The Illinois House on Thursday passed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s initiative to consolidate early childhood services under a single agency, paving the way for the creation of a new state Department of Early Childhood.

“We can make early childhood simpler, better and fairer,” Democratic Rep. Mary Beth Canty of Arlington Heights, the bill’s main backer in the House, said Thursday. The state Senate passed the bill in a 56-0 vote, and it now heads to the governor’s desk.

The bill is part of Pritzker’s suite of initiatives aimed at enhancing early childhood services in Illinois. The governor has also pushed for greater preschool funding in order to make the state, in his words, “the best place to raise young children.”

The new agency would be an umbrella for early intervention for children with disabilities and developmental delays from the Department of Human Services; preschool programs overseen by the Illinois State Board of Education; and day care licensing responsibilities handled by the beleaguered Department of Children and Family Services.

The new department would streamline access to services for families as well as management for the state, Canty said. Under the legislation, the agency would be created this July and oversee programs starting in July 2026, after a two-year transition period.

The bill, which passed 93-18, makes no immediate changes to early childhood programs in the state.

After the transition period, the goal is for services to be moved with “no interruption to services, jobs or funding,” Canty said.

Republicans including Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City during House debate Thursday questioned the idea of creating the agency before fully figuring out the logistics and budget.

“This is a cabinet-level government agency and we have no idea what it’s going to cost,” he said.

Canty responded that the idea of the agency has been studied by a recent task force. Consolidating the services into one department could also eventually lead to cost savings for the government, Canty said, though she declined to speculate on the future budgets for the departments involved.

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