A Message from leadership
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This month’s update from Interim Director Carey McCann
It is hard to believe that December is upon us, with the end of the year quickly approaching. I have a few things to share in this edition of the Community Newsletter. DELC will be sharing 2025 highlights of programs and impact closer to the first of the year. Please be on the lookout!
Visiting Casita Azul
A couple of weeks ago I had to the chance to join Senator Sollman and Wendy Gibson in a site visit at Casita Azul, a new center in Hillsboro offering Spanish immersion early learning and care. It was wonderful to see how a program is leveraging private pay, Preschool Promise, and ERDC to offer services to families in their community. We were joined by their community partners from the Washington County Early Learning Hub and Community Action’s Child Care Resource & Referral and Head Start leaders for a discussion that explored the opportunities and challenges from the local, county and state perspectives. We appreciated the robust conversation and wonderful hosts.
What Am I Reading
At least monthly, I look forward to receiving an update from the RAPID Survey Project, featuring the voices of families and child care providers since April 2020. The Survey Project seeks to understand and elevate the experiences and challenges facing families and to provide timely, actionable insights that inform policies and programs. You can explore their publications – the most recent ones in November included: Hunger is Increasing Among those Who Provide Care to Young Children, and Five Years of Parent Voices.
Visiting with Head Start of Lane County
Last week, DELC staff joined the executive leadership of Head Start of Lane County, along with other local and state-level leaders, including Senator Merkley, Mayor Knudson of Eugene, and Mayor VanGordon of Springfield. This visit was an opportunity for roundtable discussions on the positive impact of Head Start in communities. It also allowed for open sharing of the challenges the program has faced. We are grateful to all who visited with us and shared the important stories of impact.
Caring Communities update
In February of 2025, DELC leadership and teams began visiting sites across Oregon as a part of the Caring Communities Tour. We would like to thank the communities below for sharing space and time this year. We appreciate our partners and their teams who coordinated visits and educational opportunities, answering our questions, and joyfully shared stories of adversity and success so DELC teams could learn more about the work that is happening in each community.
This year we have visited the following regions:
- Yamhill
- Eastern
- Blue Mountain
- Linn, Benton, Lincoln
- Clackamas
- Harney, Grant
- Southern
- Lane
We look forward to visiting more communities next year.
Legislative Days
Recently, given the forecasted decrease in state revenue for the current biennium (2025-2027), the legislature was very focused during the November Legislative Committee Days, on hearing from agencies about 2.5% and 5% reduction scenarios they were required to prepare in the event that future revenue forecasts continue to show a deficit as we enter the February 2026 legislative session.
On Tuesday, November 18, DELC leadership presented to the Ways and Means Joint Education Subcommittee. (For those interested in checking it out, DELC’s presentation starts at 1:54:00.) Committee members expressed how difficult these conversations around possible reductions are. At this time, no reduction decisions have been made by the legislature, but we will continue to work with the Legislative Fiscal Office and legislators to respond to questions and requests.
Aside from budget presentations, DELC was also invited to give two other presentations to the Senate Early Childhood and Behavioral Health Committee. Child Care Licensing Director Alicia Gardiner provided an update on the Micro-Center Pilot Project. The committee shared continued interest in looking at ways to support more centralized childcare options, including by addressing local zoning and investing more in ECE programming around the state. Following the Micro-Center presentation was a presentation on Child Care Liability Insurance, a topic that is still being researched here in Oregon and by national groups.