Save the Date: Start Early’s Annual Luncheon 2026 Save the date for Start Early’s Annual Luncheonon June 3 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago alongside co-chairs Helen Zell and Bruce Rauner.


Join us for an inspirational program featuring a fireside chat on building a movement for early care and education with Start Early President Diana Rauner and Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and NYT best-selling author of Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age.
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Start Early’s Ireta Gasner Spoke to Smart Cities Dive About the Ruling to Pause the Freeze on Family Assistance Funds for 5 States

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced the plan to freeze $10 billion dollars of family assistance funding across five states. Smart Cities Dive spoke to Start Early Vice President of Illinois Policy Ireta Gasner on how this freeze would affect child care in Illinois. Like other states, Illinois relies on both state and federal dollars to serve families, but no single funding source is sustainable on its own. While a temporary restraining order has kept funds flowing, the looming threat is creating uncertainty for countless early childhood care programs and families.
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Thank You for Supporting Children and Families Thank you to everyone who stepped forward and donated as part of our Giving Tuesday and End of Year fundraising campaigns! Your outpouring of support was truly inspiring. 

With your donations we met our 2025 end of year goal of $50,000 and used every penny of the matching funds!


Thank you for helping us end the year on a high note and start off the new year ready to serve more children and families.








Playing—And Learning—In the Great Indoors Tips from our Experts


This past month was full of frosty temperatures across the country, but our early learning experts know how to make a rich learning experience even when the weather is bad.


Inclement weather can offer the perfect opportunity to engage in indoor activities with your children that help them build important academic and social skills; skills such as executive functions, memory, self-regulation and teamwork.
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Learn more about fun learning activities you can do with your little one.   



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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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