More than just a welcome mat

This free preschool program is working hard to make sure the poor kids who need it the most, are enrolled. These at risk children will do better in primary school if they attend preschool. - - Donna Poisl

Illinois has won national recognition for its Preschool for All program, and ranks first in the nation for providing preschool to 3-year-olds. A new agenda is now on the horizon: Find and enroll youngsters who are the most at-risk of academic failure, including children of immigrants and those who are homeless.

by Debra Williams

Finding children who need preschool the most sometimes takes more than just putting out the welcome mat. That reality is at the heart of an agenda set by the Illinois Early Learning Council, the advisory body for the state’s free universal preschool program. The goal of the agenda: Find and enroll children who are the most at-risk of academic failure and who need preschool the most, but whose families are not aware of, or are not taking advantage of, free preschool.

“The idea of ‘If you build it, they will come,’ doesn’t always work,” says Elliot Regenstein, a co-chair of the council. “We want to make sure we have reached the highest priority children first.”
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