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Research in Child Care and Early Learning
Exploring the child care and early learning experiences of Illinois’ families and care providers.
NEW Report
2026 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, and an overview of parents’ experience searching for care. For a more comprehensive analysis of child care trends in Cook County see our previous 2025 report.
NEW Report
Child Care During Nontraditional Hours
Many families need child care during nontraditional hours due to their work schedules, yet little is known about the providers who offer this type of care. Our report series summarizes learnings from our Spring 2024 survey of child care providers who do and do not offer this care in Illinois. Our three-report series highlight the unique experiences, practices, and characteristics of providers who offer this care, and ways programs and policies can better support providers to increase the supply of this care.
FEATURED REPORT
Uncovering Illinois Providers’ and Families’ Experiences
For the last several decades, researchers at Illinois Action for Children have elevated the experiences and voices of caregivers and early childhood providers in Illinois.
By pioneering the use of research tools, we’ve directly contributed to new understandings in the child care and education field — on the impact of COVID; family, friend and neighbor (FFN) child care; and systemic bias and inequities — while driving policy change at the state level.
new Report
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.
Our annual report is a rich source of data on child care in Cook County. It includes analyses related to the supply of child care, cost of care and families’ experiences in finding care. This year’s report includes relevant findings from IAFC’s latest studies on child care during nontraditional hours and for children with disabilities, as well as from our Illinois Parent Survey.
Featured report
Exploring the Impact of Systemic Bias and Inequity
We have broken down the impacts of Illinois early learning programs and policy by race and ethnicity, region, and ages of children involved, identifying the impact of systemic bias on young children and families in Illinois.
Thousands of provider and family voices included in our research — and counting.
