Building Better Futures - Policy Opportunities in Early Care and Education

Thoughtful, well-informed policies are key to transforming early care and education (ECE) environments throughout Oregon and for creating a solid foundation for our children and educators. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Dana Hepper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Children's Institute, to understand the current challenges facing the ECE sector and some emerging policy opportunities.

Hepper, who started her career as an educator and has decades of advocacy under her belt, is optimistic about the future of child care in the state. She’s also well acquainted with the hurdles facing ECE providers, particularly those running their own facilities. As Hepper frames it, “I typically boil it down to three big buckets: You need operating revenue, you need a physical space, and you need a workforce.” Each of these components presents its own set of obstacles. 

Operating Revenue

Just like every successful business or project, securing adequate funding is vital for the smooth operation of ECE facilities. Financial support is the backbone for recruiting skilled staff, maintaining safe and welcoming environments, and providing enriching educational materials. With careful budget planning and a mix of public funding sources, including Preschool Promise, Baby Promise, and Employee Related Daycare, resources can be effectively allocated, ensuring financial stability and sustainable growth. Hepper emphasizes the importance of subsidies, stating, "Operational subsidies, whether from federal, state, or local Pre-K and child care dollars, are essential to support these critical functions.”

Room to Grow

Securing an appropriate space from which to operate is one of the primary challenges for Oregon providers. Many early learning programs operate in cramped or outdated facilities, limiting their capacity to accommodate new children and impacting the quality of education they can provide. The quality and size of educational spaces are directly linked to educational outcomes. Well-designed, spacious environments contribute to better learning experiences by reducing stress, minimizing distractions, and providing room for diverse activities. When children have access to areas specifically designed for different types of play and learning, it fosters their cognitive, social, and emotional development more effectively.

Hepper emphasizes the need for funding to address this issue, and points to both BuildUp Oregon’s efforts along with the Childcare Infrastructure Program as excellent opportunities to begin addressing the issue. The Childcare Infrastructure Program received an initial allocation of $50 million from lottery bonds to upgrade existing facilities and construct new ones, ensuring early learning programs have the physical infrastructure to grow and develop. 

Hepper also points to legislation that protects child care providers operating out of rental homes as a positive step toward offering providers more options throughout the state.

Regulatory Barriers

Zoning and permitting regulation also significantly limit ECE providers’ access to space. These regulations govern how land can be used and dictate the specific requirements for building and operating child care centers, including safety codes, building design, and location restrictions. Hepper highlights a recent law that commissioned the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to conduct a comprehensive study on how zoning, building codes, and permitting processes affect childcare centers. Hepper hopes the results of such a study will educate and motivate lawmakers to propose reforms that will streamline these processes and clear a path for a more robust and flexible ECE infrastructure.

Investing in People

Early care work simply doesn’t happen without experienced, caring and dedicated people. Hepper points to the importance of improving wages for all levels of staff, including assistant teachers and support personnel to address high turnover and staffing shortages, and create a more equitable work environment.

Given the size and diversity of the industry, however, this isn’t an easy lift, and is prone to causing disruption. As an example, Hepper points to Preschool Promise establishing a minimum wage for lead teachers. “Four years in, Head Start was like, ‘Hey! All our teachers are leaving to work at Preschool Promise where they can make $20,000 more a year.’ To which I said, ‘Yeah, we should raise your wages too.’ So we worked together to make sure Head Start got those wage increases. Then Multnomah County Preschool for All one-upped it again and said, ‘We’re going to go above the wage floor Preschool Promise set and put in wage minimums for assistants and other staff in the program.”

Comprehensive wage policies may ultimately be what is needed to ensure fair compensation for all ECE workers statewide.

Looking Ahead

Hepper sees significant potential for positive policy impacts. “The Department of Land Conservation and Development is crunching all that survey data and trying to come up with some understanding of how we can bucket these issues. How can we identify action steps? By the end of the year, they'll have to give that report back to the legislature with recommendations on what laws we should change and what recommendations we should make.” This report is expected to drive legislative reforms, promote funding, and ultimately lead to improvements across the ECE sector statewide. 

Engage and Advocate

Yet, it shouldn’t stop there. Ongoing legislative engagement and advocacy are key to shaping a stronger future. To that end, Hepper encourages parents and providers alike to take an active role in shaping policy, fostering a grassroots movement that emphasizes the power of personal stories and direct advocacy. "I think it's good to tell these stories, whatever they are. If someone wants to communicate with whoever their local legislator is and say, 'Hey. I'm trying to open a child care facility, here's my experience,' It will soften the ground.” This approach ensures those directly impacted have a voice in the legislative process, making the case for meaningful policy changes that address the real-world challenges the ECE sector faces.

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