Nicole Bonilla, Project Coordinator, Day Care Action Council of Illinois

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, my name is Nicole Bonilla and I am the project coordinator for the Day Care Action Council of Illinois' Public Policy and Advocacy Program. In that capacity I work closely with our membership of over 600 child care and early childhood education professionals, parents and advocates across Illinois. The Day Care Action Council of Illinois (DCACI) is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide grassroots advocacy organization that works to educate the public and policymakers on issues concerning accessible, affordable, high quality child care and early childhood education. DCACI is also the Cook County Child Care Resource and Referral agency.

My brief testimony today is to comment on the Board's preliminary report especially as it relates to our state's youngest and most vulnerable children.

As Mr. Noble from Voices has mentioned, success in school and in life begins not with preparation in kindergarten, but at birth. What is missing from the Board's preliminary report is a focus and emphasis on collaboration to make this possible. We know, by working with parents and providers around the state, that early care and education programs need to meet two demands:
1. to better serve the developmental and educational needs of children, and
2. to meet the needs of working parents.

By supporting the schools in working with community based programs, family child care programs and Head Start, the Education Funding Advisory Board's recommendations can help make such success possible for all children.

As part of Early Learning Illinois: Access. Options. Opportunities, DCACI is committed to making such collaboration a reality. The Early Learning campaign aims to secure gubernatorial and legislative candidates' commitment to improving and expanding early learning not just during the campaign season, but after they take office in January.

In parts of the state where a commitment to early learning has taken shape, the results are amazing.

For example Diane Stout is the Director of Circles of Learning in Rockford Illinois. Diane could not be here today, but she wanted to share with you the success of a decade-long collaboration with the Rockford School District. Together, Circles of Learning Child Care, the Rockford Early Childhood Pre-Kindergarten program and the City of Rockford Head Start Program have been delivering a high quality early learning program to children in the greater Winnebago county area.

The school district provides an early education (04) certified teacher to Circles of Learning. The teacher then co-teaches with the child care staff to provide a full 5 hour, rather than 2½ hour school day. Because the teacher comes to the child care program, the children do not have to spend time being transported between programs and can instead experience continued quality care. The full day also enables Circles of Learning to offer a lower child staff ratio for the "Pre-K" classroom.

By collaborating with Head Start children and their parents can now access a wealth of support services such as: access to family support workers, assistance with dental and health check-ups, learning assessments, emergency assistance and support with Kindergarten transition.

Working together, these early education systems truly help children to succeed. Diane relayed an inspiring story about a boy in her Head Start program who was hearing-impaired and was in need of surgery. Neither he nor his parent spoke English and did not have access to health insurance. The Head Start nurse accompanied the family to all the doctor's appointments and to the actual surgery. Diane felt that the boy's health concern would not have been as easily identified nor have taken place without the presence of these crucial family supports available in the classroom.

Sadly, this is not the case in many areas of Illinois. Successful collaboration is possible, it takes commitment, establishing relationships and building trust between its partners. And true collaboration and integration of programs requires the support of the school community to make sure that no child is left behind.

The Day Care Action Council of Illinois urges the members of EFAB to consider all the recent research and 'best practices' that clearly tell us that early learning is worth our investment now. Otherwise, we will all be forced to pay a higher price down the road. Thank you.