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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

November 29, 2016

Cynthia Tate Ph.D.

Executive Director

Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development

160 N LaSalle St, Suite N-100

Chicago, IL 60601

Dear Ms. Tate,

On September 19-21, 2016, a staff member from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) 

conducted an onsite monitoring of Illinois’s Office of Early Childhood implementation of its 

approved Preschool Development Grant—Expansion Grant (PDG). This monitoring aims to 

continue the collaborative relationship that began at the grant award and development of the 

scope of work. It provides the Department with a deeper understanding of each State’s overall 

performance through the progress; success, challenges and strategies for the implementation of 

its PDG State Plan; and the fiscal management of the grant funds. It also helps us tailor the 

technical assistance to each State’s specific needs.

The site visit included presentations and discussions related to all projects in the approved scope 

of work, including Grants Management, Capacity Building and Increasing Slots, Subrecipient 

Monitoring, Professional Development, Recruitment and Targeted High Need Communities.

Enclosed is a summary report based upon this review. The report included highlights of 

Illinois’s implementation of PDG and a snapshot of Illinois’s progress under each PDG program 

element. This report builds upon the findings of monthly monitoring activities and will be 

posted on the PDG website.

We want to thank your staff for their cooperation and hospitality during the site visit, and for the 

State’s tremendous efforts in implementing early learning through the Preschool Development 

Grant—Expansion Grant. It is not necessary to provide a written response to this site visit 

report. We hope you will continue to communicate any needs or concerns to your ED/HHS 

project officer.
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We look forward to continuing our work with you and supporting Illinois to ensure successful 

implementation of PDG. Thank you for your commitment to Illinois’s youngest children.

Sincerely,

/s/

Libby Doggett

Deputy Assistant Secretary 

for Early Learning

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

U.S. Department of Education

Enclosure

PDG Site Visit Report

Monitoring Information

State Lead Agency Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development

State Participating Agency(s) Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development, 

Illinois State Board of Education,

Illinois Department of Human Services,

Department of Child and Family Services

Grant Period January 1, 2015-December 31, 2019

Current Year of Grant January 1, 2016-December 31, 2016

PDG Monitoring Period September 19th-21st, 2016

PDG Monitoring Activity (Desk 

or Onsite)

Onsite

Monitoring Review Date(s) September 19th-21st, 2016

State Participants/Project Leads Kathy Stohr, Deputy Director;

Gail Nelson, QRIS Policy Director;

Kate Ritter, Licensing and QRIS Integration Director;

Donna Nylander, QRIS Implementation Director;

Joanna Su, Community Systems Policy Director

Penny Segura, University of Chicago Public Interest 

Program Policy Fellow;

David Brown, RTT-ELC Grant Manager;
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Bryan Stokes, Preschool Expansion Policy Director;

Beth Purvis, Ed. D., Secretary of Education; 

Cindy Zumwalt, Division Administrator, Early Childhood;

Jenny, Metcalf, Principal Consultant;

Reyna Hernandez, Assistant Superintendent; and

Appropriate state staff/stakeholders as designed by state 

leadership

U.S. Department of Education 

Project Officer

Miriam Lund, Program Officer, U.S. Department of 

Education

Overview of PDG Monitoring

The Department of Education is committed to supporting States as they implement the expansion 

of high-quality preschool programs for eligible children through their PDG grant. Consistent 

with this commitment, the Department has designed a monitoring process to assess a State’s 

implementation of the program requirements and its approved Scope of Work for PDG and the 

State-level systems and processes needed to support implementation.

During the recent onsite monitoring, Illinois’ implementation of PDG was reviewed across 

several key areas which represent the core priorities for implementation as outlined in the PDG 

Monitoring Tool: Capacity Building and Increasing Slots, Subrecipient Monitoring, Birth to 

Third Grade Continuum, Budget and Sustainability, and Fiscal Accountability. In each area, the 

Department identified key elements that are required under PDG and are likely to increase the 

access to and quality of State Preschool programs and lead to increased high quality 

opportunities for young children and their families. 

Illinois was identified for a site visit based on the following factors: 

• Illinois is a PDG Expansion State and had not been visited by ED staff during the grant 

period; 

• Illinois has had multiple changes in leadership across state agencies;

• The State of Illinois has had budget issues that impacted funding levels for early learning;

and

• Illinois has dove-tailed their Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge Grant with their 

PDG grant establishing shared early learning policies and procedures. Federal staff was

interested in sharing Illinois’ best practices with the field.

