DELC Community Newsletter – Page 6

October 2024 Community Newsletter

October 2024 Department of Early Learning and Care Updates

A Message from the Director

I can’t believe we are officially entering the Fall season! Another month has flown by, and I am excited to share some of my high points with you all as we close out September.

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Our October Update

Culture Assessment We have conducted an in-depth culture assessment of the agency with the support of Workplace Change. We were able to share our plans to respond to this assessment with DELC staff a couple of weeks ago, and are in the process of developing a dashboard to track out progress. As a new agency, DELC has a tremendous opportunity to be intentional in our work, the internal structures and processes we develop, and the culture we want to foster across our teams. Our Executive Leadership Team is committed to living our agency values of equity, integrity and continuous improvement and look forward to sharing more information in the coming months!

Hunt Institute I had the opportunity to travel with Kate Denison, Government Affairs Manager, as well as the Governor’s Office, Rep. Hoa Nguyen, Rep. Lucetta Elmer, and The Children’s Institute to spend two and a half days talking about and thinking about early learning alongside all 50 states and territories. We heard from leaders from across the country as they shared innovative ideas for increasing access to preschool and child care, along with the importance of the early years on a child’s long-term development. We also got to have State Team time to think about priorities for the next legislative session. While the days were long, it was a great reminder for me to pause and focus on relationship building not just within Oregon, but with our partner agencies in other states as well.

Head Start Awareness Month This month is Head Start Awareness Month! Head Start has been serving children and families across the country since 1965. Recognizing the tremendous impact of this two-generation program, Oregon created the Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten program (Oregon Prekindergarten at the time) to duplicate the federal Head Start model with state funds. Now, thousands of families are benefiting from these services across the state. You can learn more about Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten/Head Start on our website: https://www.oregon.gov/delc/programs/Pages/head-start-opk.aspx.

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September 2024 Community Newsletter

September 2024 Department of Early Learning and Care Updates

A Message from the Director

Welcome to the September edition of the Community Newsletter! I cannot believe how quickly this summer flew by. As we return to school after a Labor Day weekend and begin a new year of programming, I hope you have had time to relax and take advantage of the Oregon sunshine. August was another busy month, and there are a few items I wanted to highlight for you all as summer comes to a close.

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Our September Update

Agency Request Budget
All agencies are required to release an Agency Request Budget (ARB) for the 2025-27 biennium by September 1, 2024. ARBs are meant to inform the executive branch budget. Our team is working to submit ours and provide an updated webpage with more information by next week. This biennium’s ARB is more closely tied to the forecasted available revenue for next biennium. Based on what we know today, state economists project a limited budget environment for next biennium and agencies are limited to a 1% cap for any new General Fund investments. For DELC, that means a little under $6 million is available for us to propose investments for, outside of any Federal Fund requests. As a new agency, we still have a lot of foundational work to do to meet the needs of the children, families, and providers we serve. Because of this, we have focused these investments on internal operations to help us meet the Governor’s expectations around customer service. We also have some recommended investments to expand our licensing capacity using Federal Funds.

Finally, there were a few areas of priority for the Governor that were exempt from the 1% cap: housing, behavioral health, and education/early literacy. For DELC, that means the Birth Through Five Literacy Plan that was established by the legislature via HB 3198. So, in addition to our operational and licensing requests, we also have a request to promote early literacy supports through existing program infrastructure in response to community input. We have highlighted a number of additional areas that may need investment, but this is just the first phase of the budget development process. The next big milestone will be the Governor’s Recommended Budget, or GRB, which will not be a mirror image of agency ARBs. The GRB will be strengthened and informed by what agencies put forward, balanced to the December forecast (released in November). The GRB will be released on December 1, 2024, and will be the next big piece before the legislative session kicks off next year.

Separate from budget, we are working with legislative counsel to draft potential legislative concepts for technical fixes that could move forward as bills. We’ll receive drafts of those bills in late October and then work to determine whether these concepts are moving forward in the legislative session. If so, those bills would drop in January before the session kicks off. More to come!

Employment Related Day Care
During the 2024 legislative session, the legislature allocated an additional $71 million through a Special Purpose Appropriation (SPA) to ensure we are able to pay for service for the families currently enrolled in the ERDC program. Because this program had undergone so many changes in 2023, we wanted to have at least one year of data without any major policy changes to be able to model future budgetary impacts. We’re closing in on that one-year mark since taking over the program on July 1, 2023. The waitlist that went into effect in November 2023 has definitely slowed the growth of the program, although we do see some small, continued growth each month.

