Many children experience lasting benefits from attending quality preschools, evident in stronger pre-literacy and social skills at school entry. These gains are larger for children raised in low-income homes, as well as for Latino youngsters from middle-class homes. This is likely due to exposure to rich language and engaging learning tasks in preschool classrooms, and to children's gains in self-confidence--especially for those from non-English speaking families. Yet, cognitive and language development slows for many Latino children by age three, relative to (non-Latino) White peers. The resulting gaps are firmly in place between the two groups as they enter kindergarten, setting them on diverging paths through school and, eventually, in the job market. Access to quality preschool could help to prevent these early--and persisting--gaps in the learning and development of Latino children. This brief details how Latino families in Illinois face limited access to preschool, compared to families in other ethnic communities. (Contains 2 figures, 2 maps, and 6 footnotes.)