4753 N. Broadway Suite 1200 Chicago, IL

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2 4753 N. Broadway Suite 1200 Chicago, IL

3 Executive Summary This report describes a promising program model for connecting low-income at-risk children in home-based child care (both regulated and unregulated) with state funded, classroombased preschool programs. The report seeks to inform service providers, policy makers and advocates. The Community Connections Preschool Model, developed by Illinois Action for Children, is designed to support working families, their home-based child care providers, and child care centers building on the strengths of each. The model works in this way: 3- and 4-year-old children in home-based child care are transported to a half-day center-based preschool program four days per week. On the fifth day, their teachers visit the home-based care providers. They take children s books and toys, and discuss early learning activities. Each provider is visited twice per month. Teachers also offer resources for care providers working with infants and toddlers (who do not attend the state-funded preschool program). Parents and care providers are invited to meetings at their children s preschool program once per month. The project coordinators (there are two) bring teachers and administrators from participating centers together for professional development, networking, and troubleshooting. The project coordinators provide on-going monitoring and technical assistance to participating centers and child care homes. Presently, 360 children in the care of home-based providers are attending preschool classes in 9 centers in low-income communities in the Chicago metropolitan area. The project is funded through Illinois universal preschool program (called Preschool for All) at the rate of $3,000 per child, per year. Compensation for home-based care is not provided by this program, but is, in many cases, paid through the state Child Care Assistance Program. A third party evaluation of the Community Connections project will begin soon. Already the project shows significant benefits. Young children spend part of each day in classrooms taught by certified teachers using a research-based curriculum. Home-based care providers are learning from certified teachers how to improve their home learning environments for children ages birth to five; in addition, they have more time to spend with any infants and toddlers in their care during the hours that 3- and 4-year-olds are at preschool. Child care assistance payments to family child care providers are not reduced when children participate in Preschool for All programs. Early care and education centers are operating at fuller capacity. Certified teachers are supported by peers, mentors, and technical assistance providers. Parents do not have to choose between classroom-based and family-based early care and education programs for their children: they really can choose both, and give their children the benefits of both. 1 the community connections model

4 Introduction. As State Pre-kindergarten programs go to scale, it has become apparent that many of the most at-risk children are not participating. Very low-income parents tend to work non-traditional hours nights, weekends, and changing shifts and their preschool-age children are generally cared for by relatives, neighbors, and family child care providers. Several logistical and policy barriers make classroom-based programs unavailable to these children. This report describes a promising program model designed to reach children in home-based child care, both regulated and unregulated. 1 The program builds partnerships among families, home-based care providers, and child care centers, to improve children s learning and developmental outcomes. Created by Illinois Action for Children (IAFC), the Community Connections Preschool Project has built partnerships in 9 low-income Chicago area communities, involving 144 home-based providers and 9 child care centers, creating high-quality learning environments for over 360 young children. This report is intended to share Illinois Action for Children s experience in implementing the project and to give others ideas about how they might replicate or adapt the model in their own communities. The need for a third model. Two models of service delivery are common in state-funded preschool programs. In the most common model, public schools deliver services focused on early education, but not intended to meet families child care needs. A second model is for child care centers to deliver state-funded preschool as part of a full-workday program that integrates care and education. Those two models reach a large number of families, but they exclude many families as well. In 2004, Illinois Action for Children began a community organizing and planning initiative (called Community Connections) in low-income Chicago suburbs, asking residents to identify unmet needs for early care and education, as well as community resources that could help meet those needs. A leadership group in each community looked at need via demographic data sources (including Head Start needs assessments) and door-to-door surveys. Then the groups looked at community assets using resource and referral lists and holding focus groups. Home-based child care providers were identified as a significant community asset, but providing their children with the skills needed for school readiness was considered a need. Children in home-based child care had, for the most part, been left out of Illinois expanding universal preschool program (called Preschool for All). Parents were choosing home-based child care for many reasons, including: Flexible hours to accommodate work schedules Convenient locations Affordability Provides some financial support for relatives and neighbors High level of trust & communication Language & culture may match parents Siblings of various ages can be cared for together Suitable environment for sleeping Child behavior management is easy because number of children is small 1 Terminology varies in describing types of home-based child care. The phrase family child care is sometimes used interchangeably with home-based child care, but it might imply that the home is licensed, registered, or subject to other regulations. Unregulated care is often called family, friend and neighbor care or legally license-exempt care. The Community Connections model described in this paper includes all types of home-based care. illinois action for children 2

