Hello, ReadyNation friends: Over the weekend, Illinois lawmakers approved an FY26 budget that invests significant new state resources in child care services that are vital to kids, their working parents, and employers. Among other things, this is a testament to the perspective that ReadyNation’s business leaders provide to policymakers about the value of high-quality early childhood programs to our economy. Thank you for your role in these important efforts, embodied in the results of our statewide business-leader poll expressing solid support for early childhood investments!

Such communications remain critical, considering the budget failed to invest further in other ReadyNation priorities for strengthening our workforce, today and tomorrow. After two years of progress toward the long-term vision of the bipartisan Early Childhood Funding Commission, policymakers largely hit the “pause” button on improving resources for preschool and birth-to-3 services. Lawmakers explained available resources simply were not adequate to meet a number of very worthwhile budget requests, and federal budget uncertainties only exacerbate the situation. We appreciate your ongoing assistance in focusing state leaders’ attention on these priorities. The following is an overview of highlights from spring legislative action.

The state budget, which still requires the Governor’s final approval:

• Invests $85 million more in the Child Care Assistance Program, extending services to additional low-income, working parents and boosting reimbursements for home-based providers. The FY26 plan also puts $90 million more into Smart Start Workforce Grants to replace expiring federal dollars that bolstered compensation for the underpaid child care workforce. Another, $7.5 million increase will support further development of the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), a core recommendation of the bipartisan commission on birth-to-5 matters.

• Directs no additional funding to preK or the home-visiting programs of “coaching” help for new or expecting parents. The budget does designate $10 million in federal dollars to support a modest reimbursement-rate increase for the providers of Early Intervention therapies for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities — but no new state funding is committed to reducing lengthy waits for service experienced by their families. Neither does the spending plan boost funding for critical scholarship help for early childhood providers, whose resources shrank last year.

• Represents a mixed bag for other priorities. It adds $10 million to one Illinois State Board of Education budget line for after-school programs while eliminating another $50 million in after-school funding that had been approved — but never committed to programs or spent by ISBE — in the past fiscal year. Teen REACH after-school program remains flat-funded from FY25 levels. The new spending plan also adds $10 million to the Monetary Award Program’s tuition assistance for low-income college students.

In other matters, lawmakers approved measures:

• Calling upon the state to better-prioritize the bricks-and-mortar needs of early childhood facilities. HR137 was a central initiative of ReadyNation this session, a bipartisan resolution asking IDEC to develop a more comprehensive survey of birth-to-5 programs’ capital needs to help inform state decision-making. It further urges state leaders to commit all remaining Early Childhood Construction Grant funding to badly needed building-and-repair projects — and to refuel this grant initiative as soon as feasible.

• Improving child care licensing in a number of ways. HB3439 requires staff background checks every five years rather than the current three, and the bill codifies in law and retains several DCFS guidelines regarding the provisional hiring of staff — all moves to help simplify things for providers and stabilize child care’s “workforce behind our entire workforce.”

• Directing IDEC’s establishment of an Early Childhood Integrated Data System (via SB406) to further guide policy and program decisions as the new state agency streamlines and improves birth-to-5 services throughout Illinois.

Again: Thank you very much for your part in helping policymakers and the public to understand the vital relationship between Illinois’ economic goals and research-proven investments in kids’ well-being that can help us achieve those goals. Have a great summer! — Sean & Sally, Co-Directors