| Overview | Health and Nutrition |
State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America's youngest citizens. This profile highlights Illinois's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
Trends1
In 2007-08, Illinois maintained access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance for every child; and access to Medicaid for working parents earning up to 191 percent of the federal poverty level. Access to child care subsidies remains limited to families earning at or below 185 percent of poverty.
Recent Developments1
During the 2006 legislative session, Illinois became the first state to include 3-year-olds in their efforts to provide access to preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds whose families choose to participate. The Early Childhood Block Grant grew by $45 million in fiscal year 2007, and by an additional $30 million in fiscal year 2008, for a total of $348 million, with an 11 percent set-aside ($38.3 million) for child development programs serving at-risk children from birth to age 3. Over the past two fiscal years, Illinois also added $37 million to raise child care reimbursement rates, $13 million for Early Intervention services to support services to infants and toddlers with developmental delays or at risk of delay, and $6 million to expand mental health services for children ages birth to 18.
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: July 23, 2008
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- The trends and recent developments come from personal communications with state advocates, administrators, and policymakers. The following publications were also consulted:
Donna Cohen Ross, Aleya Horn, and Caryn Marks, Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2008, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2008 http://www.kff.org (accessed April 11, 2008).
W. Steven Barnett, Jason Hustedt, Allison Friedman, Judi Stevenson Boyd, and Pat Ainsworth, The State of Preschool 2007, National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007.
Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
National Center for Children in Poverty, Map and Track State Initiatives for Young Children and Families, 2000 Edition, 2000
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2005, June 2006
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2006, unpublished draft
National Governors Association, Front and Center education articles, 2006, http://www.nga.org
ZERO TO THREE, The Baby Monitor, 2006 Policy and Advocacy News Archive, http://www.zerotothree.org - State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2005, 2006, and 2007, representing information from calendar years 2004, 2005, and 2006. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2007 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2006 American Community Survey.