AGENDA and MINUTES - Pillar 1 subcommittee meeting, August 14, 2024

Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Subcommittee on Pillar 1: Ensure IL is Best in Nation for Raising Families

Wednesday, August 14, 2024, 3:00-4:00 PM

Recording

Members:

Appointment Member Affiliation
Chair Sophie Milam VP of Policy and Advocacy, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Commission Member Representative Jeff Keicher Illinois State Representative
Commission Member Senator Kimberly Lightford Illinois Senator
Commission Member Audra Wilson President and CEO Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Commission Member Annie Hewitt Office of Senator Neil Anderson
IWGP Member Tyler Bohannon Illinois Department of Agriculture
IWGP Member Jennifer Saba Chief Education Officer - Operations, ISBE
IDHS SME Stephanie Bess Associate Director, Office of Family Wellness, FCS
IDHS SME Lisa Cohen Program Manager, SUPR
IDHS SME Patricia Rooney Associate Director of Child Care, DEC

Administrator: Priya Khatkhate, IDHS-Chief Policy Officer

Facilitators:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)
  2. Kaitlin Devaney - IRRPP
  3. Nancy Toure - IRRPP

Agenda:

  1. Welcome/Roll Call
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance
  3. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 28, 2024 and May 9, 2024
  4. FY24 Recap
  5. Presentation: Bryan Preston, Illinois Early Childhood Access Map (IECAM)
  6. Presentation: ISBE update on Breakfast After the Bell initiative
  7. Development/Review of FY25 Goals
  8. Next Steps
  9. Adjournment

Minutes

Subcommittee members in attendance:

  1. Sophie Milam - Chairperson
  2. Annie Hewitt - Commission member
  3. Audra Wilson - Commission member
  4. Kimberly Tate - representing Senator Kimberly Lightford (Commission member)
  5. Jennifer Saba - IWGP member
  6. Jeff Peddycoart - IDHS-SME (representing Stephanie Bess)

Administrator: Priya Khatkhate, IDHS-Chief Policy Officer

Facilitators/Guests:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)
  2. Kaitlin Devaney - IRRPP
  3. Bryan Preston - Illinois Early Childhood Asset Map (IECAM)
  4. Mark Haller - Director of Nutrition, Representing ISBE
  5. Dr. Tiffany Burnett - Representing ISBE

Minutes:

