July 17, 2018

Mayor Emanuel Announces New Early Childhood Education Site in Englewood

Mayor's Press Office    312.744.3334

As the City begins to phase in free pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Alderman Roderick Sawyer today joined the Department of Family and Support Services and Chicago Public Schools to announce an expansion of the Little Angels Learning Center in Englewood. Little Angels, which currently operates out of a shared space in Alpha Temple Church, will build a new location on lots purchased through the Department of Planning and Development Large Lots program. The center will serve some of Chicago’s youngest and most vulnerable children.

“Early education is a necessity for every child, not a luxury for some children,” said Mayor Emanuel. “In Chicago, we are proud to build out more early education sites alongside community-based organizations across the city, to provide every student with the high-quality, early education that they deserve as we begin to phase in free pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds.”

"As someone who has dedicated more than 25 years to serving communities in need, it brings me great joy that Little Angels and early education centers across the city can provide high-quality early learning options for children and families across Chicago,” said Nashone Greer-Adams, Founder and Executive Director of Little Angels Learning Center. “It is imperative that we invest in all children equitably, early and often to truly live up to our potential and our values as an inclusive city that promotes diversity and social equity."

Once built, the new Little Angels will serve approximately 100 children a year, from birth through five years old. Little Angels Learning Center is a community-based partner in the Englewood community.

“Little Angels will help prepare students in Englewood with a quality education that provides the foundation for a successful academic career,” said Roderick Sawyer, 6th Ward. “I am proud to work with Mayor Emanuel to support this much needed investment to the Englewood community and ensure our children are prepared for a successful future.”

These projects build on investments of both the Department of Family and Support Services and Chicago Public Schools to ensure that City-administered programs are high quality and effectively preparing children for success in kindergarten and beyond.

“Beginning in infancy, the Department of Family and Support Services works to provide families with the resources they need to create a strong developmental and educational foundation for young children,” said DFSS Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler. “The community-based organizations we work with have historically played a pivotal role in delivering high-quality early learning opportunities in Chicago and we look forward to our continued partnership with them in the future.”

Capital investments in early education were recently released in the CPS budget, including the first year of funding towards making pre-k universal in Chicago. Four additional early education sites, which will open between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019, will be at Dore Elementary, Perez Elementary, Gads Hill Center and Asian Human Services Passages Charter School. The mayor first announced early education programming sites in the 2018 budget as an initial investment to implement universal full-day pre-k for all 4-year-olds.

“High quality early education programs help to level the playing field, further narrow the achievement gap and lay the foundation for a successful future,” said CPS CEO Dr. Janice K. Jackson. “The investment at Little Angels and in early education across the city will ensure that every child in Chicago, regardless of their family’s resources, gets the great start they all deserve.”

To help ensure greater capacity going forward, capital funding for the new early learning centers is included in the proposed CPS FY19 capital plan. Chicago Public Schools recently proposed a nearly $1 billion in capital plan —the district’s largest single-year capital investment in more than two decades — to promote equitable access to high quality resources by investing in educational programming, overcrowding relief, facility maintenance, athletic spaces, and IT and security upgrades.

As the first step in Mayor Emanuel’s ambitious plan to establish free Pre-K for all 4-year-olds by 2021, CPS is expanding full-day Pre-K next year to accommodate an additional 3,700 students. Under this ambitious plan, an additional 180 full-day CPS classrooms will be added for this fall and will serve the families most in need. Across CPS and Chicago’s community-based partners, roughly 15,000 of the city’s 4-year-olds will have access to full-day prek programming. In the first year, expanded programming will focus on families of four who make less than $46,435 per year. Before the Mayor took office, less than 6,000 4-year-olds had access to Pre-K; this plan will ensure that 24,000 children are served by the 2021-2022 school year.

Families can apply for preschool programs through the universal online application. This online site provides a single point of entry to access a comprehensive menu of over 600 programs for three- and four-year olds available under Chicago CPS, DFSS and city-administered community-based sites citywide. All locations can be found at http://www.chicagoearlylearning.org.

Mayor Emanuel recently spoke with Nashone Greer-Adams on the Chicago Stories podcast. The two spoke about the importance of early-education, serving the whole family, and her plans for the future. The podcast can be found at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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