We are continuing to track the growth of the caseload and associated budget impacts and will prepare to make a request to the Emergency Board – also known as E-Board – in December for a portion of the SPA. This will enable us to stay within budget for the remainder of the biennium but will not allow us to take families off of the waitlist. We know the critical role that high quality, accessible child care plays in our communities and will continue to balance access to services while working within our available budget.

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Measles Message for Early Learners

Measles is circulating in Oregon. As of 30 August 2024, 31 measles cases have been reported—mostly in children, and all unvaccinated.

Measles is highly contagious, quite unpleasant, and potentially dangerous. Measles is caused by a virus and spread from person to person through the air by infectious droplets. Just being in the same room with a child with measles could result in exposure. Measles generally presents with high fever (~104°F/40°C), cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes, and rash. A person with measles is considered contagious 4 days before the rash begins, so they can spread it even before they know they have it. They remain contagious for 4 days after the rash appears.

Safe and effective vaccines are available.

Although there is no cure for measles, there is a reassuringly safe and exceptionally effective vaccine—MMR—which offers protection against measles, mumps, and rubella. Healthy early learners should get two doses of MMR vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. The vaccine is 97% effective in measles prevention.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html

To learn more, speak with your health care provider or visit https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/DISEASESCONDITIONS/DISEASESAZ/Pages/measles.aspx or https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/index.html

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DELC’s 2025-27 Agency Request Budget

Every two years, state agencies in Oregon are tasked with creating an Agency Request Budget (ARB). This important document outlines the agency’s recommended investments for the Governor and Legislature to consider. The 2025-2027 ARB marks a significant milestone for the Department of Early Learning and Care (DELC), as it’s the first budget developed since the department’s inception.

DELC was established with a clear mission: to unify and strengthen Oregon’s early learning and child care system. By bringing together Oregon’s largest child care and early learning programs, DELC is committed to ensuring that all families with young children have access to the services, support, and information they need to thrive. The department’s approach is comprehensive, focusing on data-driven quality assurance, coordinated program administration, and active community engagement to shape policies that directly impact children and families.

The 2025-2027 ARB is built around two core priorities:

Sustainable Operations: Ensuring that DELC has the necessary infrastructure to support early learning and care across the state.
Access to Resources: Providing children and families with the tools and supports they need to foster a love of reading and promote literacy from a young age.

These priorities are vital as DELC continues its work to create a robust, equitable, and effective early learning system for Oregon’s youngest residents.

To dive deeper into DELC’s 2025-2027 Agency Request Budget and understand how these investments will shape the future of early learning in Oregon, read the full report here: https://www.oregon.gov/delc/about-us/Pages/delc-arb.aspx .

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You are invited! Online Provider Management Platform Engagement Session

DELC is designing a new Online Provider Management Platform that will integrate CCLD licensing and the ERDC program into one system.

The creation of DELC brought together the Child Care Licensing Division (CCLD) and the Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) program into the same new agency. Both are using 20+ year-old legacy systems. DELC is designing a new Online Provider Management Platform that will integrate CCLD licensing and the ERDC program into one system. The Online Provider Management Platform will allow child care providers to login and access certain licensing information, complete licensing applications, and track training requirements. Additionally, ERDC providers will be able to login and complete and submit billing forms using the Online Provider Management Platform. While we are designing this new Online Provider Management Platform, we want to hear what would be helpful to you to manage your own ERDC and Licensing in this new online system.

If you are interested in participating in an Engagement Session for this new system, please register for an engagement based on the type of care you provide. You can register here. A link will be sent to you two hours before your session.

Licensed Exempt ERDC providers

Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (interpretation available)

Certified and Registered Family providers

Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (interpretation available)

Certified Centers & School Age programs

Thursday, October 24, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

If you have questions, please contact Dawn Taylor at dawn.taylor@delc.oregon.gov or 971.375.5045

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August 2024 Community Newsletter

August 2024 Department of Early Learning and Care Updates

A Message from the Director

Welcome to the July Edition of Chatterjee Chats! This month represented a big milestone with the celebration of One Year of DELC! This past year has been a blur of activity – we have accomplished so much together, and there is still more work to do. Here are some reflections from me as we close out the month and head into Year Two 😊

Do you want to receive this update in your email? Sign up for our Community Newsletter and Child Care Updates twice monthly send by subscribing here.

