On average a child is born every ten minutes in Chicago.  Think of it.  Every ten minutes, a new life begins in our city – and each of us, through our actions or inactions, has a say in how that life unfolds.

Experts confirm what every parent already knows, that learning begins at birth.  Three years ago, Mayor Daley announced the Early Child Care and Education Plan, which expands and renovates child care centers around the city and improves their programs.  Families need quality child care, but they also need resources to continue the learning process at home.  Families that are equipped with the best information make the best teachers.

      Improving child health

• Starting in January 2004, the Chicago Department of Public Health will increase its nurse visits from 11,000 to 17,000 a year.  This effort will begin by offering home visits to young at-risk mothers who deliver their children at Stroger, University of Chicago and Illinois Masonic Hospitals – hospitals that serve large numbers of high and low risk infants.  During the home visits health professionals will assess the physical and developmental well being of infants.
• Starting this fall, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Department of Human Services will work with pediatricians from major hospitals like Children's Memorial and Northwestern University and City clinics to enhance outreach programs that help parents recognize such basic health problems like asthma, lead poisoning and diabetes.  They will also help make sure that all children receive immunization, vision and hearing screenings by the first grade. 
• A major, citywide public awareness campaign called "Born Learning" will start this fall by the City in partnership with the Irving Harris Foundation to help parents teach their children to love learning, through daily activities that include reading and math.
• Every new mother in Chicago, shortly after giving birth, will receive an information packet containing their child's birth certificate and information on child development.  The materials will be distributed to approximately 50,000 new mothers.
• In partnership, the Chicago Public Schools Cradle to Classroom program, which serves more than 4,000 teen mothers, and the Ounce of Prevention Fund will expand pre-natal and post-natal services to at risk teen mothers.  One-on-one coaching will be provided to these mothers at three new sites in Chicago and will reach more than 300 mothers in the first year who, perhaps, would never have received this individualized, intensive support;
• This winter, we will conduct a city wide conference and training event for families and caregivers of children ages zero to three, offering advice on how they can help their children begin learning and preparing for school.  Following the conference, workshops will be held throughout the City where health professionals will be on hand to answer questions.

      Providing quality early learning opportunities

• Starting this fall, the Chicago Public Schools and Department of Human Services will implement a uniform set of learning standards in all city funded early education classrooms.  These standards set expectations for how three or four year olds should be progressing in terms of vocabulary, knowledge of the alphabet, recognizing words in print, spelling, counting, recognizing shapes, colors, patterns and so on.  These standards will ensure that early childhood educators receive a single, consistent message about what our children need to learn.  About 40,000 children will be affected;
• The city will work to make the standards available to private and state funded centers and encourage them to embrace them.  These standards will also be available on the Internet through the city's KidStart website.
• Starting this fall, half of children entering CPS kindergarten programs will receive literacy screening to determine their current reading levels and to help teachers identify resources that will help every child become a successful learner. By fall of 2004 every child in every kindergarten class will receive this screening.
• Families know that one of our greatest resources is the Chicago Public Libraries.  The Chicago Public Library will expand its early literacy programs by acquiring additional materials and serving more early childhood groups through its Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come and the Get Wild About Reading programs and establishing the Kraft Great Kids Read  family literacy program in 15 Park District sites throughout the city.
• To improve the quality of teachers who specialize in early childhood learning, thanks to a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation, the City Colleges of Chicago will focus on improving the quality of early childhood teacher education by strengthening their child development degree programs.

Remind yourself that every ten minutes a child is born in Chicago.  Then, challenge yourself to do something more on behalf of Chicago's youngest children.