  1. Welcome/Roll Call - members and guests introduced themselves in the chat. Six members were present out of 10. Quorum was declared.
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance; none received.
  3. Approval of Meeting Minutes - February 28, 2024 and May 9, 2024; Chair Milam moved to approve the minutes seconded by Kim Tate. The group unanimously approved the February 28th and May 9th meeting minutes.
  4. Presentation: Bryan Preston, Illinois Early Childhood Access Map (IECAM)
    • The IECAM map answers Pillar 4's goal 1 which is to create a statewide map of childcare availability and their services along with a map of the regional demand and comprehensively analyze those maps to identify the highest needs areas with the largest service gaps.
    • The map shows slot gaps which are areas where there are needs for early childhood services especially childcare and preschool. Illinois Child Care and Education Slot Gap _counties (arcgis.com)
    • Dawn Thomas and Bryan from IECAM with Pillar 4 members discussed how to define "need" and "supply".
    • The need for childcare was defined as the children living in households below 200% FPL which are estimates derived from Census data. There are three age groups: ages 2 and under, ages 3 through 5 and ages 6 through 12.
    • Supply was defined as the affordable, available slots or capacity of various preschool, head start and childcare programs. These include independent childcare providers, licensed childcare centers, family childcare homes as well as license-exempt but limited to those who are willing to accept subsidy from the State i.e. willing to accept lower-income children/clients who receive childcare subsidy or the CCAP.
    • On the map, the orange color indicates there is more potential need, the darker the orange, the higher the need. Blue indicates plenty of supply with a possibility of too much supply.
    • Bryan cautioned the group to not look at the map as authoritative, that it should prompt questions instead and inspire deeper inquiry to understand the context better.
    • Another caveat is that the data do not account for families that cross county borders to get childcare e.g. many families in DuPage County may get childcare near the parents' workplace which is in Cook County or vice-versa.
    • Bryan shared another reference map from IECAM which is the Early Care and Education Services Map Early Care and Education Services Map for Illinois | IECAM
    • No further conclusions or specific reports have been drawn yet from the maps.
    • Matthew shared Pillar 4's goal on childcare for FY25 which is to create an in-depth report of existing and affordable childcare as well as school-based programs in Illinois. The IECAM map will be used in working toward this goal especially on identifying geographical gaps, potential gaps on programs for each age group, which age group have before and after school programs and potential gaps that exist which may hinder employment for those who work evenings, weekends and/or overnight jobs. This Pillar 4 goal also answers Pillar 1's focus area which is to ensure access to high-quality early childhood services.
  5. Presentation: ISBE update on Breakfast After the Bell initiative
    • Under the focus area on expanding access to free and reduced school meals, one of the pieces of legislation that was approved and funded from the last session would create competitive grants for ISBE to support school districts and start/expand Breakfast After the Bell according to Chair Milam.
    • Mark Haller, Director of Nutrition at ISBE discussed the Breakfast After the Bell Program at ISBE
    • Public Act 99-0850 requires every public school in which at least 70 percent of the students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in October of the preceding year* must operate a breakfast after the bell program.
    • As of recently, there are 2200 schools that meet this criteria and should be implementing the program.
    • ISBE is currently working to implement the newly passed grant which provides up to $7k to each school for non-reoccurring costs to implement or expand the program. ISBE targets to have the grants awarded in November which should enable schools to utilize funds for the incoming semester or the next school year.
    • Highest priority will be given to those that meet the 70% requirement and have not implemented the program followed by schools that are currently implementing the program with plans of expansion.
    • ISBE is also doing some work to help and supplement the grants. They are looking at data on which schools have implemented the program and what methods they are using or have used and will link that data on participation. Participation data may be used to establish a statewide benchmark or just see how the state is doing versus the national benchmark for other places that have not implemented the program.
    • ISBE is also looking to use the data to identify schools who are doing well (Breakfast After the Bell Champions) and with high participation rates. The data will also allow ISBE to rank schools in comparison with the state benchmarks based on participation level.
    • ISBE is also expanding its partnerships with existing partners such as No Kid Hungry Illinois and Greater Chicago Food Depository. They are planning to use the previously mentioned data to target districts such as schools that are very far from the benchmark and provide them with technical assistance or generalized messaging or materials. Likewise, they will develop best practices based on those who will be identified as Champions. Identifying champions will help resolve or answer some of the barriers that the program encounters.
    • Some of the barriers that schools encounter in the implementation of the program:
      1. Transportation - school buses get delayed sometimes resulting in decrease participation of students in the program; setting up breakfast after the bell gives enables the student to still participate in the program
      2. Setting up the breakfast after the bell creates some other challenges e.g. impact on janitorial services, on teacher contracts and union contracts, etc.
      3. Monitoring the program - are the meals compliant with USDA rules and regulations, is the count accurate, etc.; who will take on the role?
    • With regards to whether there is data on the effects of the program on attendance/absenteeism or benchmarks for reading, math and others, there is no Illinois specific data but there is a lot of national data on impacts on attendance and absenteeism.
    • Chair Milam shared that there are studied on the impacts of the program to students. Students who are eating breakfast at school tend to have higher test scores and having breakfast at school is also associated with increased attendance.
    • In relation to Matthew's question on what other key points that would need advocacy in relation to ensuring access to free lunch, Chair Milam highlighted some of the barriers on the program such as cost of meals, access for kids, even cultural taste preferences, family habits or personal preferences. There is a federal policy that has enabled many schools in Illinois to provide free meals to all students and there are discussions on how the state can chip in and provide more free meals to lower income students/families.
  6. Development/Review of FY25 Goals
    • For focus area 2, "find a method to replicate the federal child tax credit for families raising children", a group of advocates led by Economic Security for Illinois put forward a bill to establish a child tax credit in Illinois. The bill was approved with a budget that is in between the advocates' proposal and the Governor's proposal. Illinois is the 15th state to have its own state funded child tax credit. VICTORY! Illinois Legislature Passes $150M Child Tax Credit - Economic Security Project Action
    • The subcommittee can help in raising awareness on the new child tax credit especially among families who are eligible and qualified. There are active discussion on improvements on the bill that can be made legislatively and the group will have more clarity on this in the next meeting.
    • FY25 subcommittee goals:
      1. By June 30, 2025, Pillar 1 subcommittee will design and implement a collaborative plan with Pillar 4 to support advocacy efforts to increase the number of high-quality affordable opportunities by:
        1. Identifying the existing high-quality affordable childcare options;
        2. Identifying potential geographical gaps in childcare options; and
        3. Setting goals for a number of childcare options and plan to achieve the goal.
      2. By June 30, 2025, Pillar 1 subcommittee will document various efforts to support the implementation of legislation for State Child Tax Credit approved in 2024. Additionally, the subcommittee will craft an advocacy strategy for federal expansion of this legislation. The advocacy strategy will include, but is not limited to:
        1. Engagement of critical stakeholders both within and beyond the state;
        2. Identification of barriers preventing a federal expansion;
        3. Documentation of chronological steps to navigate and/or eliminate those barriers;
        4. Clear timeline for each chronological step.
      3. By June 30, 2025, Pillar 1 subcommittee - will create and implement an advocacy strategy to increase school meal access. Advocacy plan should include, but is not limited to:
        1. Engagement of critical stakeholders across the state;
        2. Identifying other barriers to school meal access;
        3. Eliminating the reduced-price meal co-pay for breakfasts and lunch for low-income children;
        4. Documentation of chronological steps to navigate and/or eliminate those barriers;
        5. Clear timeline for each chronological step.
      4. By June 30, 2025, Pillar 1 subcommittee will design and implement a collaborative work plan with Pillar 3 subcommittee to create a media toolkit that can be used to broaden the reach of marketing and awareness campaign materials related to WIC, SNAP and summer EBT.
  7. Next Steps
    • Per Dr. Tiffany Burnett, ISBE would like to assist with the school meal strategies and the early childhood strategies.
    • Next meeting will be in November; potential updates may include WIC funding and other WIC-related initiatives.
  8. Adjournment - Chair Milam moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Ms. Wilson. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn at 3:59 PM.