Leaders in early childhood education gathered Wednesday for the second annual “State of Early Childhood” panel, hosted by Evanston Cradle to Career at the Robert Crown Community Center.

Kimberly Holmes-Ross, executive director of Evanston Cradle to Career, moderated a discussion that included two Illinois state officials and two Evanston leaders.

Representatives from the state level were Nancy Huynh, senior government affairs manager at the Office of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and Paige Greenwood, director of family engagement at the Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

The department was approved in 2024 through passage of Senate Bill 1, which established “the framework for consolidating early childhood programs into a single agency,” according to the Civic Federation.

Evanston representatives were Jesse Rojo, executive director for the Evanston Early Childhood Council, and Ricardo Villalobos of Evanston Latinos. Evanston/Skokie District 65 Superintendent Angel Turner and Evanston District 202 Superintendent Marcus Campbell attended, but did not sit on the panel.

Holmes-Ross asked Huynh and Greenwood what changes to the political landscape have had the biggest impact on families with young children.

Huynh said that uncertainty about which programs are funded and available has been a huge barrier. Greenwood agreed, adding that “some families do not want to come to the table and talk about what they’re experiencing because they’re afraid of repercussions.”

She pointed to efforts at the state level to keep early childhood programs accessible.

“Illinois has definitely stood 10 toes down on ensuring that we keep things moving as usual, even with a lot of the uncertainty,” Greenwood said.

Holmes-Ross turned to Rojo and Villalobos to ask about the biggest problems facing children and families in Evanston specifically. Rojo said that it’s a matter of trust.

“One thing that we’re seeing is the distrust that people are seeing — for anything with regard to public institutions, from federal government to state, to local — this distrust is growing and in and of itself becoming a barrier to accessing services,” Rojo said. “And that includes early child childhood services, because guess what? You really, really care about your kid, you want to trust the center, you want to trust the system, but when the world’s on fire, it’s hard to trust.”

Villalobos expanded on that idea, talking about the impact that the immigration enforcement crackdown “Operation Midway Blitz” had on local communities.

“What has happened over the last year, will have an everlasting impact on much of our immigrant community here and across the country,” Villalobos said. There is a lot of isolation among immigrants in the community right now, Villalobos continued, as many adults do not feel safe going to work or driving their children to school. That has a big psychological impact on children and their families, he said.

When asked what state policies are currently shaping early childcare across Illinois, Greenwood said her office is working to create a unified data system to track participation and streamline services.

Huynh also emphasized the importance of community feedback. She said the state is constantly soliciting feedback from families and providers — be that feedback positive or negative.

“The more feedback we get, the better the operation part is going to look like,” Huynh said. “And there are real dollars that are going towards this to ensure that we do the right things, but we need to hear from you all.”

Villalobos said that Latino and Black communities are often “isolated” from discussions about systems and policy changes.

The state, Greenwood said, is working to change that with the creation of the Department of Early Childhood, by shifting to a bottom-up dynamic.