This article was originally published in Capitol News Illinois.
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation Tuesday creating a new cabinet-level state agency focused on early childhood education and development.
The new Early Childhood Department, which will become operational in July 2026, will take over programs currently housed in three state agencies, including funding for preschool programs, child care centers and licensing of day care centers.
Pritzker said during a signing ceremony at a Chicago preschool that the streamlined agency should make it easier for new parents to access essential services for their children.
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“It’s hard enough juggling all the responsibilities that fall on parents’ shoulders,” he said. “And what’s more, they wouldn’t have to navigate a complex bureaucracy to get the care they and their children deserve.”
Pritzker first unveiled his plan for a consolidated agency last fall, just as lawmakers were beginning their annual fall veto session, when he issued an executive order creating an Office of Early Childhood within the governor’s office.
That order directed the Department of Human Services, the Department of Children and Family Services and the Illinois State Board of Education to begin developing a transition plan to move the management of their early childhood programs to a new agency .
The formal bid to create the new agency was part of Pritzker’s budget proposal to the General Assembly in February, along with a second year of increased funding for these programs under Pritzker’s Smart Start initiative.
Under the plan, the new agency will take over the State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant program, which funds the Preschool for All and Prevention Initiative programs; the Child Care Assistance Program, home visiting programs, and early intervention services currently housed in the Department of Human Services; and day care center licensing, which is currently administered by the Department of Children and Family Services.
The legislation authorizing the new agency, Senate Bill 1, passed unanimously in the Senate in April and passed last month with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, 93-18.
“The foundation for a child’s success and well-being is laid from the moment they are born,” Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, said in a statement. “As a state, it is our duty to provide the necessary support and resources to build such stability. The creation of this first-of-its-kind office will be groundbreaking in our transition to a comprehensive, trauma-informed approach to meeting the diverse needs of children.”
Much of the debate over the bill in the Legislature has focused on the cost of launching a new state agency. Lawmakers have set aside $14 million in the coming fiscal year for initial start-up costs, including things like hiring executive staff and opening new office space.
But state officials were reluctant to provide estimates of how much the new agency would cost annually once it is fully operational, and whether those administrative costs would outweigh what the state is currently spending.
In response to questions from reporters on Tuesday, Pritzker again declined to provide specific cost estimates but suggested that consolidating the programs into one agency could result in efficiencies and cost savings. But he did rebuke “people who want to complain” about how new state agencies “cost taxpayers.”
“I really don’t think that will happen,” Pritzker said. “I think there’s real efficiency and you’re bringing programs that are desperately in different departments all together.”
This story was originally published on Capitol News Illinois.
