Child care options increasing for Oregon preschoolers, according to OSU report

The availability of child care for children ages 3 to 5 in Oregon is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Oregon State University. In 2018, three-quarters of the state’s counties were considered preschool child care deserts, but as of last year, that number dropped to just nine. However, all but two counties are still considered child care deserts for children ages 0 to 2.

Megan Pratt is an associate professor of practice at OSU and the report’s lead author. Alyssa Chatterjee is the director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care. They both join us with more details on what the state’s child care landscape looks like today.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The availability of preschool and childcare for children ages 3 to 5 in Oregon is steadily increasing. That’s according to a new report from Oregon State University [OSU]. In 2018, only nine of Oregon’s counties had an adequate number of spots. Last year, 27 did, but availability for younger children continues to be a huge problem.

Megan Pratt is an associate professor of practice at OSU and the report’s lead author. Alyssa Chatterjee is the director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care. They both join me now. Welcome back to Think Out Loud.

Megan Pratt: Thank you.

Alyssa Chatterjee: Thank you.

Miller: I say welcome back because I’ve talked to the two of you together once before; and Megan, I think this is our third time. But all the other times we’ve talked, it’s been to talk about childcare deserts and really bad news, dismal numbers. This is the first time I can remember where I’ve said the availability of childcare spots is increasing. So, Megan, first, what has made the difference?

Pratt: I think it’s a number of things, and a number of investments at local, state and federal levels, and a concerted effort to coordinate across individuals, communities and state efforts.

Miller: OK, so a lot of different things. Let’s help us break them down. I mean, first of all, what role is the state playing in this?

Chatterjee: Absolutely. So we are, at the Department of Early Learning and Care – or DELC – we administer a couple different programs. We have our Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten program offering infant-toddler services and preschool services. Following the Head Start model, we also have our Preschool Promise program and really focusing on increasing access to early childhood services through two of those core programs.

Miller: And then Megan, what else is making a difference?

Pratt: There’s a lot going on. And I will say, from the researcher side, I know because of partnerships with the state folks, as well as community, there’s a lot going on to encourage childcare businesses to be developed, and a lot in addition to the public programs that are providing additional investment. There’s also significant business supports and other supports going on at a local level.

Miller: Can you remind us what a childcare desert is? It’s an important definition, because the numbers I said, that in 2018, only nine of Oregon’s counties were not considered childcare deserts, now 27 are not … We need to understand what that means to understand what the significance is. So, what exactly is a childcare desert?

Pratt: Yeah. Childcare desert is a measure of supply adequacy. And it is a simple equation where we’re looking at statewide, as well as in each county, how many children are living in that region compared to how many slots or regulated spaces are available that are known to the state. So when we get a percentage and that 33%, or when a county has less than a third of their children with a slot available to them, that’s considered a desert.

Miller: Does having at least one slot for every three kids mean that most families who want care can access it? It still seems like not that many slots for each kid.

Pratt: No, it’s not. And we’re really careful when we talk about it. We don’t want to say the opposite of not being a desert is adequate care.

Miller: So, that’s an important point. If you were going to be a little bit less rosy about this and not simply saying there are many fewer childcare deserts in Oregon than before, is there another way we should think about this as we look at the map of Oregon?

Pratt: I think the desert metric provides a very digestible way to see how the county, or how the state as a whole, start to get into the looks in terms of deserts, or in terms of supply adequacy. And then it starts the conversation of getting into how counties vary in that reality. So we see this report as really at that starting place, because childcare is such a local dynamic. And you can really see fluctuations. If you know your county, you know that even if the metric is saying there’s adequate care, there’s a lot more to it and there’s a lot more to access.

Miller: Alyssa, how much geographical variation do you find in terms of that availability and that access?

Chatterjee: Yeah, it does vary. And I think what we actually see is that the public investments that have been made, both at the state and federal levels in particular, are really impacting and supporting some of our more rural counties – that’s where we’ve seen some of the significant growth in increasing access. And we know that a number of counties actually would not be still considered deserts. So you mentioned we now have 27 desert counties not in desert status; 19 of those would still be deserts without public funding. So we’re seeing that these investments are working and really helping increase access for families in those communities.

Miller: Have there been changes in the mix of, say, big centers versus smaller home-based care?

Pratt: We’re seeing an overall increase from 2022 – the last report to now – we’re seeing a consistent increase in the number of centers, as well as large home providers, which typically have more than one staff and more than one classroom or a room that they’re caring for kids. And then small home, we’re also seeing an increase. So it does look like it’s happening that there’s been some nice increases across the board. The small home – which is providers, which are typically one person who’s providing care out of their home, and they don’t have additional staff – we’ve seen a significant increase of about 900 more slots available since 2022. That’s really promising.

Miller: So in other words, growth all across the board in terms of the various versions of care or early childhood education.

