Early Childhood Education

Illinois' newly-made Department of Early Childhood will administer several programs such as preschool funding, subsidized daycare services and home visits that are currently spread out among three different agencies.

Illinois' Department of Early Childhood will administer programs currently spread across 3 agencies — the State Board of Education, Department of Human Services and the Department of Children and Family Services.

The PNC Foundation, through a partnership with the Missouri Botanical Garden, is granting the Julia Goldstein Early Childhood Education Center in University City $75,000.

The new Metro East facility will serve lower-income families near O’Fallon, Shiloh, Lebanon and east Belleville. Center directors said they observed a need for such a facility as St. Clair County residents moved east.

As more daycare operators leave the field for better-paying jobs, families have fewer child care options, says the union that represents 15,000 providers in Illinois.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state plan to eliminate preschool deserts had a successful first year and celebrated East Alton-based Wieland Manufacturing's $500 million investment to modernize its facility.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program is now statewide in Missouri. The program provides children with a free book in the mail each month until their fifth birthday. The goal is to nurture a love of reading and improve literacy.

The newly-formed Illinois agency would coordinate child care, preschool and early intervention across 102 counties.

Child care providers and educators in the Metro East and St. Louis have struggled to get by with meager state and national funding.

Two-income households are opting to make due with a single salary, but not everyone can afford that luxury. What does that mean for our collective futures?