Who We Are

The DeKalb County Collaborative for Young Children (DCCYC), formerly known as the DeKalb County Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, is a collective impact group partnering with families and the community to build an early learning system where all DeKalb County children have equitable opportunities to be prepared for school and life success. 
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DCCYC Structure
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DeKalb County Kindergarten Readiness Study (2017)
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Basics DeKalb County wall at DeKalb County Health Department
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Kindergarten Readiness Toolkits
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Joint Professional Development
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Kindergarten Readiness Community Forum
3rd Annual Kindergarten Readiness Community Forum

Our Mission

​Support an equitable early learning system through a county-wide collaboration of organizations that partner with families and communities to impact the optimal development of children.

Our Vision

All DeKalb County children have equitable opportunities to be prepared for school and life success.

We Believe:

  • Child development includes wholistic wellness and can be positively impacted
  • Inequities in early life may negatively impact children's learning outcomes
  • Families are the child's first teacher
  • The collaboration of schools, early childhood educators, families, community service providers, and policy makers improves access to high quality early learning opportunities
Families live in social ecologies made up of the people, settings, and norms that shape their everyday interactions, and consequently, their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The DCCYC using Basics DeKalb County as our common message aims to saturate the social ecology around each family and to engage the whole community, so that everyone knows the Basics and every parent or caregiver receives encouragement and support to be their child's first teacher. 

To learn more about how our collaborative carries out our mission to reach our vision watch our presentation from the 2020 Partner Plan Act Annual Conference here and our 2nd Annual Kindergarten Readiness Community Forum here!

What is Kindergarten Readiness?

The DCCYC is dedicated to informing the community about the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS).  The Illinois State Board of Education (2019) describes KIDS as a tool that, "provide a directional indicator of children’s strengths and developmental areas that need more support.​"