 

The report contains the following sections:

• Summary of Visit. This section describes, in brief, the topics covered, the lead agency 

and subrecipients visited, as well as personnel participation in any meetings or activities.

• Highlights of the State’s Implementation. This section identifies key accomplishments 

in the State’s implementation of PDG as identified during the site visit.

• Status of Implementation of PDG. This section indicates the State’s implementation 

progress based on the monitoring and information collected.

• Elements Requiring Next Steps. This section identifies any elements for which the State 

is not on target for meeting its timelines outlined in the approved scope of work and 
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includes next steps that the State must take to meet the grant outcomes, as identified 

during the monitoring. 

• Recommendations to Strengthen Implementation. This section provides 

recommendations to support the State in continuing to meet the goals and timelines of its 

PDG grant, as identified during the monitoring.

• Additional Comment. As appropriate, this section includes any additional information 

related to the State’s implementation of PDG not included elsewhere.

Summary of Visit

The onsite monitoring was a combined Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge Grant (RTTELC) and Preschool Development – Expansion Grant (PDG) visit. The site visit was conducted 

the week of September 19- 21, 2016. Illinois wrote their PDG grant to dovetail with their RTTELC grant. 

The first day of the visit, the ED project officer discussed a variety of topics with the Governor’s 

Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD) and the Interagency Team (IAT) whose 

members include the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development, Illinois State Board of 

Education, Illinois Department of Human Services, and the Department of Child and Family 

Services. Topics pertaining to PDG implementation were discussed including programs that are 

part in the State’s Quality Rating Improvement System; the birth to third grade continuum; data;

outreach activities; teacher recruitment and the Innovation Zones where expanded high-quality 

preschool programs were targeted to serve 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families.

The second day of the visit, ED and PDG officials traveled to Springfield, Illinois to meet with

Illinois State Board of Education staff to discuss fiscal management of the grant. Accountants 

and State and federal program staff reviewed established internal controls, cash management 

policies and procedures that the State has in place to safe guard federal funds. The creation of a 

spending plan was also discussed outlining how the State intends to utilized all grant funds by 

the end of the grant period. 

On the third day, ED and the State PDG team traveled from Springfield, IL to East St. Louis to 

visit two PDG sites located in an elementary school and a community based center. Vivian 

Adams Elementary school includes one classroom serving 20 children in an inclusive preschool 

setting. Cahokia (Lighthouse Learning Center) provides space for a PDG classroom where 20

children are served. ED and Illinois PDG staff met with the local PDG officials to discuss PDG 

implementation challenges and noteworthy activities. ED officials noted that PDG personnel 

who opened classrooms in East St. Louis are dedicated to providing high-quality preschool 

programs for eligible children and the programs meet the criteria of high quality as set forth in 

the PDG notice inviting applications. One noteworthy item learned through this visit was how 

the community came together to engage families and recruit children to participate in the 

program. The various providers set aside their competing interests and put the needs of eligible 

children first.

Highlights of the State’s PDG Implementation
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• Illinois was strategic when planning their PDG grant. The grant was developed as a 

robust and comprehensive preschool Expansion program model built on their existing 

Preschool for All program and incorporate all twelve elements of a High-Quality 

Preschool Program. A particular emphasis of this model was targeting grant resources to 

support the most at-risk children and families. A weighted eligibility form was developed 

which assigned point values to risk factors as required for PDG-funded slots. Four 

factors are included—families in deep poverty (less than 50% of FPL); children with 

IEPs, children experiencing homelessness and children involved in the child welfare 

system were assigned the highest values and prioritized for immediate enrollment.

• To ensure Illinois’ subgrantees met the definition of High-Quality Preschool Program the 

State developed an addendum of the Preschool for All compliance monitoring checklist 

with twenty additional items directly addressing the twelve required elements of a HighQuality Preschool Program and elements from the State’s submitted and approved 

application. The checklist is used with the ECERS assessment tool by the State’s 

monitoring contractor to assess program compliance and quality during monitoring visits. 

The State also contracted with a technical assistance contractor, the Early Childhood 

Center for Professional Development to implement a support program. Technical 

assistance and administrative staff training are provided at the program-level and 

incorporate two primary components: a Program Support Specialist assigned to each 

program to support administrators in building strong systems to support quality and 

development of trainings resources to support comprehensive services and instructional 

leadership. 

• For State fiscal year 2016, 740 of Illinois’ 3,200 funded slots were improved and the 

others were new. Improved programs converted partial-day program slots into full-day 

slots and included additional PDG required elements to their programs, such as 

comprehensive services to families, instructional leadership and staff salary parity. 

