Overview

The Lake County Scaling Up Project Final Report examines the gap between current ECE funding in Lake County, IL and the resources required to make high-quality services available to all families who choose them. CELFE conducted this analysis in partnership with local philanthropic and community stakeholders to better understand how the county’s early learning system could expand to meet the needs of children ages 0–5.

Working with researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago, CELFE developed a demographic analysis method to estimate how many children are likely to need different types of early childhood services based on age, family income, and parental work patterns. The report combines these estimates with program capacity data and cost modeling to identify gaps in access to high-quality programs and estimate the investment needed to expand services.

Read the full report to learn more.