Category: Press Releases

Growing Enrollment of Oregon’s Employment Related Day Care program Prompts Waitlist after November 3

Current ERDC participants will not be affected

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SALEM, ORE. – Today, the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care (DELC) announced they will pause Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) program enrollment and open a waitlist due to increased demand and limited funding. Families who believe they are eligible for ERDC should apply by November 3, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.

Families currently receiving ERDC support will continue to receive benefits after November 3, 2023.

Enrollment in the ERDC program, which is funded by both federal and state investments, has grown by 52% in the 2021-2023 biennium due to expansions in family eligibility and program improvements. Enrollment has grown 22% in the last two months alone due to changes that include lower copays, enrollment-based pay for child care providers, opening the program to non-working students, extending eligibility timeframes, and minimizing the number of reasons a family may lose their ERDC benefits.

Families with specific needs outlined in Oregon rule can still enroll in ERDC after the waitlist is implemented:
● Families recently or currently receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Temporary Assistance for Domestic Violence Survivors (TA-DVS) will still be able to enroll in ERDC.

● Families will also bypass the waitlist if they are referred by the Child Welfare
division of the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) or are reapplying
for ERDC within two months of benefits ending.

● Families currently receiving ERDC will continue to receive benefits after
November 3, 2023.

“Every family should have access to affordable child care options, and there has been a lot of great work done to expand eligibility for this important program,” Governor Tina Kotek said. “This means we need more state funding for ERDC – at least $50 million more this biennium – if we’re going to meet the demand for child care assistance across the state. There have been productive conversations with legislative leaders about addressing the funding gap in the next session.”

“The Employment Related Day Care program is working better for families, which is a really good thing,” said Alyssa Chatterjee, director of DELC, the new state agency that began overseeing ERDC on July 1, 2023. “The successful expansion and improvement of the program has demonstrated what families already know: Oregonians depend on child care to keep our economy running. When we invest in early education and child care, we invest in families and our current workforce while simultaneously investing in our collective future. We are working closely with the Legislature to identify more funding and are focused on connecting families to other available programs in the meantime.”

ERDC currently supports about 14,000 families across the state in paying for child care. Families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level (e.g., up to $5,000 per month for a family of four) pay a small copay based on income and can enroll with a provider that accepts ERDC.

Once more funding becomes available and enrollment drops to a sustainable level, families will be selected from the waitlist based on the date they were added. The first to apply will be the first selected for eligibility screening and potential enrollment. Once a family is selected from the waitlist, they will receive a notice inviting them to apply for ERDC within 45 days. The waitlist is likely to be in place for at least 18 months, depending on the level of investment and the rate at which families leave the program.

DELC will provide regular updates to families added to the waitlist.

Families can apply for ERDC by November 3, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. in the following ways:
● Visit Benefits.Oregon.gov
● Go to their local office
● Call 1-800-699-9075

Families who need support paying for child care after November 3, 2023 are
encouraged to reach out to 211 or their local Early Learning Hub to apply for other affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs through DELC, such as Preschool Promise and Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten. Families with specific needs listed above can still enroll after November 3, 2023 and will not be affected by the waitlist. Go to Oregon.gov/DELC/ERDC to learn more.

###############

About the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care
The Department of Early Learning and Care’s mission is to foster coordinated, culturally appropriate, and family-centered services that recognize and respect the strengths and needs of all children, families, and early learning and care professionals. More information about DELC is available at Oregon.gov/DELC You can also connect with DELC on Facebook or sign up for news alerts and updates.

Contact:
Kate Gonsalves, 503-428-7292
delc.media@delc.oregon.gov

(Salem, Ore) – In a new study, Oregon families in three priority populations shared their experiences and insights about child care, their struggles to find high-quality, affordable care that meets their needs, and their actionable recommendations for how to improve Oregon’s early learning system. The Oregon Early Learning Division (ELD) commissioned researchers from the Center for Improvement of Child and Families Services at Portland State University to conduct this study funded by the federal Birth-to-Five Preschool Development Grant.

Eighty-one families participated in interviews or focus groups for this research. The ELD chose to prioritize the following populations because they had not been a focus of previous work and their experiences are critical to informing Oregon’s work to create a more equitable early learning system:

• Families with a child under age five who was suspended or expelled from an early learning program;
• Families with infants and toddlers and who (a) identify as African American/Black; (b) are Spanish speaking and live in rural and non-urban areas of Oregon; (c) identify as Native American/American Indian; or (d) are English speaking and live in rural Oregon;
• Families with a child aged 0–5 years and who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Among the key findings, families reported a clear need for more affordable, high-quality child care options. This included having child care providers who spoke their home languages, who reflected their racial, ethnic, and/or cultural backgrounds, who were part of the LGBTQIA+ community, who were located closer to them (especially in rural parts of Oregon), who were able to meet their children’s medical, developmental, and/or behavioral needs, and who they felt they could trust to provide nurturing, safe, and culturally appropriate care.

“Child care is a critical support to working families and this report highlights what families have long known – that high quality, inclusive, and culturally appropriate child care is inaccessible across Oregon,” said Oregon Early Learning System Director Alyssa Chatterjee. “Now, more than ever, we need to see investments in child care that expand access and reduces this burden for our families.”

Families also described ongoing challenges and limited available supports in their search for quality child care and other resources. For example, families spoke about waiting from six months to three years on child care waiting lists, and shared compelling stories about the emotional and financial burdens they experienced. Others talked about compromises they made to find, afford, and use child care that would work well for their child and their family.

“While there were a few differences across the families we spoke with, their stories and recommendations were overwhelming similar – Oregon lacks sufficient options to meet the child care needs,” said Portland State University Lead Researcher Beth Green. “Families are bending over backwards to do the best they can for their children, at considerable emotional, personal, and financial cost to themselves.”

The full reports include direct quotes from families, information about the unique experiences and recommendations of families, and more detailed summaries of the key findings. The three reports – one per priority population – and executive summary are posted on ELD’s website. Below is a sampling of family quotes, which serve as examples of the rich information available in the full reports:

“That’s our other biggest challenge, just paying $1,250 a month for the babies, which is more than our $900 house mortgage. It’s eating us alive, but they’re the best daycare around, they’re the most reliable.”

–Rural English-Speaking Infant and Toddler Focus Group Participant

“As we’re having discussions about caregivers that value and respect our family, it would be wonderful to have a caregiver who was in our community, but I didn’t run across any queer caregivers, or daycare centers when I was searching. That would have been ideal. I’m compromising by not getting that.”

–LGBTQIA+ Family Member

“I would love to have a space where my daughter sees people that look like her and reflected by her, and that she’s not the only Black girl in the class, or one of three Black girls.”

–Black and African American Focus Group Participant

[fruitful_sep]

Media Contacts:
Marion Suitor Barnes, 971-719-6461, Early Learning Division
Beth Green, 503-725-9904, Portland State University