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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. Being nestled between two major research universities. We receive a lot of studies and reports from the U of O and OSU, and in all honesty, many of them contain bad news, things like our oceans are dying. Our forests are burning faster, and our school dropout rates are getting worse. Appears in our inboxes almost daily. So when we get a study that shows actual good news, it piques our interest. Then on the show, we're going to bring you that good news in the form of childcare and the fact that access to it is actually improving all over Oregon. We'll talk with the lead author of the report from Oregon State and a director at a key State Department, and we'll also talk with one of our reporters about how this trend is playing out here in Lane County. Oregon State University associate professor at the College of Health, Megan Pratt and Alyssa Chatterjee, the director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, thanks to you both for coming on and talking with us.
MEGAN PRATT/ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Thanks for having us. Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Megan. I'm going to start with you, as you were sort of the lead researcher on this report. Tell us generally what your report found.
MEGAN PRATT: Yeah, the report primarily found that we are seeing some positive increases in the Child Care supply that's available across Oregon's communities, and fewer counties that could be considered a child care desert.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, Alyssa, explain that to us. What is a child care desert?
ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Yeah, so a child care Desert means that there's only one regulated Child Care slot for every three children in the county, and that that number can rise, but that's really how we define whether a county or region would qualify as a desert.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Do you have a general idea? Maybe starting a few years ago, how many Child Care deserts were there in Oregon? And based on this report, how fewer are there now?
ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Absolutely yes. We've seen tremendous change in the Child Care desert status of Oregon, which has been really exciting to see childcare deserts are not new. Oregon is not unique in having childcare deserts. And we first started looking at desert status in Oregon back in 2018 and I'll let Megan talk about what we've kind of seen in terms of the trend changes really over the last several years.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Go ahead, Megan, tell us about the trend changes.
MEGAN PRATT: Sure. So, most of the changes in this in counties being childcare deserts, has been seen in the preschool ages. So, the preschool is three to five years old. And so, in 2018 Oregon has 36 counties, and 27 of those were deserts. And then we moved. We've slowly, gradually improved on that in terms of the supply available. And now for preschoolers, only nine of the counties were estimated to be childcare deserts for as of December 2024.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm going to make an assumption, and please correct me if I'm wrong. My assumption would be that a lot of the childcare deserts would be in the more rural counties in Oregon. But Is that correct or and also, where are you seeing the biggest growth in accessibility for child care? What kind of counties are you seeing that growth in?
MEGAN PRATT: I can, I can share the researcher's answer. It really depends on the dynamics and child care is a very local issue, so it really depends however. We do see that there tends to be less, you're right, in our less populated parts of the state. We also see that what is available is more likely to be publicly funded, that it plays a larger role in making up the overall supply. So those contracts. Programs and programs that are serving lower income households.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Alyssa and kind of jumping on off of what Megan just said, you know, give us the view of what are the big reasons why this is a good news story, that it is improving.
ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Absolutely it is a good news story. So, while we know that families continue to struggle with access to child care and this doesn't necessarily paint the full picture, right, we're looking at county level. That doesn't mean that the number of hours you need or the hours of the day are available. But it shows a couple of things. One, we're actually seeing the availability of child care increase to pre pandemic levels, above pre pandemic levels. And so, Oregon is a state that is recovering well, well when it comes to child care supply and availability across the state, at a time when we know families need care more than ever. It's also really encouraging, because it demonstrates that the investments that we have been making with state and federal funds are working. As Megan said, the contribution of these funds plays a significant role in reducing the desert status of counties across the state, and so this is a win. It shows what we're doing is working. And without these publicly funded child care slots through our early learning programs, 28 counties would still be considered child care deserts for preschool aged children.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You know Megan, I'm always fascinated to sort of understand how research is done. Tell us how you conducted this. Does this research lead to the report?
MEGAN PRATT: Sure. Yeah, so this is this work is done in a very it's very collaborative and based on administrative data, so data that come from programs in October to December, every single child care resource and referral agency reached out to the child care programs across the state and asked both about how much they charge for care, as well as the number of children or the slots that they have available, excuse me, the slots they have available, excuse me, the slots they have available for children in their care, and how that breaks down by age. And so, we're able to use that information gathered from them and bring that in with the agency's licensing data from the licensing process and come up with the supply side of the data. From there, we look at the we use, we work with the Portland State University population Research Center data to get an estimate of the county population and of children of for the different ages and it's essentially the analysis is a, is a, is the percentage, so that the difference between the slots available and The number of children that are in each geography or in each county.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Alyssa, I did ask about sort of the difference perhaps, between rural and urban Oregon. But now I want to maybe dive into the numbers a little bit in terms of, are there particular groups of people that maybe have historically had less access to childcare, whether that's those that identify as minorities, single income, women with children, you know, kind of how that sort of breaks out? And are you seeing improvements in particular groups in terms of access to child care?
ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: This is where the publicly funded component really, really plays a role. So the Department of Early and Care administers several preschool and early learning programs that are included in this research report, and two of the major ones are preschool promise and Oregon prenatal to kindergarten, which is Oregon's version of Head Start. In addition to this research, including the Federal Head Start and Early Head Start funding, and because Oregon does not administer a universal child care system, this means that we have income eligibility and other eligibility requirements for services. And so. Our most vulnerable families, those families who are making less than 100 or 200% of the federal poverty level are eligible for these publicly funded slots. And so not only are we seeing a reduction in deserts and an increase in access, we're seeing an increase in access, specifically for those vulnerable families who've historically lacked access across the state because of the investments with state and federal dollars to be able to fund programs like preschool promise in Oregon, prenatal to kindergarten.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Megan, obviously, writing reports and having a report is great, but I wanted to ask you in terms of what's your hope for the impact that this report might have, whether it be legislators or other key decision makers around Oregon?
MEGAN PRATT: I really see this report as a starting place for the conversations around both Family Access and what families need and want. It simply being available is a core piece, but simply one piece of a bigger, more complicated, dynamic story of what families have access to. It's also one piece of the bigger and more complicated story of what it takes to provide child care services in homes, in centers, in schools, all of the different places that this care and supply exist. And so, really every time it comes out, that's what I hope. I hope that it provides a starting place to understand and also to see signals of where all the hard work happening at the local levels, the state levels and federal level in terms of helping strengthen the system are happening.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Alyssa, you obviously made the case about how important public funding is in a program such as this and in just access to child care. Of course, as we're speaking, there has been a real shift away from public funding, mostly coming from the federal government. And so, I wanted to ask you, and perhaps this is a philosophical question, but this research, this report showcases as the evidence that you found that public funding works, is your hope that these kinds of reports, these kinds of information, can showcase that, yes, public funding is an absolute, not nice to have, but have to have in our society?
ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Yes, period. I mean, one of the things I think is so great about this report is that it does incorporate those public investments, and it's not just looking at Access overall, but that we are able to see the real impacts of these investments. And while we haven't in Oregon seen significant new investments over the last several years, it also shows that some of the choices we're making as an agency that really just has been around for about two years now are really aiming to empower community to tell us where they need care and the type of care they need, and that that seems to be working as well, because we haven't seen a lot of new funding, but we're still seeing an increase in access and publicly funded slots. And so, I think your point is exactly right. These investments work. We should. We should have more of them, and they're making a difference for families across the state.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Oregon State University associate professor at the College of Health, Megan Pratt and Alyssa Chatterjee, director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and care. Thanks so much for talking with us.
MEGAN PRATT/ALYSSA CHATTERJEE: Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Let's bring in KLCC, Sajina Shrestha, and hear reporting on child care access here in Lane County. Sajina Shrestha, one of our reporters here at KLCC, always great to talk to you. Thanks for coming downstairs and chatting.
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Thanks for having me, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, I know you're working on a story that dovetails pretty nicely with what the state and OSU are reporting about improved access to childcare. You're looking at it from a lane county perspective. Tell us what you found.
SAJINA SHRESTHA: So, what I found is that the study that you mentioned has been looking at data from 2018 to 2024 and with Lane County, what I've seen is that over the years, from 2018 to 2024 zero- to two-year-old that age bracket, they're still a desert over the years, but three-to-five-year old’s, they are now no longer a desert.
MICHAEL DUNNE: …and what does that mean?
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Well, a county is considered a desert if 33% or less kids have access to a slot, a child care slot, let's say so it's a child care desert. But what we've seen now is that in 2024 three- to five-year-old’s now, at least in that age bracket in Lane County, at least 37% of kids have access to a slot. So, it's not like, Oh, they're perfect. It's just that they don't meet the criteria to be a desert anymore. But I've talked to professionals who child care, professionals in Lane County who say that, hey, just because we're not a desert doesn't mean we don't have issues yet, still, you know, there's so many things that we could still get help with, and number shows, you know, it's only 37%.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, numbers are improving, but it might not be a situation where a lot of people are feeling any better about childcare access. Is that kind of what they're telling you?