5 The need for flexible hours to accommodate work schedules was particularly striking. In Illinois, 42% of parents with children under 14 work unusual hours, including nights, weekends, and changing shifts. For low-income, single mothers of children under 6, the number jumps to 67%. 2 Neither of the usual program models for state-funded preschool works for these families. School-based models depend on an adult to transport the child to and from a part-day program. Parents working unusual hours are frequently either working or sleeping during school hours. Their home-based child care providers tend to care for children in family groups that include infants and toddlers. For these reasons and others, they are often unable to leave home to take the children to preschool. Child care centers are unavailable for different reasons. Their programs depend on funding from two sources state-funded preschool plus state child care assistance. Parents working unusual schedules are not eligible for child care assistance on a regular daytime schedule, Monday through Friday. Nor does an inflexible full-day schedule work for them. Therefore, the community-based planning groups identified home-based child care as an enormous asset that meets the child care needs of low-income working families but, most agreed, it was not the program of choice for teaching school skills to young children. A third model of state-funded preschool was needed in order to reach children in home-based child care. The Community Connections organizing and planning initiative For years, Illinois families have benefited from strong public support for preschool and child care programs. However, as programs have expanded, some high-need communities have not attracted a fair share of the resources. In 2004, Illinois Action for Children, with support from the Joyce Foundation, began organizing residents and leaders in high-need communities to identify early care and education needs as well as community assets that could help meet those needs and attract resources. This process included: Forming a community leadership group Examining demographic data Holding focus groups Conducting door-to-door surveys Hosting luncheons and other networking events Creating a plan to meet early education needs Finding service providers to participate in planned activities Two service expansion models have resulted so far: 1. The Community Connections Preschool Model described in this paper 2. The Community Connections Neighborhood Literacy Model. This model engages libraries, parks, medical clinics, and other institutions in adding preschool literacy activities to their programs. Libraries add preschool reading hours for family child care providers; parks add a literacy curriculum to their preschool summer day camps; clinics add story readers to their waiting rooms, etc. For more information about Community Connections, please visit 2 Working Later in Illinois: schedules, incomes and parents access to child care. Report by Illinois Action for Children the community connections model

6 Mixed (or combination) service-delivery models. Research on the Early Head Start program has provided a framework for categorizing service delivery models. In a national evaluation, researchers compared outcomes for center-based (classroom-based) programs, home-based programs using a home visiting approach and mixed-approach programs that combined center-based services with home visiting. 3 Classroom-based programs The growth of state-funded preschool is based on strong evidence from Head Start and many other sources, showing that classroom-based early learning programs help low-income and at-risk children succeed in school and in life. 4 Classroom-based programs achieve strong outcomes in teaching children the skills and behaviors they will need in school. These benefits are particularly strong for children from low-income families. While low-income parents and home caregivers teach their children many critical life skills, guiding their development in social, moral, emotional, and other areas, they are often at a disadvantage in teaching school skills. School vocabulary and syntax might be different from home vocabulary and syntax (or even an entirely different language). Children might need to learn new approaches to learning and problem-solving to succeed in school. Such skills will play an important role in children s access to good jobs in our information-based world economy. Therefore, low-income children need the earliest possible start in learning the language and culture of school. Children can get such a start in many settings, but in all cases they will need to be around adults who speak the language of school, and environments that structure activities around performing school skills. For three- and four-year-olds, only high quality classroom-based programs have been able to create these conditions on a consistent, large scale basis. This is why state-funded programs have been designed as classroom-based programs. 3 See the report at section titled Impacts Differ by Approach. illinois action for children 4

