Research Reports

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Child Care for Children with Disabilities

How well is our child care system supporting children with disabilities? Our report series tries to answer this question by presenting the experiences of Chicago-area families and child care providers surveyed in Summer 2023. The findings point to ways we can strengthen our child care system so all children can access quality care regardless of their abilities.

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Annual Report on Child Care in Cook County

This brief version of our annual report offers a snapshot of the child care slots and price of care across Cook County regions. For a more comprehensive analysis of child care trends in Cook County see our previous 2023 report.

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Expanding Illinois Child Care Assistance to Job and School Search: Experiences of Cook County Parents (2023)

Unemployed parents/guardians of young children in Illinois face a dilemma: they can’t look for a job without child care, but can’t afford child care without a job. Fortunately, in 2021, a temporary policy was put in place to assist parents/guardians with the cost of care while they look for work or enroll in school. The report assesses the impact of this policy on parents/guardians who received assistance.

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Elevating Parent Voices: An Evaluation of the Family Advisory Committee of the Illinois Early Learning Council in Year Two (2023)

The Family Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Early Learning Council is Illinois’ first permanent advisory body of parents focusing on early childhood programming and policy. In 2022, we interviewed parent-members of the FAC and stakeholders who helped found the group in order to evaluate the successes and challenges of the group’s first two years and recommend actions for improving its role.

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