Because of what district officials are calling “legal and reputational risks,” Evanston/Skokie School District 65 is reconsidering its decade-long partnership with the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston (IWSE) to provide early childhood education with federal grant funding.
Since 2015, the society — which has been in Evanston for more than a century and runs a baby/toddler nursery in the Second Ward and a teen/baby nursery in the Fifth Ward for young parents — has received grant money as a District 65 “subrecipient,” like a subcontractor, to provide early childhood services to 55 local kids a year.
But the partnership has hit a rocky situation, with District 65 calling out the subrecipient agreement as “risky” because it says the society provided required paperwork late, or not at all, and because of the program is under-enrolled in post-pandemic years.
Billing dispute
To make matters even more complicated, the two parties are currently disputing $400,000 worth of services the welfare society provided between July and December 2024. District 65 hasn’t paid the society for those services yet, claiming that the society had failed to bill it on time.
“IWSE never stated D65 was ‘withholding’ payment,” the welfare society wrote in a document it submitted for the public record at the Feb. 10 school board meeting. “However, IWSE was not paid in a timely manner in the first half of this fiscal year, impacting IWSE financial operations. This was due to initial delays in the D65 contract process.”
According to the society, it couldn’t bill District 65 during the first few months of services because the district didn’t draft a contract until late September. The welfare society said it received the first payment from District 65 for the 2024-25 school year on Dec. 18, and “we await payment” still for work done in September, October and November.
“Because of initial payment delays from D65, IWSE used a Line of Credit and Reserve funds to maintain Payroll, to be paid back upon receipt of EHS [Early Head Start] payment,” the society wrote.
Nor ready to re-sign
At their Feb. 10 meeting, school board members said they weren’t interested in ending the partnership as soon as this June, but they also weren’t ready to re-up the agreement for another five years because they did find the subrecipient model to be “risky.” Now, district officials are coming back to the board on Monday, Feb. 24 with two options — extend the partnership for one year or for two years. Either way, though, the agreement will end after that.
In a memo outlining financial implications for the board to consider, district officials flagged three paths forward once the partnership ends:
- Return all or a portion of the 55 early childhood education seats back to the federal Office of Head Start and keep the $876,953 in grant funding for other programs, but “approval is not guaranteed.”
- Keep all 55 slots in place and provide services in-house instead of through the welfare society.
- Return all the seats back to the Office of Head Start without replacing them, which would mean fewer seats in early childhood classes but “protects D65 from the inherent programmatic, legal, and fiscal risks associated with implementing the subrecipient model in addition to managing its own risks.”
According to the society, the $876,953 it receives each year through its subcontract with District 65 accounts for nearly 25% of its total budget of $3.5 million.
“A decision about Early Head Start services in D65 has serious implications for IWSE families and the available 0-3 slots in the community,” the agency wrote. “Importantly, this decision is being made before the District’s SAP111 [Student Assignment Planning] Early Childhood conversation, analysis, and recommendations have been completed.”
The society also warned the district returning 55 seats back to the Office of Head Start could permanently remove those slots from Evanston, arguing that the likelihood of the grant funds going elsewhere in the region is “very high.”
In summarizing next steps once the board chooses how to move forward, district officials wrote that they’ll “develop a transition plan” for the society, and that “IWSE will leverage community partnerships to secure diversified funding resources in the
event that D65 is unable to meet requests for additional funding.”
Editor’s note: This story has updated to correct that the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston’s subcontract is with District 65.
Infant Welfare Society warns of ‘serious implications’ if District 65 drops grant partnership is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.