny these services – the families suffer, developmental outcomes worsen and become costlier to address, and the state places itself at increased risk for the failure to meet its legal obligation to provide services to children and families. The time to act is now.   #babiescantwait.  

Trish Dauer’s path to nursing and home visiting wasn’t a straightforward one. With a natural inclination toward the human-centered aspects of healthcare, her journey was defined by exploration, adaptability, and a deep passion for connecting with people during critical moments in their lives.

The Shift to Public Health and Home Visiting

Originally thinking she might want to be a labor and delivery nurse, one uninspiring instructor quickly changed that plan for Trish. “I realized what I loved most was the deep conversations—the moments when people really opened up.” That led her to adolescent psychiatric nursing. “My first job at an adolescent psychiatric facility was intense—I was barely 23 and suddenly in charge of a unit. But it was also where I learned how to truly listen. I have always been that person who friends came to and talked to about their problems, and I really like teenagers (a lot of people don’t!)” During an internship at Spokane’s Sacred Heart Hospital in the Adolescent Psychiatry unit before nursing school, Trish shared that her natural ability to talk with people about really hard things came easily, and the tough conversations became her strength.

Following nursing school and her first role in a private adolescent psychiatric facility, Trish knew she wanted something more structured. “I wanted somewhere I could grow. I flirted with the idea of emergency medicine but ended up in public health in Snohomish,” where an early supervisor recognized Trish’s ability to engage with people and encouraged her to start conducting home health visits. “Those first home visits were eye-opening. I drove into neighborhoods I’d never been to, stepped into homes where families were just trying to survive, and realized quickly—there’s no script for this job. Every visit was different, every situation unpredictable. I had no background in maternal-child health, but I knew how to talk to people, and that made all the difference. I found myself having some of the hardest but most meaningful conversations of my career—about postpartum depression, domestic struggles, and the weight of new motherhood. It was messy, but it felt like exactly where I was meant to be.”

Despite having no formal maternal-child health experience, she leaned into her strengths, supporting young parents and learning everything else along the way. That’s when she heard about NFP training and the structure and reasons behind home visiting practices seemed to make sense.

Finding Her Calling in Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)

A year into public health, Trish found Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) and knew she had found her niche. The structured, evidence-based approach felt like the perfect balance of science and human connection. “The training was intense, but I was confident in my ability to connect with young moms and help them navigate their challenges,” Trish reflected. ”Parents can work through their personal struggles while still being present for their babies. We can hold space for both.”

The Evolution of Home Visiting and Leadership

After years as a home visitor, Trish now leads the Nurse Family Partnership model for Washington state. “Leadership in home visiting isn’t easy. Funding is always precarious, and I’ve spent more time than I ever expected fighting to prove the value of this work.” Trish recently testified before Washington’s Senate Ways and Means Committee in support of home visiting and preservation of recent budget adjustments to provide more inclusive funding for home visiting rates. “Home visiting is one of the best investments in preventive healthcare, but it’s still an uphill battle for recognition and stable funding. I’ve seen firsthand how early support changes lives, and I’ll keep fighting for that. This work isn’t about fixing people, it’s about showing them they already have the strength and resources to succeed. Sometimes, all they need is someone to remind them of that.

Home visiting is a powerful tool for supporting families and communities, and the Washington State Home Visiting Core Competencies are an essential tool to support home visitors. The translation of Washington’s Home Visiting Core Competencies into Spanish, Chinese, Somali, and Arabic is a significant step in ensuring that the competencies are accessible to home visitors in the languages they use and prefer.

A Living, Evolving Resource

These core competencies were never meant to be static documents. “They weren’t intended to sit on a shelf and gather dust,” Cassie notes. “They are for use by the people who created them.” Home visitors are encouraged to annotate them, add notes, and continuously reflect on how these competencies apply to their daily work. The process of refining and updating them is intended to be ongoing by design, informed by feedback from the field. Understanding how the competencies are being used will shape future revisions, with the ultimate goal being to ensure that they remain relevant and actionable, supporting home visitors in their mission to strengthen families and communities.

