There’s already a waiting list for the new early childhood education center operated by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville that recently opened in O’Fallon, Illinois.
SIUE East St. Louis leaders cut the red tape just last week on the free center — dubbed the “New Life Head Start/Early Head Start Center” — for lower-income Metro East residents.
“We’re helping out families. We’re empowering them,” said Kathleen Appleby, the director of the new center. “They’ll have a better life if both parents can go to work without worrying about child care.”
In all, the center currently serves around 80 students in two classrooms. Eventually, center leaders would like to open all six of the facility’s classrooms — but that will require SIUE to hire more staff members.
“Staff shortage is the big issue,” said Carolyn Jason, the program director. “Once we all get our staffing together, there's going to be enough seats for every 3- and 4-year-old. That's the goal.”
To accomplish their goals, Jason said she and the staff have been recruiting teachers and teaching assistants at job fairs, but it’s a tough job market for employers.
“We have to be competitive — and we know that,” she said. “We're trying to be more competitive with other industries and not just other day care entities.”
The new location at New Life In Christ Church, which was annexed by O'Fallon but has a Lebanon address, is just one of seven centers SIUE East St. Louis operates in St. Clair County. Two other locations are run by collaborations with the university. Overall, the nine locations serve about 860 children and families in the county.
The latest addition helps serve a part of the Metro East that’s growing, said Carolyn Jason, the program director. Data shows people are moving east in the county, she said.
“If you leave, we’re going to follow you,” Jason said.
This new center primarily serves children from O’Fallon, Shiloh, Lebanon and east Belleville. Most families make less than $25,000 annually, Jason said.
The centers offer free federally funded educational services in three facets. First, they serve 3- to 5-year-olds in the Head Start program, which began in St. Clair County in 1983. Students enrolled in the program are in class from September to May.
Second, the SIUE program serves toddlers in the Early Head Start program. It first started in St. Clair County in 1998 and runs year-round. Third, SIUE provides a program for newborns and their mothers called Home Base.
In each of these programs, Appleby said the center provides more than just education. The center administers health and dental screenings and provides social services to the families — like helping pay a water or electric bill.
“We serve not only the child, but the whole family,” Appleby said.
The Head Start program was first created after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty in his 1964 State of the Union address, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By 1965, the Johnson administration started an eight-week summer course.
Appleby and Jason said the underlying goal of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, a key legislative priority of the governor’s the past two years, mimics SIUE’s Head Start program. Pritzker and lawmakers earmarked $250 million toward early childhood education in fiscal 2024 with the goal of giving all Illinoisans the option of free preschool.
In January, Pritzker said in Belleville that the Smart Start program exceeded its first-year goal, enrolling 5,886 new students.
