In October, Gov. JB Pritzker announced an ambitious plan to unify all of Illinois’ early childhood programs and funding into a single agency. Agency unification is another step toward Gov. Pritzker’s goal of making Illinois the best state in the nation for families raising young children.

I’m proud to have been appointed to the 18-member Early Childhood Education and Care Transition Advisory Committee that will collaboratively guide this transition over the next two years and help Illinois to be more equitable, efficient, and effective with state resources. I’m there to advocate for our employees, the people we support, the communities we serve, and the solutions we champion by giving voice to more than 250 SAL employees, more than 800 children that we serve daily, countless families in our region that depend on accessible, high-quality child care, and the early childhood education and child care providers who make that care possible.

The current Illinois early childhood system is complex and difficult to navigate for families and early care and education providers with different eligibility requirements and multiple monitoring and compliance policies across three different Illinois agencies: Illinois Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and Illinois Department of Child and Family Services. Our families and early childhood educators bear this burden while balancing the demands of everyday life.

Voting YES to create the Department of Early Childhood Action will enhance services to families and early education and care providers by building a comprehensive and streamlined system. It will also center racial equity and provide resources for data collection and timely public reporting.

The Illinois General Assembly has an easy decision to make. Let’s urge them to approve a new Department of Early Childhood so that our state’s youngest children finally come first.