Home Visiting as a Tool for Inclusion

At its heart, home visiting exists to create trusting relationships between home visitors and parents. One of the clearest ways to achieve this mission is by hiring and supporting trusted professionals from within the communities being served. “What is synonymous with quality in home visiting is DIB (Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging),” Cassie states. “You can’t really pull those things apart.” The translation of the competencies is a direct reflection of this understanding—ensuring that home visitors from diverse backgrounds have the tools they need in the languages they are most comfortable with.

Bringing Core Competencies to Life

With the core competencies now available in multiple languages, the hope is that home visiting teams will actively engage with them. “I absolutely want home visiting programs to take them up, have discussions about them within their teams, and talk about the ideas represented there,” shares Cassie. “If they feel as if the ideas are important, I want home visitors and their supervisors to talk about how they are turning those ideas into action.”

By making the Washington Home Visiting Core Competencies accessible in Spanish, Chinese, Somali, and Arabic, we are not just translating words—we are reinforcing the values of inclusivity, and community-centered care. These competencies are meant to be dynamic, evolving, and, most importantly, used by the very people who shaped them. The more they are discussed, applied, and adapted, the stronger the home visiting field will be in achieving its ultimate mission: empowering families and communities through trusted, culturally responsive support.

One-Third of the Way Through…

(Photo Courtesy: Erica Hallock)

Trivia!

Legislative committee hearings were held in the Legislative Building until which biennium?

Highlights of the Week

Potato Day!

Potato Day!

(Photo Courtesy: Erica Hallock)

Thanks to the Washington State Potato Commission, folks on the campus enjoyed potatoes with all of the fixings on Tuesday of this week. In one word – YUM!

Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen opened the Legislative Democratic Media Availability this week saying everyone was excited for the best day on the calendar and I thought he was going to cite potato day. But, alas, he was talking about the upcoming policy committee cutoff. I was not alone with that thinking because Speaker Laurie Jinkins joked she thought he was referencing the beloved spuds.

Updated Caseload Forecast Numbers Released

On February 14, the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council released updated forecasts for entitlement caseloads ranging from Working Connections Child Care to K-12 enrollment to adult corrections to Medicaid. These updated forecasts reflect changes from the November 2024 forecast and, along with the March 18 Revenue Forecast, will be used to inform the 2025-27 biennial budget. Bottom line up front – the updated caseload forecasts did not show any sweeping changes from the November forecast.

It is important to remember that the caseload forecasts are based on current law and do not take into account potential shifts in caseloads based on pending statutory changes. For example, SHB 1489 (Ormsby) would delay some of the elements of the 2021 Fair Start for Kids Act, including income eligibility expansion and ECEAP entitlement. Because SHB 1489 is not yet law, the caseload forecasts assume the expansion and entitlement as reflected in the Fair Start for Kids Act are still occurring. Should SHB 1489 be enacted, the next caseload forecast would presumably reflect lower caseloads to reflect the statute changes.

Caseload Forecast by Early Learning Program Area: Comparing February 2025 Forecast to November 2024

Following take-aways are from the program narratives:

• ECEAP. Actual enrollment is tracking 471 cases, or 3.5%, above the November forecast. Growth in non-entitled enrollment (the program’s largest area of growth in recent years) has slowed since October.
• Transition to Kindergarten. The forecast shows a negligible change from the November forecast. The assumption continues that 135 new classrooms will open each year.
• Working Connections Child Care. Actuals are tracking below the November forecast and the typical summer drop-off was larger than predicted. This is all contributing to the reduced caseload predictions.

Policy Committee Cutoff February 21 – Key Bill Action

As a reminder, each Thursday, Start Early Washington updates its bill tracker with the latest information on bills we are following. As noted last week, we are at the stage in the legislative process where changes can happen quickly so it’s always a good idea to check the legislative website for the latest information.

