To: The Illinois State House and The Illinois State Senate
Forest Schools for Illinois
It is critical that the state amend the Illinois Child Care Act of 1969 and allow DCFS to create licensing standards for outdoor preschools in Illinois. Our preschool-age children deserve outdoor education options, and our state must act now to make this possible. Your support of this bill will improve the mental, physical, and academic well-being of generations of Illinois children.
Why is this important?
In August of 2019, Chicago's Forest Playschool in North Park Village, an outdoor preschool that had been opened for 5 years and had served 200+ families, was forced to close. Forest Playschool was unable to be licensed under the current daycare regulations because those regulations do not allow for outdoor early learning centers. A growing body of research shows that outdoor play and learning is of vital importance for children, contributing greatly to their mental, physical, spiritual, and academic development. And yet, today's children are given 25% less playtime and 50% less unstructured outdoor time than generations before them, leading to increases in childhood nearsightedness, anxiety, ADHD, obesity, and more. Schools like the Forest Playschool can help directly address these problems, but there is currently no legal pathway for them to operate in Illinois. Join me in signing a petition to ask the Illinois State House and Senate to pass a bill to legalize and standardize outdoor preschools in the State of Illinois!
If you'd like to learn more visit https://www.forestschoolsforillinois.org/
If you'd like to learn more visit https://www.forestschoolsforillinois.org/