Through this process these 740 slots were improved to full compliance. The remaining 

2,460 slots were implemented as new slots designed to meet all twelve quality elements.

• Illinois hired parent educators at a ratio of one per 100 children. These parent educators 

serve as dedicated family support and engagement staff whose roles include supporting 

the development of community partnerships for the benefit of families and acting as a 

link between families and schools. Successful implementation of comprehensive services 

for families in Illinois’ model includes:

o Ensuring that each family has a medical and dental home. Ensuring that each 

child has a medical, dental and social-emotional screening.

o Conducting a comprehensive assessment of the needs of each family and assisting 

families in setting and achieving ambitious goals.

o Actively referring families to community resources through established relations 

and clearly defined referral processes.

Status of Implementation of PDG 

In the onsite monitoring the Department used a monitoring and accountability rubric to help 

determine progress of the State’s implementation. The rubric includes three implementation 

status levels: 
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• Level 1 – Developing: the State is in the process of developing this activity, or the 

activity is very new. The State may be facing challenges in implementation, roll-out, or 

communications with subrecipients and other stakeholders. 

• Level 2 – Implementing: the State has developed and implemented the activity, although 

the activity might still benefit from adjustments, training, or communications with 

subrecipients and other stakeholders. 

• Level 3 – Sustaining & Continuing Improvement: the activity is well-established in the 

State, and may be undergoing a process of evaluation or program improvement. 

Subrecipients, stakeholders and users have been trained and/or communications strategies 

have been established.
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Element Status

Capacity Building and Increasing Slots

The State public awareness and recruitment 

activities are targeted towards eligible 4 year 

old children in high need communities and 

families 200 percent below poverty. 

Level 2-Implementing

The State’s expansion efforts are targeted 

towards increasing the access to high quality 

preschool programs for 4 year olds.

Level 2-Implementing

The State has a plan to ensure that existing 

State Preschool slots met the twelve 

standards of a High Quality Preschool 

Program under the PDG funding. 

Level 2-Implementing

Subrecipient Monitoring

The State Lead Agency has a process to 

monitor grant and sub-recipients activities to 

ensure implementation of the goals and 

performance measures outlined in the 

approved PDG State Plan. 

Level 2-Implementing

The State is on schedule with its monitoring 

of subrecipients to ensure that all of the high 

quality standards for Preschool are met 

within PDG funded preschool classrooms.

Level 2-Implementing

 

The State is providing access to 

comprehensive services to all children 

enrolled in the PDG funded preschool 

classrooms.

Level 2-Implementing

Birth to Third Grade Continuum

The State has aligned the PDG funded 

program within the Birth to Third Grade 

Continuum of early learning standards and 

activities that help prepare children for 

kindergarten thru third grade. 

Level 2-Implementing

The State is implementing a data collection 

system for tracking student outcomes from 

prekindergarten to kindergarten entry 

through third grade.

Level 2-Implementing

The State is implementing a transition 

protocol to ensure that children transitioning 

from early care and education environments 

to kindergarten to third grade settings receive 

the supports necessary for a smooth 

transition.

Level 1-Developing

Budget and Sustainability

The State has policies and procedures to 

track the State and Subrecipient budget 

activities to ensure that funds are expanded 

according to State, Local and Federal 

procurement laws.

Level 2-Implementing
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Elements Requiring Next Steps: 

• While Illinois has an overall attendance rate of 84% for their twenty-five subgrantee sites 

there are a four programs below 70 percent attendance rates needing additional supports 

from the parent educators. And even and 84% rate is low with children missing at least 

one day every two weeks. Overall Illinois is working to address chronic absenteeism 

through the creation of the Illinois Attendance Commission. PDG subgrantees have and 

continue to develop and refine plans for resolving attendance challenges however, intense 

support may need to be provided to One Hope United, Children’s Home and Aid, North 

Chicago SD 187 and the City of Rockford-Department of Human Services (Head Start) 

to identify reasons for and address core causes of their chronic absenteeism.

The State has in place a system to track the 

“use of funds” under the PDG grant. 

Level 2-Implementing

 

The State has a plan to ensure that High 

Quality State Preschool Programs will 

remain of high quality after federal funds are 

no longer available. 

Level 1-Developing

Fiscal Accountability

The State has policies and procedures in 

place to ensure the grant funds are expended 

according to the federal laws outlined in the 

federal Super Circular and EDGAR.

Level 2-Implementing

 

The State has a system in place to ensure that 

its Subrecipients are meeting the federal laws 

of the Super Circular and comply with the 

“supplement not supplant” requirements. 

Level 2-Implementing