Students are pictured at a Rochester Elementary School pre-K classroom. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)
Seats made available for low-income families through ‘Smart Start’ program
By Jade Aubrey and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)
Over 5,000 preschool seats have opened for low-income families in Illinois through Smart Start Illinois in the past year.
Smart Start Illinois is an initiative of Gov. JB Pritzker that’s designed to expand publicly funded preschool programs and increase the number of preschool seats available to 80% of all working families in Illinois. Lawmakers first approved the program in 2023.
Since then, the state has added 11,000 seats.
“Every Illinois child deserves our full investment starting in their earliest years,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Smart Start Illinois will put our children on the path to growth and opportunity while making our communities stronger, healthier, and more connected.”
The initiative includes the Early Childhood Block Grant, which is distributed by the Illinois State Board of Education.
The block grant allocated $32.2 million for the 2025 fiscal year to 91 grantees. That funding is serving 4,008 children in half-day preschool and 1,142 in full-day preschool, as well as providing support services for 512 children under the age of 3.
“When we educate our children, we set off a domino effect – education leads to opportunity which leads to prosperity which leads to stability,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a statement. “That’s why Smart Start Illinois remains a priority in our administration.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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