Executive Action Taken on Provider Qualifications Bill in Policy Committee

On February 17, the House Early Learning and Human Services Committee took executive action on SHB 1648 (Dent) relating to early learning provider qualifications.

The substitute bill adopted in executive session included the following changes:

• Allows licensed early learning providers until at least August 1, 2032 (or five years from the date of hire), whichever is later, to comply with qualification requirements. (The original bill included an extension date of August 1, 2035 or 10 years after date of hire and current law has a deadline of August 1, 2026 or five years after date of hire.)
• Establishes that a provider has demonstrated experience-based competency after working in a licensed child care setting without a break in service for at least five years. (Current rules require seven cumulative years to meet the standard by August 1, 2026. The substitute includes language requiring DCYF to adopt policies to allow for temporary breaks for parental leave, personal or family illness, etc.)
• Requires DCYF to convene a stakeholder group to identify strategies to implement early learning and school-age staff qualification requirements and verification processes and report to the Legislature with recommendations and implementation plans by December 1, 2026.
• Removes the provision in the original bill that would have reset the community-based training pathway to be made available in an online format and instead requires DCYF and the convened stakeholder group to identify options for offering the community-based training pathway in an online format.

Senate Early Learning Facilities Bill Receives Vote in Senate Fiscal Committee

By the time this newsletter hits your inbox, the Senate Ways and Means Committee should have taken executive action on SB 5297 (Trudeau) Thursday evening.

Like its companion, HB 1314 (Callan), SB 5297 would:

• Make Tribal Compact Schools eligible for the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) Public School District grant program.
• Subject to appropriations, establish an emergency grant program for projects that are necessary because of natural disaster or another health or safety threat resulting from unforeseen circumstances.
• Clarify that projects supporting the conversion of Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) slots to full day and/or extended full day are eligible for ELF Fund grants.
• Remove the level of matching funds as a criterion for selecting projects and make other clarifying changes to matching requirements.

Effort to Revamp Transition to Kindergarten Passes House Education Committee

On February 18, the House Education Committee took executive action on SSB 1450 (Santos) to advance the Chair’s effort to revamp Transition to Kindergarten. The substitute bill adopted in committee struck the contents of the original bill and included the following key provisions:

• Provides that Transition to Kindergarten (TTK) is a policy applying to individual students, rather than a program.
• Defines eligibility as four-year-old children who need an additional year of preparation for kindergarten or live in extreme child care deserts and, despite qualifying, do not have access to ECEAP, Head Start or Working Connections Child Care.
• Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, limits the maximum number of TTK students to the number of students enrolled in the 2023-24 school year. (This would lead to approximately 2,000 less children served in TTK beginning in the 2025-26 school year than currently.)
• Directs that approved TTK sites must be distributed across the state, with areas prioritized that are classified as extreme child care deserts.
• OSPI must adopt an application process for schools interested in providing TTK. Application must include information about the number of sites for which approval is sought and projected number of children served; description of the screening process; statement with supporting documentation whether applicant is located in an extreme child care desert; results of the local child care and early learning needs assessment; and verification from Child Care Aware that the applicant worked in collaboration with and does not adversely impact enrollment in regional early learning programs.
• Requires OSPI to approve schools prior to enrolling students and prior to the school year.
• Requires OSPI to conduct site visits.

Homes for Heroes Bill Receives Public Hearing in House Capital Budget Committee

On February 20, the House Capital Budget Committee held a public hearing on HB 1022 (Connors). Named the “Creating a Home for Heroes Program,” the bill would create a down payment and closing assistance program for people who work in targeted professions and who meet certain income requirements.

Eligible employees include the owner or employee of a licensed or certified child care center, licensed or certified nature-based child care, or licensed family child care home.

Governor Ferguson called out this bill in his inaugural address and said he was excited to work with the bill’s prime sponsor Representative Connors to get the bill to his desk.

Because the House Capital Budget Committee is a fiscal committee, this bill is subject to the February 28 fiscal committee cutoff.