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Yeah, and something else that they're telling me is that, well, what helps right now is that publicly funded slots are really helping give more access to kids to get childcare. But there are other factors. You know, the cost is a really big one. I was told that on average to childcare for a kid on average, and again, this can vary by age preference, language barriers, etc. On average, a kid's childcare a year costs $18,000 to a parent in one county. And it's not just that, you know, it's also the fact that in some rural places, you need to travel further to get childcare, or, let's say you work a morning shift in retail, or you are a nurse doing night shifts. There aren't really a lot of childcare places that will take your kid during those hours, because they also operate on a nine to five schedule.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I know you talked with the new leader at United Way of Lane County, and they kind of have the pulse of the nonprofit community in Lane County. What were some of the things that they told you?
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Some of the things they told me was that a lot of parents right now are cobbling together childcare. Essentially, they're maybe working remotely, or they're switching on and off from remote, working remotely, or they're using informal care, like parents and family members and nannies, or they're using only, like part time child care, or just a small combination of a unique combination of all of it, because with each parent and each child, there's a different need. You know, you might have a child that needs more care, like and just you might have a child that needs more care, you might have a child that would like that the parent would like to have somebody who speaks Spanish provide the care so, so that the child grows up speaking Spanish. So, it's just that there's a unique set of needs, and it's just that just having slots isn't like the only way to fix it this, I think Alma, who is the new leader at United Way, she told me, one of the ways people are getting creative is by teaching businesses and employers what they can do to like, basically, help their employees and support the employees who have children and are trying to access child care. So, something they have is like writing guidelines on maybe on the different ways you can provide time off for someone with a child, or maybe updating your child at work policy.
MICHAEL DUNNE: It struck me as I was reading through your story and you just articulated it. But I want to kind of pull the lens out a little bit. There's no one size fits all for child care. And certainly, I think, after covid, and even, you know now child care, there are so many different work schedules, there's so many different variables, just kind of talk more about that, that it's just, I mean, you can't look at a family and say, Oh, well, that's we can solve that with this, because it could be very different, can't it?
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Exactly and like I said, every parent, every family, is unique. You know, you have some parents. Well, one might be working a nine to five, but then the other parent is working a retail job or a night shift job. Some might want, you know, someone who's similar to their culture so that their kid grows up learning more about their culture. Some might be living in a rural area where it's harder to drive to your childcare place. Some might like just, yeah, it's just every parent, every kid, has a unique set of needs. And it's not that the situation isn't improving. It's just that the situation could also there's more things that could be done about it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Sure, I also imagine Lane County, I always think, is a great microcosm of the state, in that it has areas that are very urban, and then it has areas that are very rural. I didn't know if, in talking to some of your experts, you talked about how access in rural parts of the county might be really, really low.
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Yeah, something an example Alma gave me was, let's say you have your work starts at eight, but the child care center opens at eight, but your work is at. One way across the town, but your child care center is another way across the town. Yeah, how are you making it in time? How are you driving to your workplace? No, I mean, sorry, how are you driving to the childcare place, dropping your kid off, making sure your kid has everything, then driving to work and then starting work, and then having to take time off from work because some childcare places close at four, but most traditional workplaces close at five. So how are you taking time off to go and pick up your kid? And now you are wondering, Where can I leave my kid while I go to work? Because maybe my boss doesn't want some kid running around. Sure, sure, it's just a lot of cobbling together resources for each parent.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, and in a county that is often described as being the size of Connecticut, those kinds of trips can really take a toll. You know, my last question for you, Sajina is in your reporting, you also talked about the fact that, hey, I mean, we're, we're, this is happening during an era of historic federal cuts to all sorts of things. I didn't know if you had sort of some, you know, kind of anecdotal evidence of how federal cuts might be impacting this, you know, somewhat good news story.
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Yeah. I mean, Oregon's Head Start program, currently, it's in limbo. I believe what's happening is that the federal government has reversed a rule that said, hey, regardless. So, the rule was, regardless of immigration status, kids who are up to five years or younger deserve to have early childhood care, and that was through the Head Start Program, which is what a lot of kids use. And this would and we are still waiting to see how this would impact Oregon. And it really is a wait and see moment, because this program is used by more than 12,000 kids in Oregon. So right now, we don't quite know what's going to impact Oregon specifically, but we do know that there might be some kids in the 12 in that 12,000 pool that might not get access to the same childcare as they had before.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, this is good news, but again, it's nuanced. Sajina Shrestha, our reporter here at KLCC, thanks so much for bringing us the Lane County perspective on this story.
SAJINA SHRESTHA: Yeah, thank you for having me, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow, on the show, I'll bring you the story of how I recently hired a crew of goats to help reclaim my backyard from blackberries and Ivy, and how you can too. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon On The Record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