7 Parents and home caregivers teach their children many critical life skills, but they are often at a disadvantage in teaching school skills. Home-based programs Structured home visiting programs such as the Parents As Teachers Born to Learn program and Supporting Care Providers program are intended to achieve a broader set of outcomes beyond school readiness. They are intended to strengthen families and caregivers ability to meet children s immediate needs on a consistent basis, and to prepare them for the future. Home-based child care programs advance the same goals, contributing to family self-sufficiency, participation in a supportive community, and supporting children s development. It is likely that achieving these family and caregiver outcomes will improve school success in the long term by providing children with stronger and more consistent family and community support. And while home visiting programs have had only modest impact in improving children s kindergarten performance when used alone, they have strengthened school skills more effectively when used in combination with classroom-based experiences. 5 Mixed (or combination) models Home visiting programs that strengthen home - school connections (and/or home caregiver - school connections) can be powerful forces in fostering children s learning. They can strengthen parents and caregivers commitment to getting children to school, their ability to expand upon what is taught in school, their demonstrated respect for education and their on-going communication with teachers. All of these parent/caregiver skills and values can be taught. Mixed models of service delivery, when fully implemented, engage all the significant adults in a child s life to meet his or her immediate needs, and to promote the use of school skills that will lead to future success. A part-day preschool program delivered for 2 ½ hours per day for two school years (the 3-year-old year and the 4-year-old year) amounts to less than 6% of a child s waking hours between birth and her fifth birthday. 6 Mixed model programs can impact the adults who care for the child the other 94% of her young life. The Community Connections Preschool model, which is described below, is a mixed model. 4 The immediate benefits of such programs school readiness and developmental advantages yield increased school success and decreased special education and corrections costs later in life. See, for example, Robert G. Lynch, Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation: Public Investment in High-Quality Pre-kindergarten, Economic Policy Institute, 2007, AND Lynn Karoly et al., Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise, RAND Corporation, See also Issue Topic: Early Childhood Programs and Evaluation, The Evaluation Exchange, X 2), Summer 2004; Getting Ready: Findings from the National School Readiness Indicators Initiative, a 17 State Partnership, 2005, at ame=getting+ready+%2d+full+report%2epdf; National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, Effectiveness of Infant and Early Childhood and Programs, links to extensive numbers of research studies at updated 2/08. 5 Source for Early Head Start research is named in a previous footnote. Information on Parents as Teachers research is available at: and 5 the community connections model

8 The policy environment. State-funded preschool programs are experiencing strong growth, and it appears that funding will continue to grow. Researchers, policy makers and the public all support early childhood education as a strategy to improve school achievement, reduce poverty, strengthen economic growth, and help children develop their full potential. In some states, including Illinois, funding has grown to the point where most of the easy-to-reach at-risk children are already in programs if their parents choose to enroll them. These children are in the schoolbased part-day model or the child care center-based full-workday model. Now Illinois and other states must decide whether to expand to serve a less needy population using the existing program models, or to serve the hardest-to-reach, neediest children through new models. 7 6 This percentage is based on the following rough calculation: Waking hours = 10 hours/day x 365 days/year x 5 years = 18,250 Preschool hours = 12.5 hours/week x 40 weeks x 2 years = 1,000 1,000 / 18,250 = 5.48% 7 In 2006, Illinois changed its at-risk state prekindergarten program into Preschool for All. However, the legislature required that local programs serving at-risk children get first priority for expanded funding, and that those serving moderate-income children without other risk factors get the second priority. illinois action for children 6

9 Illinois Preschool for All Program The Community Connections Preschool Project operates within the context of Illinois new Preschool for All Program. 8 Signed into law in July 2006, Preschool for All is intended to offer preschool to all three- and four-year-olds whose parents want them to participate. The program is being phased in, prioritizing at-risk children, but with additional funding to be provided annually, expanding to serve children from middle-income families, and eventually to serve any age-eligible child. Preschool for All has 5 components, all of which contribute to a high-quality program aligned with Illinois Early Learning Standards: Formal screening of 3- and 4-year-olds to identify children who are at-risk and to determine service needs A quality, language rich educational program that fosters healthy cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of children Parent choice in early learning programs, as well as parent engagement, education, and empowerment Community collaboration building, to increase access to and avoid duplication of early care and education resources High standards for teaching staff, including a requirement that Preschool for All teachers must have a bachelor s degree and state certification in early childhood education. Description of the model. The Community Connections Preschool program is a mixed model that builds on the strengths of two program types parent/caregiver education and classroom-based early childhood education. It seeks to sustain, rather than undermine, families connections with home-based child care providers, while linking those providers to classroom-based programs. It seeks to overcome any reluctance that families or home-based providers may have about the children s participation in preschool programs by forming one-on-one relationships between teachers, home child care providers and parents. In addition, the Community Connections Preschool Model promotes the sharing of state-funded preschool program resources with home child care providers, in order to give children coordinated learning experiences across settings and age groupings. It strengthens providers ability to lay a foundation for school success starting at birth. It seeks to sustain, rather than undermine, families connections with home-based child care providers, while linking those providers to classroom-based programs. 8 See and 7 the community connections model

