Oregon Child Care Slots Falls Far Short Of Meeting The Demand

PORTLAND, OR – In each of Oregon's 36 counties, there are not enough child care slots for infants and toddlers 2-years-old and younger to meet the demand. That's the conclusion of a new report from Oregon State University.

The report looked at the availability of child care slots for pre-schoolers across the state, breaking it into infants 2-years-old and younger and toddlers 3-years-old to 5-years-old. The conclusion is that most counties are child care "deserts.

"Availability of child care plays a critical role in the lives of Oregon's families with young children, including if, where and when parents work," Megan Pratt, the report's lead author and an assistant professor of practice in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences and the Extension Family and Community Health Program, Megan Pratt says.

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"There's also a growing understanding of the central role stable, quality child care plays in supporting a child's early development, providing the foundation for life-long learning and well-being."

Pratt and her colleagues did the study for the Oregon Early Learning Division, a frequent partner of OSU on child care studies.

They say that counties are considered a "child care desert" if less than 33 percent of that county's children have access to a slot. Only 12 percent of children two and younger have access to slots across the state.

Things are better for kids three to five-years-old. Twenty-nine percent of them across the state have access to a slot.

For all kids five and under, only 21 percent - about one in five – have access to a slot.

Pratt and her colleagues say that while the number of slots have grown in recent years, the total has not kept pace with the number of children.

They say that one key to improving things would be increasing the number of publicly available slots.

The report concludes that seven of the nine Oregon counties that are not considered child care deserts for preschoolers would become deserts without the publicly funded slots.

"Now we have a more nuanced picture of child care access in Oregon," Pratt says. "It really highlights the issue of infant/toddler child care needs and illustrates the variation across counties."

You can read the whole report here:

Photo via Oregon State.