What’s on Deck for Next Week

Fiscal Committee and Other Upcoming Deadlines

Our next cutoff date is coming upon us quickly with the deadline for bills to advance out of Fiscal Committees by Friday, February 28.

Following the February 28 Fiscal Committee cutoff, the next key cutoff date is March 12 – the deadline for bills to be passed out of their House of Origin.

The following week, on March 18, the latest Revenue Forecast will be released. These updated revenue numbers will be used to inform final budget writing.

What Does “NTIB” Mean?

Like the English language, the legislative process has exceptions to its rules. Bills deemed Necessary to Implement the Budget (or NTIB) are exempt from the cutoff deadlines due to budgetary impacts. These bills still must go through each of the steps – they must, for example, receive a Floor vote (no skipping steps!). NTIB status is granted by legislative leadership and is not broadly given.

The reason I share this explanation now is it may appear that some bills are “dead” because they have not advanced through the various policy and fiscal committees by the requisite cutoffs, but they may not actually be dead because they may be deemed NTIB. In short, nothing is ever dead until the final gavel goes down on Sine Die!

Governor Ferguson Expected to Release Next Steps for State Agency Reduction Exercises

As reported in the February 7 “Notes from Olympia,” Governor Bob Ferguson directed state agencies to submit to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) potential budget reductions of at least six percent beyond those reductions included in former Governor Jay Inslee’s public “Book 2” budget.

A February 12 Washington State Standard article reported this exercise would yield approximately $1.8B in savings over the 2025-27 biennium. The article also shared the “cut targets” for state agencies. DCYF’s target was the third largest of the state agencies (note that the Office of Public Instruction was exempt from the exercise) with a two-year reduction goal of $300M. The agency with the largest target was the Department of Social and Health Services with a two-year target of $702.5M and the second largest was the Health Care Authority (the Medicaid administration agency) with $534M.

During a press availability last week focused on Governor Ferguson’s response to the Trump Administration’s actions impacting Washington state, Governor Ferguson addressed the status of this reduction exercise in response to a reporter’s question. Governor Ferguson replied he and his team are actively reviewing the state agency responses and he plans another press availability sometime during the window of February 25-27 to share his administration’s proposed next steps.

Week Seven Schedule

With the policy committee cutoff this week, nearly all the action in week seven will be in the fiscal committees beginning with scheduled Saturday meetings (on February 22) for both the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means committees. When next week’s committee schedule came out, it was filled with “bills referred to committee” which are essentially calendar holds. If you are tracking a specific bill carefully, your best bet is to follow the legislative webpage.

Sadly, I am unaware of any scheduled free food days.

Earlier today, Governor JB Pritzker issued his Fiscal Year 2026 (FY 2026) budget proposal, which outlines considerable funding increases for the state’s child care system, but maintains level funding for its remaining early childhood programs – a departure from the multi-year investments announced in 2023 as part of the administration’s Smart Start Illinois initiative. 

Start Early recognizes the state’s financial position, combined with uncertainties in federal funding, made it difficult for the administration to propose significant funding increases across early childhood programs. While we are pleased with the Governor’s request to improve funding for child care assistance ($160 million increase for Child Care Assistance Program; $90 million increase for Smart Start Workforce Grants), the proposal does not provide additional state funds for Early Intervention, evidence-based home visiting programs and the Early Childhood Block Grant (Prevention Initiative and the Preschool for All programs). This lack of investment will limit the state’s ability to support the early childhood workforce and ultimately, to serve more young children through strengthened programs and services. 

“We thank Governor Pritzker for his longstanding support for early learning and, particularly, the administration’s decision to prioritize child care access in Illinois,” Start Early Illinois’ Executive Director Celena Sarillo said. “Yet, when we fail to provide sufficient state funding for programs like Early Intervention and home visiting, we fail children during their most crucial developmental periods, and we leave families unsupported in caring for their little ones.”