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2008 STATE LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

I.       Provide All Families Access to Quality Early Learning Programs Proven to Cut Crime.  A wide body of research from some of our most esteemed academic institutions tells us that expanding these investments will significantly cut the numbers of kids who grow up to become criminals.  We have made good progress in Illinois and these proposals will keep us moving forward. 2008 (FY09) Policy Recommendations:
            A. Increase the FY 09 Early Childhood Education Block Grant appropriation by at least $60 million to $408 million to provide for both expanded access and quality enhancements in the Illinois State Board of Education pre-kindergarten program.  This increase would serve about 15,000 new three- and four-year-olds and allow us to remain on target with the Preschool for All implementation plan. 
           B. Support continued improvements in the child care assistance program for working families.  Our goals in supporting these improvements are to stabilize child care access and quality for children of low-income families.  This will help to preserve parents’ choice of a variety of quality care settings for their youngsters – both home-based and center-based care. FY09 Cost: still being finalized but the estimated range is $15 to $45 million.
            C. Re-authorize the Preschool for All legislation (removal of the sunset). As is common with new initiatives, the Preschool for All legislation contained a sunset provision of June 30, 2008.  Legislation needs to pass to remove the sunset provision. We urge continued bi-partisan support for this important initiative and goal to provide the opportunity to enroll in a quality preschool program for all Illinois families.

II.       Reinforce the Role of Parents As Their Child’s First Teacher 
Without the support of extended families and robust communities, many new and expecting parents feel isolated and unprepared even though they are their children’s most important teachers.  Low-income parents, particularly, face hurdles just to provide the necessities of life for their children.  There are a number of model programs that provide voluntary intensive home-visiting and parent education.  Reaching more at-risk families with these proven programs can cut child abuse and neglect significantly.
      A. Prevent child abuse and neglect and help more parents to promote healthy child development and nurture social-emotional development—key components of early learning—by increasing funding for evidenced based intensive home visiting program in the Illinois Department of Human Services.  FY 2009 budget request:  Increase appropriation by $10 million.
      B. Support increase in the birth to three set aside to 20 percent under Illinois’ Preschool for All initiative as the means to significantly decrease child abuse and neglect and increase home visiting programs. The current birth to three set aside of 11 percent of the Early Childhood Block Grant is inadequate to fund the programs Illinois needs.  This year 145 programs applied and only six could be funded with the resources available.  We urge support for legislation setting a goal to increase the set-aside to 20% of the Early Childhood Block Grant by FY 2014.

III. Identify and Help Troubled Kids Early on to Get Back on Track.
Today in Illinois there is a problem with disastrous consequences for public safety, about 3,000 juveniles are committed to a state facility every year and, after they are released, 73% of them are arrested again within two years.  Fifty-seven per cent of them wind up right behind those same bars within three years.  The good news is that there are many evidence-based approaches that can reduce rearrests of juveniles, increase public safety, and save money.  2008 (FY09) Policy Recommendations:
      A. Support the New Department of Juvenile Justice.
      1. Allocate approximately $7.4 million to allow the new department to hire aftercare (parole) workers dedicated to young offenders.  This funding level should be sufficient to hire 74 aftercare workers, one for every 24 of the 1,800 youth who are on parole at any given time in Illinois.
      2. Support implementation of the recommendations detailed in the DJJ funded consultants report.  We urge that the final report be made public soon and also urge that the Governor and the General Assembly adopt a timeline for implementation of the recommendations. 
      3. Appoint a permanent director be for the Department of Juvenile Justice.  The current “acting director” operates with one hand tied behind his back.  Without a permanent director little progress will be made to transform the current system.
      B. Community-based interventions with troubled youth.   Effective community-based interventions are essential if we are to turn the lives of troubled youth around.  The following are the interventions we are monitoring and working to improve, because of the promise they show:
      1. Redeploy Illinois –Support expansion to more counties and high quality programming.  Redeploy Illinois gives counties funds they can use for intensive community based interventions with troubled youth that they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Assuring High Quality.   We urge the administrators of Redeploy to collect the data needed to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness and continue to urge that preference be given to evidence-based programs.

Funding.  We support an increase in the FY09 budget for Redeploy Illinois in the Illinois Department of Human Services.  The increase should be enough to bring on at least 2 additional sites, make it possible to market the program to counties throughout the state, and put in place effective evaluation systems. 

      2. Other community-based interventions with troubled youth.  In addition to Redeploy, the following are community-based interventions that we believe deserve continued funding in FY 2008:
(1) Mental Health Juvenile Justice (MHJJ) Initiative within the Division of Mental Health, Illinois Department of Human Services, (2) local efforts to reduce the use of secure detention for youth who do not pose a serious risk to their communities (including the Juvenile Detentions Alternative Initiative), (3) Youth Courts, and (4) the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership.

IV.      Shut down “Prime Time for Juvenile Crime” by assuring families access to youth development programs for the after-school and summer hours. Research and evaluation across the country show that quality youth development programs can cut crime immediately and transform the Prime Time for Juvenile Crime (3:00 to 6:00 PM) into hours of constructive activities that teach youngsters the values and skills they need to become good neighbors and responsible adults.  2008 (FY09) Policy Recommendations: 

     A. Significantly Increase the Line Item for the Teen REACH program to begin making a dent in the tremendous unmet need around the state for quality after-school opportunities for our school age children.  A significant increase would be in the range of $10 million in addition to the current $19 million line item. 

     B. Preserve the $5.1 million in funding for and assure quality of the programs that received grants through the Illinois State Board of Education After-School Programs, Mentoring, and Student Support line item.  These dollars enabled legislators to fund needed after-school programs in their districts. While much of ISBE funds have gone to deserving programs, because there have not been adequate safeguards in place, in the past funds have also been distributed to programs of questionable quality.  In FY 2009 the legislature should assure that all after school programs receiving state funding meet high standards of effectiveness.