Members of the early childhood education workforce who are seeking credentials and/or a degree in early childhood education may be eligible for the new Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) Scholarship Program, launching this fall. Program information, eligibility details, and an online application will be available soon via the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.
If you’d like to be considered,
you do not need to wait for the ECACE Scholarship Application to be available to get started. In addition to the ECACE Scholarship Application, applicants will be required to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), or FAFSA at
fafsa.gov for the same academic year that they are applying for the scholarship, so you can get started now.
If you haven’t filed an online FAFSA before, you will need to: Create an FSA ID at
studentaid.gov/fsa-id to use as your electronic signature. Once you access the online FAFSA and log in, you will be asked to choose the school year for which you will be completing the FAFSA. This will need to be the
same year as the ECACE application you are submitting. For example,
if you are applying to receive the ECACE Scholarship during this year (the 2021-22 academic year), you must also select the
2021-22 FAFSA when given the option after logging in.
