Legislative Update: HB1312 Moves Forward

Start Early celebrates the passage of HB1312, legislation that strengthens the civil rights and safety of immigrants in our communities. This bill extends the protections that covered K-12 schools to licensed child care centers, public universities and community colleges, ensuring that immigration agents cannot enter without proper legal authority.


We commend the ILGA for taking this action to ensure our youngest learners, their families and the workforce that supports them can go about their daily learning with a sense of safety and security. The bill now awaits Governor Pritzker's signature to become law.


In these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever that we protect our most vulnerable. By working together, we can ensure Illinois remains a place where all children, in every community can thrive.
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In this linktree , you can find helpful resources including:

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A toolkit containing a collection of resources intended to support early care and learning programs in navigating immigration enforcement actions in their communities
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Resources on how to navigate difficult conversations about immigration enforcement with children
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The Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) has also put together a toolkit which provides pre-designed social media posts that agencies, schools, child care centers and community partners can share to support families during periods of community stress or ICE activity.

To learn more about your rights and how you can support your neighbors, visit
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Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (ICIRR) .










New Report from the HIHIPP Project Over the last year and a half, we have had the privilege of working alongside our partners at the
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Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness and the
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University of Illinois Chicago Center for Research on Women and Gender on the Housing Insecurity and Homelessness in Illinois Among the Pregnant and Parenting (HIHIPP) project to create an action plan for preventing and ending homelessness among expectant families and those with infants and toddlers in Illinois. Together, we convened a cross-sector group of experts, including people with lived experience of homelessness, to better understand the primary drivers of homelessness among this population and develop a strategy for addressing it.



The project now turns to implementation in the coming months as the team works together to raise awareness about prenatal-to-3 homelessness in Illinois, create a statewide prenatal-to-3 homelessness data dashboard and develop a set of innovative pilot projects in collaboration with people with lived experience of homelessness that put the HIHIPP strategic objectives into action. Now, more than ever, bold and creative approaches to addressing homelessness among expectant families and those with infants and toddlers are needed, and the HIHIPP Action Plan provides a strong foundation for meeting the moment we’re in and will help us chart a path forward through the challenges that lie ahead.

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We invite you to learn more about the project and read the full report here.







December 8-12!
Early Intervention Week of Action

Next week, we're taking action for Early Intervention (EI) as Governor Pritzker finalizes his fiscal year 2027 (FY27) Illinois State budget proposal! Throughout the week there are a variety of ways that you can take action for infants and toddlers with disabilities or delays, their families and the workforce that supports them. Here are some ways you can participate:

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Contact the Governor's Office & IDEC
- Call or email Governor Pritzker’s office and the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) urging them to include a $40M increase for EI in the FY27 budget.

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Share Your Early Intervention Story
- We’re collecting stories from families, providers, and partners to show the impact of EI—and what it means when services are delayed or unavailable. Whether you’ve had a positive EI experience or faced challenges with accessing services, your story helps decision-makers understand why investment in EI cannot wait.

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Attend an EI Families Rights & Timelines Session
- Join a virtual session co-hosted by Equip for Equality, Raising Illinois, Start Early, and Illinois Families for Early Intervention on December 10th at 6pm. Learn about state-mandated timelines for EI access, and what you can do when those timelines are not met.

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Learn more about how you can participate in the Week of Action.








Take Action!
Support Chicago’s Early Childhood System in the 2026 Budget

Chicago is home to a robust mixed-delivery system for early childhood education that allows families to choose the community- or school-based program that best meets their needs. However, limited access to these programs means that most of Chicago’s children continue to arrive at kindergarten under-prepared in math, language & literacy and social-emotional learning.


To have a meaningful, lasting impact on Chicago’s ECE system, the Mayor’s Office and City Council will need to work toward establishing a dedicated revenue source to support families with young children, the way many other cities have done. In the meantime, modest increases in City early childhood investments can make a big difference.

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Contact your alderman today and ask them to support increased investments in Chicago’s early care and education system in 2026.








New blog!
Chicago’s Youngest Learners with Disabilities Left Behind in CPS Restructuring

For many parents of children with disabilities in Chicago, the 2025–2026 school year is off to a rocky start. Staffing changes at Chicago Public Schools’ Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) have been well-documented by the media, advocates, City Council and even OSD itself through a district-wide email. What has not been widely reported is how these sweeping changes are affecting the city’s youngest learners, for whom special education and related services are critical.


The upheaval at OSD has not only destabilized existing systems but also dismantled solutions that were beginning to address long-standing barriers. For Chicago’s youngest learners with disabilities, the consequences are profound: delayed or disrupted services during a critical developmental period, and families left to navigate a fragmented process with little support. Rebuilding trust will require CPS to restore stability and expertise within OSD and revisit a model that brings services directly to where children learn and thrive. Until then, too many children risk missing the foundation they deserve for lifelong learning and inclusion.

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Read more in Senior Policy Manager Kyrsten Emanuel’s recent blog on challenges with accessing special education services for young children with disabilities in Chicago.




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Start Early advances quality early learning for families with children, before birth through their earliest years, to close the opportunity gap.

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