The U.S. Department of Education made recent technical changes reducing eligibility for the Rural and Low-Income School Program. Given smaller budgets and lower economies of scale, rural districts may be less able to absorb short-term funding cuts and experience stronger negative achievement effects. Kansas implemented a state-level finance change…

A $2.37 billion increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) provides an opportunity to address the mental health needs of young children in child care. While the CCDBG increase is the largest ever, states must navigate many legitimate and competing claims for these funds, particularly those set aside to improve quality. One…

The Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) distributes state funding for preschool and birth-to-three programs in Illinois. The authors conducted a case study in Evanston, a city in north Cook County, Illinois, interviewing community representatives and analyzing ECBG program data to discern how ECBG funds are used to provide early childhood services.…

There is growing unease about suspension and expulsion of children at the preschool level. Preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students (Gilliam, 2005). Boys--particularly African-American boys--comprise a disproportionate number of these cases, a fact that has caused concern among parents, policymakers, and advocates alike.…

This fact sheet provides demographic information for the young Dual Language Learner (DLL) population in Illinois, based on Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) data pooled over the 2011-15 period. DLLs, defined as children ages 8 and under with at least one parent who speaks a language…

This study tracks Federal block grant monies and their impact on the poor of Illinois. The hypothesis prompting the study was that the state has distributed a smaller proportion of its Federal block grant funds to those counties with the highest proportion of the state's poor as compared with the proportional distribution of Federal dollars under…

Noting that welfare reform offers new opportunities to apply dollars toward several initiatives beyond cash grants, this special report of the Voices for Illinois Children provides a detailed accounting of Illinois welfare expenditures for federal fiscal years (FFY) 1998 and 1999 and is intended to serve as a starting point toward greater clarity…

A study solicited perceptions of 60 Illinois Education for Employment (EFE) system directors regarding proposed changes in federal funding for vocational education programs; 88 percent responded. Its more specific focus was the changing role of the federal government in vocational education and the proposed federal block grant financing of…

Families undergo difficulties in trying to negotiate the labyrinth of early childhood services offered in Illinois. Because of the multiplicity of programs and scarce funding, many children and families do not receive the services they need. Coordination among programs and services is also limited. This paper offers background on how the…

It is proposed that federal block grants to Illinois be distributed to school districts according to four characteristics of those districts. Funds will be distributed inversely proportional to property valuation per pupil, directly proportional to percentage of minority children, directly proportional to percentage of poverty children (Title I…

Special population grants to Illinois public community colleges fund services, special programs, and instruction that assist academically and socially disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and minority students to succeed in college. In fiscal year 1991, grants totaling $9.7 million enabled the Illinois community colleges to provide…

Political changes underway at both the federal and state levels will dramatically affect public policies for children and their families in the years ahead. Drawing from over 550 budget line items in 10 state departments from 1990 to 1995, this report looks at spending on Illinois' children and families by program areas, with some specific…