Bill Text: IL HR0781 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the City of Chicago Council to hold a public hearing concerning the DFSS RFP process that resulted in the defunding of birth-to-five classrooms and staff.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-06-23 - Rule 19(b) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HR0781 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2019-HR0781-Introduced.html

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HR0781 LRB101 20852 ECR 70667 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, As of December 1, 2019, the City of Chicago stands
to lose a minimum of 102 birth-to-five classrooms and 363 staff
in more than 35 neighborhoods throughout the city; these
services have been provided by trusted community-based
organizations that have served these neighborhoods for
decades; and
WHEREAS, Should this loss occur as scheduled, it would not
only impact these agencies and organizations financially but
will also result in the denial of access for children and
families to a 10-hour full day of high quality, comprehensive
early learning opportunities; this loss will primarily affect
the neighborhoods of Englewood, Austin, and Back of the Yards,
which are already some of the most vulnerable, highest-need
communities in the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, During an overlap of two mayoral administrations,
this situation was created partly as a result of an extremely
opaque evaluation imposed on a flawed Department of Family and
Support Services (DFSS) RFP process; this was after the process
had already suffered from a 10-week delay and a complex
addendum published only 13 days prior to the due date;
information about the rubrics developed for this scoring
process and the subsequent actual scores have been denied to

HR0781 - 2 - LRB101 20852 ECR 70667 r
the individual applicants; graduate students were employed to
be the primary reviewers and to score the RFPs, but no further
information has been provided about their qualifications or
their knowledge of the communities involved; and
WHEREAS, If this disaster is not immediately rectified, the
entire early childhood ecosystem will be destabilized and
dismantled throughout the City of Chicago; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we encourage the City of Chicago City Council Committee on
Health and Human Relations to expeditiously convene a public
hearing to solicit testimony from the Commissioner of the
Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) for the
purpose of providing full transparency concerning the methods
and procedures of the scoring process of the DFSS RFP and the
qualifications of the evaluators and to answer any questions
the chairman, the committee members, or members of the
attending public may have; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to the Commissioner of the Department of Family and
Support Services, the Mayor of Chicago, and the Governor of
Illinois.