Funding Principles

Increase Exits from Foster Care to Permanence through Guardianship

Create the flexibility to blend funding streams that support a range of high quality programs. The state of Illinois created the Illinois Early Childhood Block Grant and pulled together the existing education-funded programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers thus creating a birth-to-five funding and policy system. This system built on the individual program’s existing infrastructure to secure a more solid policy agenda that weaves together multiple funding sources.

Establish funding set-asides for “at-risk” populations within larger policy structures. Within Illinois’ and Kansas’ pooled funding stream for infant-toddler programs, these states included investments in high-quality programs for at-risk infants and toddlers. Policymakers can develop similar set-aside options with K-12 funding as well. Targeted funding streams are easier to establish within larger programs that already support the broader populous, as opposed to generating funding for stand-alone prevention programs.

Define the use of funds as broadly as possible. Keeping funding detail broad-based allows for program managers to manipulate its usage to support a wider range of services (e.g., home visiting, center-based child care, family support services) in a variety of settings.