Happy Monday, ReadyNation members and friends:  Now that the Illinois General Assembly has finished its spring legislative session, I write to thank you for your efforts in helping secure a number of significant state-policy victories for kids – moves that, in turn, will aid in strengthening our workforce and economy.

 Below are a few highlights of these policy wins, all of which enjoyed solidly bipartisan support. The good news starts with the FY2019 state budget, which the Governor signed into law this morning. The budget reflects many of ReadyNation’s top priorities for boosting workforce preparation and productivity:

• Preschool (and key birth-to-3 programs) will see a $50 million boost in state resources – their fourth straight increase, drawing-down $20 million in extra, federal funding – to continue rebuilding from many years of deep cuts and neglect, and improve program quality.
   
• “Parent-coaching” programs for the families of at-risk infants and toddlers will be preserved at $17 million in state funding, after the corrosion these home-visiting efforts suffered during Illinois’ recent state-budget impasse.
   
• Child care assistance will be funded at levels that allow for several system improvements. These include adoption of a 12-month eligibility standard (double the current period, providing families with greater stability and finally putting Illinois in compliance with federal guidelines), a long-overdue rate increase for providers, and some important room for restoring enrollments (following eligibility cuts that were reversed last year, after they’d displaced 30,000 children from services).
   
• Career & Technical Education for middle- and high-school students, and Early Intervention assistance for young children with developmental delays and disabilities, are seeing steady, level funding.

In other news from Springfield, ReadyNation helped to secure:

• Long-delayed capital funding totaling over $7 million for more than a dozen early childhood construction and renovation projects statewide – money that was approved nearly a decade ago, but never shared with the local programs to whom it was promised.
   
• Broad approval of two bills improving child care stability: HB4965 directs state officials to comply with federal standards mandating 12-month eligibility for working families who qualify for services (see related budget note above); HB5599 sets a statutory floor for income eligibility, helping to guard against a repeat of the aforementioned eligibility cuts that took services from thousands of struggling, working households.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll circulate a sign-on letter and invite you to join ReadyNation in urging the Governor to sign those child care bills into law.

In the meantime, we thank you once again for your help in making these policy wins a reality for not only Illinois children, but our hopes for boosting both workforce and economic development. So many of you joined letters to policymakers, met with them in person, joined in our news events or submitted newspapers letters and op-eds – all of which made a significant difference!

 In that same vein, we encourage you to join us in thanking Illinois lawmakers for their bipartisan cooperation in finalizing this state budget. The roll calls for the budget votes are posted here for the Illinois House and here for the Senate; please don’t hesitate to ask for any help you might like with such outreach.

Have a great week, and a great summer – Sean

Sean Noble, Illinois State Director