Most people have a general understanding of the purpose and need for child care. They know it provides a valuable service that enables many folks to work each day and they may even use child care themselves. They may also know that early care and education programs provide important learning opportunities for children during those early years when the majority of brain growth is taking place.
Many people don’t realize, however, that child care is an important industry all on its own, ranking 17th out of the state’s 410 industries. In Deschutes County, over 4,200 parents pay for child care each day allowing them to earn approximately $150 million dollars annually.
To support this need, there are nearly 300 child care businesses that employ roughly 800 people, pay wages of approximately $12 million, and stimulate spending of another $21 million dollars as they care for 4,568 children. This important industry is responsible for nearly 1,000 jobs (either directly or indirectly through spending) and is linked to 46 percent of the county’s other industries. It is a vital component to the health of our community and the families who live and work in our county.
In order for the early care and education (ECE) industry to contribute to the vitality of the community, it must be a healthy and robust system, consisting of the following elements: Safety, affordability, accessibility and quality.
Safety
The physical environment is free of hazards and the people with whom children come into contact are trustworthy. To ensure this level of safety requires much oversight. The state has regulations and requirements in place to ensure safety with programs and care facilities that are licensed, however, many programs are exempt from licensing. In Deschutes County, 37 percent of the centers (not including Head Start) and 39 percent of the child care homes are exempt from licensing. Even basic elements of safety such as background checks of staff are not routinely required. Exempt family child care providers don’t require these checks.
As of July 2010, all centers are required to register with the state, thus prompting a background check, yet there is little to no monitoring to see if this requirement is met in these centers. Fortunately, some license exempt centers such as Head Start and early child special education preschools have strict program and background check requirements. This basic requirement should be mandatory for all programs.
Affordability
Oregon has an Affordability benchmark of ten percent, meaning that child care should cost no more than ten percent of a family’s income. Child care subsidies such as Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) are intended to help families meet that target. Today, parents are faced with paying as much as 30 percent of their incomes for child care, or cobbling together care. When surveyed, employees indicated that the cost of child care is a major concern.
Accessibility
Parents can find care that meets their needs, whether they have infants or toddlers, children with special needs, or jobs that require them to work off hours. The State benchmark is 25 slots per 100 children. Currently, Deschutes County has 20 slots per 100 children; however the challenge is to make sure the slots reflect the needs in the community. Twenty percent of those seeking child care struggle to find off hour care such as weekends, swing shifts, and night shifts. Child care is also a concern to employers as they depend on their employees to be at work.
Quality
The single most important factor in young children’s successful development is the relations that a child experience early in life. Children’s success depends on both developmentally appropriate education and nurturing care. The early years, ages 0-5, are a time of tremendous brain growth. Much of this growth is stimulation dependent, emphasizing the importance of an enriched, developmentally appropriate environment. Efforts to improve quality can be found locally in trainings and coursework. There is also exciting momentum at a state level. A current focus of the state’s new Early Learning Council is toward improving quality in early care and education (ECE) systems.
For instance, in the case of child care, the state is creating a tiered quality rating system that will provide monitoring to the child care industry and valuable information for the community. Providers can move up the ladder as they increase their education and training. This new model builds on previous quality improvement work but also includes supports and incentives.
When considering the value of the ECE system, the return on investment is clear. Across studies, the dollars saved in the long run for each dollar spent up front is substantial (possibly as high as $16 for every dollar invested). As a community, we are all impacted by the quality of early childhood care and education. Whether you are a parent trying to make ends meet, a provider seeking to deliver a quality program, or an employer counting on your employees to be at work, we all have a stake in the quality of our ECE system.
As we have looked at our current efforts in Deschutes County, it is clear that we need to pull together and contribute to creating a more comprehensive, well-coordinated and quality-driven ECE system to meet the needs of children, families, employers and providers in our community. The first step is to support early childhood care and education by acknowledging the contributions of the ECE industry to the economy, to parent’s ability to work, and to the healthy development of children. In addition, employers, businesses, and economic development planners can educate themselves and their employees on the importance of the early years and the benefits of high quality child care.
Visit www.deschutes.org/ecwellness for ideas about how you can make a difference.
According to James Heckman, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, “The best way to improve the American workforce in the 21st century is to invest in early childhood education, to ensure that even the most disadvantaged children have the opportunity to succeed along side their more advantaged peers”.
Stephanie Sundborg is the Early Childhood Specialist for Deschutes County Children and Families Commission. She can be reached at 541-385-1405, stephanie.sundborg@co.deschutes.or.us. Thank you to Mary Lorence for her contribution to this information and OSU Extension Service for their work on the economic impact of child care in Deschutes County.
