GRANTEE ABSTRACT 

Illinois
 

Overview 

Illinois proposes to expand High Quality 

Preschool to reach an additional 13,760 Eligible 

Children by the end of 2018 through a new 

program option in its Preschool for All statefunded preschool program. 

Project Objectives and Activities 

Dubbed “More at Four,” this new program 

option builds upon the existing quality 

components of Preschool for All including: 

•	 teacher with Professional Educator 

License with Early Childhood 

Endorsement and Special Education, 

Bilingual and/or English as a Second 

Language Endorsement as indicated by 

population served; 

•	 aide with endorsement as 

Paraprofessional Educator; class size of 

no more than 20 children; 

•	 curriculum and assessment system 

aligned with Illinois Early Learning and 

Development Standards; 

•	 inclusion of children with disabilities; 

•	 provision of snacks and meals as 

appropriate for program length; parent 

education and engagement services; 

•	 and comprehensive developmental and 

health screening 

by adding requirements that these programs 

provide: 

•	 a full school day of instruction; 

•	 Comprehensive Services, including 

connections to health, mental health, 

dental and social services; 

•	 intensive parent engagement services; 

•	 universal and targeted supports for 

positive behavioral and social-emotional 

development; 

•	 at least 60 minutes per day of physical 

activity; 

•	 and instructional leaders (master 

teachers, curriculum coordinators, or 

Lead Agency 

Illinois Office of the Governor – Office of 

Early Childhood Development 

Year 1 Federal Award Amount 

$20,000,000 

Plan Period 

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018 

Preschool Development Grants will support
 

states to build, develop, and expand voluntary,
 

high-quality preschool programs for children from
 

low- and moderate-income families.
 

There are two types of grants.
 

Development Grants: For states that 

currently serve less than 10 percent of fouryear-olds and have not received a Race to 

the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC) grant 

Expansion Grants: For states that currently 

serve 10 percent or more of four-year-olds or 

have received a Race to the Top – Early 

Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant 

This abstract was submitted as part of Illinois’ Preschool Development Grant Application. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EXPANSION GRANTEE: ILLINOIS
 

•	 education coordinators) with specific 

early childhood expertise and expertise 

in serving culturally, linguistically and 

ability diverse children, in a ratio of no 

more than one per ten classrooms to 

focus on providing high quality 

embedded professional development to 

teachers. 

The More at Four program option has been 

designed specifically to address the needs of 

children with highest needs, including children 

in poverty or deep poverty, those who are 

homeless or involved with the child welfare 

system, and those who have multiple other 

significant risk factors such as parents who 

themselves have low education or a disability. 

Communities will be supported in identifying 

such children early—at or even before birth— 

and developing continuous “pipelines” of high 

quality services for these children from birth 

through early elementary school. Illinois will 

invest in developing a regional support structure 

for local community collaborations; these 

collaborations will focus on ensuring children 

with high needs receive continuous, high quality 

services. 

The State will also support a Preschool to Third 

Grade Continuity Project in collaboration with a 

state university to support alignment and 

integration of curriculum and comprehensive 

services among preschool providers and K-3 

schools in the Selected Communities. The 

State will expand its PFA monitoring, 

professional development, and coaching 

programs to accommodate the growth in PFA 

services, and will conduct an evaluation of the 

More at Four program options. All More at Four 

programs will participate in ExceleRate Illinois, 

the State’s Quality Rating and Improvement 

System. 

The State will contribute approximately $128 

Million over four years as matching funds for 

the project as part of the State’s overall Birth 

to Five Initiative. 

Addison 

Aurora 

Bolingbrook 

Carpentersville 

Cicero 

City of Chicago 

Decatur 

Elgin 

Joliet 

High Need Communities to be served 

under Illinois’ Plan 

Mount Vernon 

Normal 

North Chicago 

Quad Cities 

Rockford 

South Suburbs 

St. Clair County 

West Chicago 

Wheaton/Warrenville 

This abstract was submitted as part of Illinois’ Preschool Development Grant Application. 

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