10 The Community Connections Preschool Project works in this way: Children already enrolled in formal or informal family child care homes are taken to a state-funded preschool classroom (Preschool for All) to participate in a half-day program four days per week. Each of the participating child care centers has the ability to dedicate one classroom to serving children cared for in child care homes; in other words, each of the centers has been sufficiently under-enrolled at project inception that it can free up one classroom for the project. Each of the participating centers also has a bus or van, a driver and insurance coverage, and, thus, the capacity to pick children up at care providers homes and return them at the end of the school half-day. Twenty children ages 3 and 4 participate in each half-day classroom. With two sessions per day, each participating center serves 40 children from home-based child care. A certified early childhood teacher and a teacher assistant (with at least 30 hours of college credit) teach each classroom. All project sites use the Creative Curriculum, supplementing it with an additional curriculum focused on language and literacy. An important part of our work has been building trust between provider and teacher. illinois action for children 8

11 On the fifth day, the Preschool for All teachers (certified teachers and assistants) visit the child care homes to coordinate home-based learning activities with the preschool curriculum, discuss children s progress and share new resources. During these visits, teachers bring activity ideas, lesson plans, books, toys, and other tools to assist family child care providers in caring for and educating young children. Project staff encourage teachers to meet the providers where they are and thus, to listen to them and respond to their concerns. Teachers may, for instance, bring flyers about upcoming community events or information on lead safety or other health screenings. Beyond individual providers concerns, all teachers focus some home visiting time on language and literacy, recognizing the critical importance of language development to school success. They will talk with providers about the literacy curriculum they are using in the classroom and about how the provider can extend children s literacy learning. Teachers encourage providers, parents, and other adults to read to children, and they provide reading materials that are fun for both adults and children. Do the providers see these home visits as supportive, or as an intrusion? Says IAFC outreach coordinator Carlos Fortenberry, In the beginning providers were skeptical. They felt they knew what they were doing, and they didn t want a partner. But, now that the teachers have been in the community for a while, the providers love the program. An important part of our work has been building trust between provider and teacher. And the providers love the materials the teachers provide: now we see more stimulating learning environments in those homes, full of books, toys, games and art supplies. If the provider is caring for infants and toddlers as well as preschool-age children, the teachers include resource materials and discussions of infant-toddler care. Outreach coordinator Sayonara Harris observes, When the teachers go into the homes, they check out what books, blocks, puzzles and active play toys are available. Often there are few, and the ones that are there are appropriate for 3-5 year olds. Teachers discuss providers needs with us, and we work together to order the needed materials, which Preschool for All pays for. Teachers visit each family child care home provider twice per month. Each teaching team (certified teacher and teaching assistant) has approximately 16 family care provider partners, counting both the AM and PM sessions. Teachers and assistants visit the child care homes separately, and each one visits 4 homes each Friday. Thus, they visit half of the homes each week. In some cases, providers enjoy coming to the center to meet with and observe the teacher s work, but, for most, home visits are more convenient. Parents and providers attend monthly meetings and other events at the center, which also serves as a lending library for parents to exchange language-rich books and materials. To accommodate the schedules of working parents and family care providers, these meetings are held either in the evening (after 6 PM) or on weekends. Because most child care centers offer monthly parent meetings anyway, the Community Connections Project simply builds on this existing program feature, offering the center new ideas for its meetings and adding family care providers to the invitation list. As is to be expected, participation levels in these meetings vary from center to center and community to community. Says outreach coordinator Sayonara Harris, One site, which also has an Early Reading First program, has a full house at its monthly meetings. At this site, staff members are very involved in reaching out to parents they constantly send home flyers and newsletters and talk up the meetings with parents. But at all sites, the introduction of the Preschool for All program has brought in talent and resources that have made the monthly parent meetings more interesting. And so attendance has increased across the sites. 9 the community connections model

