SFI and Illinois Standards

Joining Strengthening Families Illinois will help your program comply with:

• Preschool for All and Pre-K program standards:
• Parent involvement in early education
• Programming to support the Early Learning Standards social and emotional goals (problem-solving, empathy and caring, cooperative play, respect right of self and others, appropriate communication skills, relationship skills)
• Prevention Initiative program standards:
• Assisting families in building protective factors including the child’s development of social-emotional, cognitive, communication and motor skills and parents’ development of parenting skills
• Family and community standards of Head Start, Early Head Start, NAEYC accreditation, and Quality Rating Scale scoring
• Title I standards for parent involvement:
• Schools that receive Title I funds (determined by the number of students who receive free and reduced-price lunches) must develop written parent involvement policies that are evaluated each year. Each school district must reserve at least 1% of its Title I funds for parent involvement. This funding can be used for parent education and training programs.
• Professional development standards and continuing education requirements for DCFS licensing:
• SFI offers a professional development training sequence that increases the capacity of early childhood program staff to build the protective factors.