Our August Update

Customer Service Survey
As a new agency, we will be launching our first DELC Customer Service Survey in August. If you have received funding from us, called our customer service team, been licensed or interacted with us in any way – we want to hear from you! While all agencies are required to conduct a customer service survey, we are particularly excited to hear from you as we’ve offered services as DELC. This survey should take you less than five minutes, and any feedback you share with us will help us operationalize our value for continuous improvement. For more information, please check out our website: Department of Early Learning and Care : About Us : State of Oregon

Budget Development
This will continue to be a topic here for awhile! We are entering the last month of Agency Request Budget (ARB) development. ARB will be released by September 1, 2024. Given the current revenue forecast, our ARB requests will be smaller compared to last biennium, but it is just the first step in the process and there is still a lot of work to do before the Governor’s Recommended Budget (GRB) is released in December.

Legislative Concepts
In addition to budget development, another part of preparing for the Legislative Session is preparing legislative concepts (LCs) for consideration. While ARB will be released in September, LCs will take a bit more time. We won’t expect to receive a draft of our legislative concepts until late October, and we will have a very short turnaround (a few days). From there, our legislative concepts will still need to be reviewed and approved by the Governor’s Office prior to release. More information to come, but this is still in the works.

Tribal-State Government-to-Government Summit
On July 24, DELC’s Tribal Affairs Director, Paulina Whitehat and I had the great pleasure of attending the 2024 Tribal-State Government-to-Government Summit, co-hosted by Governor Tina Kotek and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. The summit took place in Canyonville at Seven Feathers Casino Resort. Tribal leaders of Oregon’s nine federally recognized sovereign Tribal nations along with staff from multiple state agencies discussed a range of issues including evolving best practices in Tribal consultation approaches, indigenous ecological knowledge, and topics related to economic and sustainable futures. It was wonderful to see so many colleagues and partners in person, and the summit is always an informative and moving event. We are deeply appreciative of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe for hosting this year’s gathering.

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July 2024 Community Newsletter

July 2024 Department of Early Learning and Care Updates

A Message from the Director

My name is Alyssa Chatterjee, and I am the director of the Department of Early Learning and Care, also known as DELC. Going forward, this will be a segment where I share my reflections on some of the big work we are doing across the agency each month. Today though, I wanted to take a look back at the past year – our first year as an agency.

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Our one-year anniversary update

There was an incredible amount of work that went into creating DELC between 2021 and 2023. But the work isn’t finished! Here are a few high points I’d like to share with you from the past year:

DELC Strategic Planning & DEI Action Plan Implementation – Our team worked with you – parents, providers, community partners – as well as our internal staff to design ambitious, but achievable plans for our agency that are now live. You can now check out Growing Oregon Together and our DEI Action Plan for yourself! Last week, we kicked off our first Implementation Team to keep this work moving – I am so excited to start making progress on these plans and share more with you in the coming months.
Birth Through Five Literacy – The Governor’s Early Literacy Success Initiative recognized the important role that early care and education plays in literacy development. We released our first Birth Through Five Literacy Plan in December, and are in the process of releasing a Request for Applications for programs to apply for the Birth Through Five Literacy Fund. As part of the Governor’s focus on early literacy, we were honored to be part of the expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program! Now, even more young children will have access to a free, developmentally appropriate book to look forward to every month.
Child Care Licensing and Risk-Assessed Rules – We have updated the Certified Center licensing rules and completed the first stage of Risk-Assessed Rules data collection. This is a critical step in creating consistent, objective licensing monitoring and compliance that reflects the spectrum of risk to children. We are beginning engagement to revise our Registered Family and Certified Family rulesets as well.
Child Care Infrastructure Fund – This week, we cohost a webinar with Business Oregon to share more information about the Child Care Infrastructure Fund application that will go live later this month. This is an amazing opportunity for child care providers, community-based organizations, culturally relevant programs, and other partners to access funding specifically for capital investments and improvements in their programs. This is an amazing example of how agencies can work together for a common goal, and highlights the shared responsibility many agencies have in supporting access to child care.

This is just a small sample – there is so much more incredible work we have accomplished together over the last year. I encourage you to read the anniversary press release for additional highlights. I am excited to continue on this journey together.

Cheers to 1 Year of DELC!