Presentation to the District 200
Board of Education
January 24, 2013
Reminder About the Collaboration’s Beginnings
• Public/Private Partnership initiated in 2002 when all six of
Oak Park's governmental agencies joined in discussions to
initiate and promote the Collaboration for Early Childhood.
• Established in 2003 as a nonprofit organization, the
Collaboration became a unique public/private partnership in
which all of the governmental agencies contribute financially
and participate through staff and/or board involvement.
• Partners include:
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Village, D97, D200, Township, Park District, Library
Concordia, Triton
Children’s Clinic, Parenthesis, Oak-Leyden
Child care centers, preschools, home child care providers
Why Address Early Childhood
•85 -90% of brain development occurs by age 5
•By age five, a child from a low-income home has had 25 million fewer words
addressed to him or her than a child from a professional family
•2/3 of the achievement gap is already evident when children walk through
the door on their first day of kindergarten.
•There are lasting benefits for all students in K-12 classrooms from better
educational productivity when all students are ready to succeed and eager to
learn.
The early childhood sector is deeply fragmented, of wide ranging quality and
in Oak Park and River Forest it is segregated based on ability to pay.
High Quality Early Learning Programs Help
High School Students Succeed
• Non-cognitive skills: curiosity, ability to defer gratification,
grit, persistence, self-confidence, ability to work with others
• Cognitive skills: narrowing of learning disparities, higher
motivation, higher achievement
• Positive peer effects benefit all students
(Belfield 2010, Heckman 2010)
High Quality Early Learning Programs Help
Reduce Costs in High School
 Lower expenditures for special education
 Lower expenditures on student discipline and behavior
intervention (including those for substance use and abuse)
 Lower expenditures for security
 Lower expenditures for remediation and grade repetition
Early Experiences Make a Critical Difference
These statements are based on the following long-term, rigorous
studies:
•2005 RAND Corporation monograph, Early Childhood Interventions: Proven
Results, Future Promise
•High/Scope Perry Preschool Project: IQ, Achievement Test Scores; Special
Education; Teen Pregnancy; Arrests; High School Graduation; Use of Social
Services (as adults); Arrests, Arrests for Violent Crimes, Time in Prison/Jail;
Employment, Earnings Income
•Carolina Abecedarian Project: IQ, Achievement Test Scores; Special
Education, Grade Retention; Years of Completed Schooling, Ever Attended
Four Year College; Skilled Employment
•Chicago Child-Parent Centers: Achievement Test Scores; Social Competence;
Special Education, Grade Retention; High School Graduation, Highest Grade
Completed; Child Abuse; Delinquency; Arrests, Arrests for Violent Crimes
A Snapshot of Oak Park and River Forest
Children Birth Through Age 5
• There are 5,400 children in Oak Park and
River Forest under kindergarten age.
• 800 children are at-risk of school failure due
to family income, special needs, or other
factors.
• 70% of children under kindergarten age live
in families with all parents working.
• There is a lack of services for infants,
toddlers, and their families.
• 95 % of families use some form of non
parental care; many families use a
patchwork of care.
• Parents at all income levels report feelings
of isolation and stress when seeking to
locate early childhood services.
Vision: Children arrive at kindergarten safe, healthy,
ready to succeed and eager to learn
Every child has
access to high
quality early care
and education
All parents have
the information
and support they
need in their role
as a child’s first and
most important
teacher
The most at-risk
children and their
families receive
intensive services to
ensure healthy
development and
school readiness
Early Experiences Make a Critical Difference
Research on the efficacy of Parents as Teachers™ by Dr. Edward Zigler of Yale
shows that a large percentage (82%) of children from low-income families
who participated with high intensity in both Parents as Teachers and high
quality preschool entered kindergarten ready to learn, as compared to only
64% of poor children who had no involvement in either service.
A similar pattern emerged for more affluent children (93% vs. 81%)
demonstrating the benefits of sustained early learning programs to all
children.
Benchmarks for Success
• Child Outcomes: Every child arrives at
kindergarten safe, healthy, ready to
succeed and eager to learn
• Service Delivery Outcomes: Parents
and children receive the early
childhood care and education and
parenting education and support
services they need
• System Outcomes: Oak Park has a
high quality, coordinated early
childhood system
Current Funding Landscape
Due to state fiscal woes and changes in grant making
priorities of regional foundations that have provided
funding in the past, Oak Park is unable to garner significant
operating support from outside sources.
Viable funding streams identified in 2009 to support the full
implementation of the Collaboration’s strategic plan are no longer
available.
Working Concept for Intergovernmental Cooperation
District 97, District 200 and the
Village of Oak Park enter into an
Intergovernmental Agreement for
the provision and funding of the
comprehensive, integrated system
of early childhood programs and
services articulated in the Strategic
Plan of 2009.
The 3 jurisdictions would then
execute a contract for services with
the Collaboration to establish the
comprehensive system.
Working Concepts for Sustainable Funding
•The working group examined different phase-in scenarios and identified a 3-year
ramp up to full implementation as the preferable option.
• Total cost for the system comes in around $1.5 million. The cost supported by the
jurisdictions will be less due to the commitment to continue to seek increasing
private funding to help shore up the budget.
•The group currently recommends establishing funding amounts based on
proportionate share of each of the three jurisdictions’ combined expense budget
for 2012 primary operating funds (education funds for the school districts and
general fund less pension obligations for the Village). The projected cost to District
200 for the first year of implementation is $216,208. The ratios for the
proportionate share are as follows: .39 District 97, .34 District 200 and .27 Village.
The working group was pleased with this outcome.
•At full implementation, in fiscal year 2016 the cost will be less than 1% of the
education fund expenses for District 200’s fiscal year 2012.
•The group has also discussed making sure that the costs do not increase
dramatically over time and is looking at a cap — one tied to the PTEL law (CPI or
5% whichever is lower) is the one currently under discussion.
Status of Discussions
The Village District 97 affirmed a Resolution of
Intent to work with other governing
jurisdictions to develop and put forward for
adoption an Intergovernmental Agreement to
establish a comprehensive, fully integrated early
childhood system of high-quality programs and
services that foster physical, cognitive, and
social-emotional development as contemplated
in the strategic plan of 2009.
The Village has placed the first six months of the
phase- in costs in its budget and District 97 has
directed the Superintendent to identify
strategies for including the funding in its FY
2014 budget.
Oak Park’s Investment Gap
Source: Heckman 2008
“The real question is how to use
available funds wisely. The best
evidence supports the policy
prescription: invest in the very
young”.
James Heckman, University of Chicago Professor of Economics,
Nobel Prize winner, 2000.