12 Teachers across the project sites come together monthly, and center directors meet quarterly, for professional development, networking and troubleshooting. The two project coordinators plan and host monthly meetings that bring teachers and teaching assistants together across project sites each month to participate in advanced training on the Creative Curriculum. In addition, the teachers network, share lesson plans, troubleshoot and provide peer support and mentoring. On a quarterly basis, IAFC brings site directors together for professional development sessions on administration, finance, human resources, and program development. Project Participants. To date, the Community Connections Preschool Project has involved: 9 communities mostly suburban with large numbers of low-income residents and large numbers of children cared for in home-based child care 144 home child care providers, ranging from licensed providers caring for 6-8 children to grandmothers, aunts, and neighbors 9 Preschool for All teachers, all of them with Illinois Early Childhood teaching certificates 9 community-based child care centers, each devoting one classroom (morning and afternoon sessions) to this project and 4-year-old children and their families illinois action for children 10

13 The communities. IAFC staff targeted high-need communities. Staff developed several outreach approaches based on statistical information and their relationships within a particular community. In one community with a strong family child care association, project staff began by talking with association members about this project as a way to involve them in Preschool for All. In areas without strong family child care associations, IAFC s Community Connections staff initiated a more comprehensive community asset mapping and collaboration building process, meeting with individual stakeholders, raising awareness about the importance of quality early care and education and ultimately bringing diverse interests together to strengthen the community s capacity to care for and educate young children. (See box describing this Community Connections initiative.) In four communities, a planning process resulted in the creation of community resource guides and plans for expanding service. More recently, staff are finding that other nearby communities have learned about the project and are eager to participate. Says Sayonara Harris, The Community Connections planning initiative created a trust factor for us. Some of those communities were shut off. They didn t know who we were. Now, they see us differently. We can go into these communities and start talking about Preschool for All, and they are ready to participate. Soon the word got around that the program is looking out for our children, and it s not taking away from our business Providers. Home child care providers volunteer to participate in the Community Connections Preschool Project. They, in turn, gain parents consent for their children to participate. Providers include licensed family child care homes as well as relatives and friends of parents who care for children informally. At first, staff feared that few providers would want to participate in the project. They knew that some providers would see the classroom as competition and the teachers as meddlesome. Carlos Fortenberry said, I was hired to start this project three years ago. No one knew what Preschool for All was then. I knew trust was going to be an issue. So I knocked on doors of people I knew. I thought, once we got key people in the community to spread the word, then we could recruit through word of mouth. All we had to do was get one provider to be happy and others would step up. And that worked: soon the word got around that the program is looking out for our children, and it s not taking away from our business. 11 the community connections model

14 Centers. Staff visited centers in the targeted communities, described the project to directors and owners, and assessed center quality. High quality centers that were able to dedicate a classroom to the project and to provide transportation were chosen to participate. In most participating centers, IAFC is able to support two Preschool for All program models. One classroom (with AM and PM sessions) is dedicated to the Community Connections Preschool Project. All other classrooms serving 3- and 4-year-old children use the more common model in which certified teachers work with children who spend the full day at the center. Teachers. Finding certified Preschool for All teachers is a challenge for many child care centers. The Project required centers to pay salaries comparable to those offered by area school districts. Says IAFC Vice President Tom Layman: We gave the centers salary and benefit data from school districts in Chicago and the suburbs, and we told them, you have to pay at least this much, probably more, because your benefit plans may not compete with the schools. The Project also helped the centers to recruit teachers, posting position notices in newspapers, websites, and at teachers colleges. Each certified teacher is assisted in the classroom by a teaching assistant who has at least 30 hours of college credit and, in most cases, teaching experience in a child care center. Coordinators. Two veteran early educators and community activists, Carlos Fortenberry and Sayonara Harris, coordinate the Community Connections Preschool Project for IAFC. Carlos and Sayonara have engaged home care providers, centers and certified preschool teachers to work as a team in making the project successful. They provide technical assistance and support on an on-going basis. At the beginning of the year, the coordinators provide an orientation at each participating center for teachers, potential providers, and interested parents. This is a half-day program culminating in a luncheon. Broad participation is encouraged and the event is promoted through mass mailings and flyers. The event also serves to recruit and register families to participate in the project. Throughout the year, the coordinators work with the participating centers to organize monthly events for providers and parents. They plan and host monthly teacher meetings and quarterly director meetings. They end the school year by hosting a project-wide celebration. The coordinators spend a lot of time with new teachers. Says Sayonara: We go into the sites and help new teachers reconstruct the whole classroom, ordering materials and enhancing the learning environment. We show them other model sites and make sure they understand the standards and expectations for the program. We go with them on home visits. We may connect new teachers to high-achieving veteran teachers in a mentoring relationship. The coordinators also spend time in the homes of providers, offering technical assistance to help them align their work with Preschool for All expectations. illinois action for children 12

