The Challenge
Where a child is born should not determine their success.
The first three years are the most rapid and critical period of development in a child’s life and they provide the greatest opportunity to set the foundation for healthy development and learning.
The Earliest Years: A Foundation for Life
The experiences that children have during their earliest years shape their brain development and the healthy development of all other systems in the body in a significant way that sets them up for lifelong success or lifelong challenges.
Leveling the Playing Field
Today, only 25% of Illinois infants and toddlers have access to licensed child care, with only 5% of them having access to high-quality care. Families also experience barriers accessing home visiting, early intervention and other critical prenatal-to-age 3 services.
Addressing these issues can help level the playing field for every child in Illinois, and combat one of the root causes of disparities for children and adults throughout the state.
Only 25% of IL
infants & toddlers
have access to
licensed
child care
1 Million New Neural Connections
The first three years of a child’s life are the most active period for establishing the neural connections that make up brain architecture, when more than 1 million new neural connections form every second. Moreover, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression – three of the most common and costly conditions that account for more than $600 billion in health care expenditures in the U.S. annually – can be linked to adverse early childhood experiences.
#1 Threat to Children’s Well-being is Poverty
Poverty disproportionately impacts families with young children. Parents of infants and toddlers face many barriers to accessing income supports and employment opportunities that can lift them out of poverty, like paid family leave, quality child care and food assistance programs.
17.8%
of early education
workers
live in poverty
17.8% of Early Education Workers in Illinois Live in Poverty
According to a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, child care workers are among some of the lowest-paid professionals in the country. This workforce – often women and women of color – consistently ranks in the bottom percentile of worker pay. In 2020, the median pay of a child care worker was $25,460 per year, putting a family of four relying on an early child care salary under the federal poverty line.
Illinois Ranks 36 Out of 50 States & D.C. in Infant Mortality
Illinois ranks 36th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in infant mortality. Although the infant mortality rate in Illinois has decreased over time, major racial and ethnic disparities persist, with the infant mortality rate for infants born to non-Hispanic Black women consistently at two to three times the rate as non-Hispanic white women.
