Research

The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center has the most comprehensive collection of research and resources for early childhood inclusion.

Illinois Research Reports

State Policy and Fiscal Opportunities to Support Implementation of Itinerant Services

Early CHOICES engaged Start Early Consulting to research the cost drivers and barriers that local school districts face to providing itinerant ECSE services to children in community-based PreK programs; this research is intended to assist with setting the foundation for future statewide funding and fiscal analysis needs for inclusive ECSE. With oversight from this advisory group, Start Early engaged in research and identified recommendations to address cost barriers that local school districts face when providing itinerant ECSE. State Policy and Fiscal Opportunities to Support
Implementation of Itinerant Services memo yielded several state-level opportunities to strengthen inclusion across settings:

  1. Strengthen preschool LRE and inclusion in program administration and state rule
  2. Collaborative professional learning can support success
  3. Identify systemic solutions to the workforce shortage
  4. Provide guidance on background check requirements across early childhood programs
  5. Clarify how programs can leverage all available funding streams
  6. Conduct a more comprehensive fiscal analysis

This report was commissioned by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and supported by the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity and Start Early. The report builds upon prior work in Illinois focused on promoting inclusion and the project included research to develop recommendations for potential service and funding models to advance quality inclusive special education and related services to preschoolers (3-5 years old) with disabilities enrolled in community-based early childhood education programs. The research included reviewing national literature and resources, looking at examples from other states, and hearing from a wide range of key community constituents. The recommendations take a systems approach that recognizes the fact that providing early childhood special education (ECSE) and related services on the child’s IEP in community-based early childhood education settings will require changes across a number of systems to ensure services are effective and high quality.

As a result of the Preschool Development Grant Strategic planning 2019 this graphic was created to share the identified next steps in advancing inclusion birth to 5 in Illinois. The full report is also available.

In 2021 Start Early received a short-term exploratory grant from the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities to gather insights into how to better support the inclusion of young children with disabilities across school and community settings by engaging school district leaders and their management organizations. The resulting report Strengthening Early Childhood Inclusion: Opportunities to improve collaboration between school districts and community partners to support young children with disabilities (report coming soon) outlines key findings  to build LEA and state capacity to leverage new federal resources on inclusion.

As a result of the 2017 Early Childhood Inclusion Policy Summit Early CHOICES in collaboration with Illinois Council for Developmental Disabilities conducted this research study and summarized Examples of Collaborations Supporting Inclusion in Illinois.

A few specific sources of research that we find most helpful are:

Brief Summary: Fact Sheet of Research on Preschool Inclusion (2014) A list of 11 research points about preschool inclusion by Erin E. Barton & Barbara J. Smith

Inclusion for Preschool Children With Disabilities: What We Know and What We Should be Doing(2014) A brief summary of key points we should be implementing based on the research regarding preschool inclusion by Phillip Strain.

Quality Indicators of Inclusive Early Childhood Programs/Practices: A Compilation of Selected Resources (2010) A compilation of assessments and practices that support quality inclusion in early childhood classrooms.

Research Synthesis Points on Early Childhood Inclusion, NPDCI (2009) A summary of key conclusions drawn from review of literature or research syntheses on early childhood inclusion.

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