15 Costs and funding. The Joyce Foundation funded the community organizing and planning activities of the larger Community Connections Project over a three year period. On-going costs of the Community Connections Preschool Project are funded almost entirely through the State of Illinois Preschool for All Program, administered by the Illinois State Board of Education, which reimburses IAFC at the rate of $3,000 per child per year. This rate has covered the costs of IAFC s coordinating work as well as the cost of the Preschool for All teacher, teacher assistant, educational supplies, occupancy costs, and transportation. Some of the centers hire Preschool for All staff and order supplies themselves, with IAFC reimbursing those costs. For smaller centers with fewer resources, IAFC hires and supervises the staff and purchases the materials. The Illinois Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) pays many of the home-based child care providers serving low-income families. Their compensation is unaffected by the participation of the children in the Preschool for All program for part of the day. CCAP treats participation in Preschool for All as an enhancement to the child care day, not as time out of that day. (See box describing the Illinois CCAP program.) 13 the community connections model

16 The Illinois Child Care Assistance Program The Illinois Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), helps low-income, working families pay for child care for children 6 weeks to 12 years old, and special needs children through age 18. Working families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level are eligible, and most share costs on a sliding fee scale. In some cases, parents in approved education or training programs are eligible, as well as teen parents in high school. Every eligible family using the services of a legally operating child care provider may receive assistance. There are no waiting lists. Care providers may be child care centers, licensed family child care homes, or legally license exempt child care homes, including relatives. Providers may participate in the program either through a contract with IDHS or through Certificates issued to families by their regional Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCR&R). Illinois Action for Children is the CCR&R for Cook County, including Chicago and many suburbs. Approximately half of the program s funding comes from state general revenue funds, with the other half supplied by three federal funding streams: The Child Care and Development Fund, TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), and Title XX. IDHS also funds a substantial number of child care program improvement and professional development activities, including the Quality Rating System. IDHS works closely with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which licenses child care centers and homes, and with the Illinois State Board of Education, which operates the Preschool for All program. Child care providers serving preschool-age children are encouraged to collaborate with Preschool for All programs so that care and education are woven together as seamlessly as possible in the child s day. illinois action for children 14

17 Benefits. ChildTrends and The National Center for Children in Poverty have initiated an evaluation of The Family Care Collaboration Project. Even without knowing the results of that evaluation, IAFC can report substantial benefits for all partners: Young children who would otherwise have few structured learning activities attend half-day classroom sessions taught by certified teachers using a research-based curriculum. Home-based care providers improve their home learning environments and discuss children s learning with certified teachers. Infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children all benefit. Child care centers are operating at fuller capacity. Teachers are supported through peers, mentors, and technical assistance providers. Parents particularly those who work nontraditional hours are supported with the home-based child care setting of their choice, knowing that their children also participate in Preschool for All. Home-based child care meets a critical need for low-income working families. The approach described in this report sees home-based child care as an asset, not an obstacle, to the education of young children. By enlisting care providers as partners, the Community Connections Preschool Project achieves the best of both worlds for children and parents a quality preschool experience and a nurturing and stimulating home care environment. 15 the community connections model

18 For more information... Please contact any of the following staff members at Illinois Action for Children: Maria Whelan, President/CEO: Sessy Nyman, Vice President for Public Policy and Government Relations: Tom Layman, Vice President for Program Development: illinois action for children 16

19 Illinois Action for Children thanks the Joyce Foundation for its support of the Community Connections Project over the past four years, including funding for this report. The Foundation s commitment to closing the achievement gap that separates low-income and minority children from their peers, reflected in its willingness to support the development of this complex project over time, has launched a new approach to serving children from very low income families. Special thanks to Jana Fleming, Roseanna Ander and Ellen Alberding. Illinois Action for Children also thanks the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Human Services for their active involvement and cooperation in this project s development and on-going operation. A history of collaboration between those departments and among service providers has made possible the development of policies that support innovative programs, including the Community Connections Preschool Project. The early care and education staff in those departments deserve special thanks, including Kay Henderson, Division Administrator, Early Childhood Education, at the Illinois State Board of Education, and Linda Saterfield, Chief, Bureau of Child Care and Development at the Illinois Department of Human Services the community connections model

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