Pratt: Correct.

Miller: So I’ve been focusing so far on this older little kid group, ages 3 to 5, sort of preschool age. Why don’t we see that success, Megan Pratt, mirrored in the 0- to 2-year-old population?

Pratt: The 0- to 2-year-old population has a lower access starting point. So, we’ve been doing this report since 2018 and tracking supply back to the ‘90s in this group here at OSU. And what we see is that there is overall less starting in 2018, so they had further to go in terms of reaching that 33%, or that desert threshold. And a piece that doesn’t get as much attention in this report that I want to make sure I call out is that we actually have seen a larger increase in 0- to 2-year-old supply than for preschoolers, but it just hasn’t reached that threshold yet.

Miller: So because it was starting from such a lower percentage, that even if there was a bigger increase, it hasn’t erased the desert distinction in most counties.

Pratt: Correct.

Miller: Alyssa Chatterjee, what is the state doing right now, specifically to invest in care for this younger age group?

Chatterjee: It’s a great question. Oregon has been prioritizing investments in 3 to 5 preschool-aged care through those programs I mentioned earlier, and a lot of that has to do with really clear research on helping children start strong for school. But we have seen and know the importance of early childhood development shows most brain growth is happening between 0 and 3 years old.

So, this is an area where we’ve been able to leverage some federal funds to pilot some infant-toddler programming, called Baby Promise, in three regions of the state. We also have often seen our Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten and Early Head Start slots been increased at kind of converting some of those preschool age slots to infant-toddler slots, to meet the demand of the community and the needs of the community. But this is an area where we do need to see more investment and growth. And it’s more expensive to operate. The ratios are lower, it’s critical care and it takes more to really be able to invest in increasing access to that level of care.

Miller: Alyssa, what counts as publicly funded slots in the context of this report?

Chatterjee: In the context of this report, it’s really looking at our Preschool Promise and Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten state funded programs, as well as federally funded Head Start, Early Head Start, Baby Promise, and Migrant Seasonal Head Start programs. So it’s a pretty good array, but it is not every publicly funded program that we know is available across the state or in particular counties.

Miller: Right. I mean, that last sentence is particularly important for Multnomah County listeners since we talked, even just this week, about Preschool for All. So the Preschool for All slots are not included in this in terms of … I guess it’d be included as slots, but not as publicly funded.

Chatterjee: Correct. They would be counted as regulated slots, we think about overall supply, but not included in the calculation for publicly funded impacts.

Miller: How stable does this state and federal funding, Alyssa Chatterjee, seem to you right now?

Chatterjee: I think we’re all waiting to see what happens. We know that there is tremendous support across the state of Oregon for early childhood. We saw it at the end of this legislative session and recognizing the importance of continuing to invest in this age group or seeing that these investments have worked. With the passage of the Student Success Act in 2019, we saw the single largest investment that the state has made in early childhood. Those investments are clearly paying off, as we’ve seen our desert status shrink, and as we’ve seen the increase in and stabilization of regulated childcare generally.

And we are waiting to see what some of these federal changes mean for the children and families that we serve. Even if we are not explicitly named in some of these federal changes, we know that the children receiving services in our programs will likely see the impacts of some of these changes.

Miller What do you think is most likely, given the uncertainty, but what you already know about federal cuts?

Chatterjee: I think, really, we’re dealing with potential fears and recognizing that accessing public services could be perceived as creating risk for families. From the perspective of the department and for, I would say the state, we’re focused on making sure our most vulnerable children and families have access to the resources and services that they need through our programming.

Miller: Are you talking about people who are undocumented – when you say that access to services could put people at risk, what exactly do you mean?

Chatterjee: I think there can be fears when we think about immigration status or even perceived immigration status, and whether folks feel safe coming to their programs. And I think for us, we really want to be able to maintain focus on getting our most vulnerable kids and families access to those services whenever we can.

Miller: Megan Pratt, before we say goodbye, we’ve been talking mainly about the number of slots or the ratio of slots, regulated slots to kids. So that’s a question of availability. But access is also tied to affordability. Is that something you’re also tracking?

Pratt: Yes, we look at the childcare landscape from a number of different angles because it is complicated. And we know availability is a core piece of accessibility, whether or not a family can use the care that’s next door to them – they can’t if it’s not affordable. So we also track affordability in terms of the prices that families face, as well as considerations that are really figured out at a local and community level around the hours that families need, so they can get to the jobs that they have. The needs, the cultural needs, the developmental needs of the children are all factors that shape access.

Miller: Megan Pratt and Alyssa Chatterjee, thanks very much.

Pratt: Thank you.

Miller: Megan Pratt is an associate professor of practice at Oregon State University. Alyssa Chatterjee is the director of Oregon’s Department of Early Learning and Care.

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