Tag: CCU-August-2025

August 2025 Community Newsletter

August 2025 Department of Early Learning and Care Updates.

A Message from the Director

 

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Our August Update

Another month has come to a close and summer continues to speed by! I wanted to share some reflections with you all as we head into our last month of summer.

Celebrating 1 Year of Growing Oregon Together!

It was really moving to see the progress report of the one-year anniversary of our strategic plan. I’m in awe of how much we’ve collectively accomplished over the last year in making steady progress towards all six goals. The highlights on the data dashboard illustrate the many ways in which our work is smart, measurable, achievable relevant and time bound. (SMART). This work involves all teams across the agency, and it was impressive to see that we are strongly on track and meeting our goals. In case you missed it, you can read the updates on our website: https://delcnews.org/2025/07/15/growing-oregon-together-celebrating-one-year-of-progress/

Caring Communities Tours

As I prepare to take maternity leave, I have so appreciated the chance to visit several of our Early Learning Hub regions to see the incredible work happening to support children, families, and child care providers in our communities. Please check out our latest visit to Lane County and all the incredible work happening there. Thank you to all of the hosts that have put these incredible sessions together – I am excited that our team is on track to visit all 16 Hub regions by the end of the year!

Taking Care in Times of Uncertainty

While we continue to navigate federal changes, I want to acknowledge the personal toll these policies are taking on our children, families, and communities. At DELC, we believe it’s important for every child, family, and provider to feel safe, respected, and supported. For more information regarding Oregon’s Sanctuary Promise laws and how it is implemented within state agencies, please visit https://www.doj.state.or.us/oregon-department-of-justice/civil-rights/sanctuary-promise/  

For suspected violations of Oregon’s Sanctuary Promise laws, the Oregon Department of Justice has a “Sanctuary Promise Hotline” where anyone can report, receive support, or be connected to resources.

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Notice to Registered Family and Certified Family Child Care Providers 

Informational videos about the new Family Child Care Rule Revisions are available on the DELC YouTube channel and on the DELC website on our Rules page to help you understand and navigate the new rules and the impacts to your programs.

August 1, 2025

Informational videos about the new Family Child Care Rule Revisions are available on the DELC YouTube channel and on the DELC website on our Rules page to help you understand and navigate the new rules and the impacts to your programs.

As always, if you have additional questions, please reach out to your licensing specialist!

You can access the Registered Family Rule Revision Video Series here:

You can access the Certified Family Rule Revision Video Series here:

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Head Start Community Event: Visiting with Head Start, Families, and Community 

This month the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Head Start and EHS Head Start hosted an in-person summer gathering for families and children. The event showcased valuable local resources such as housing and homelessness services, ODHS connections, and a gleaner’s program where families can pick produce and receive a percentage for free to take home.

August 1, 2025

This month the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Head Start and EHS Head Start hosted an in-person summer gathering for families and children. The event showcased valuable local resources such as housing and homelessness services, ODHS connections, and a gleaner’s program where families can pick produce and receive a percentage for free to take home. The gleaner’s program was a special favorite booth as they handed out fresh delicious cherries to each family!

DELC staffer, Christina Cortez-Bannick, had a wonderful time connecting with members of the community and enjoying the laughter of children as they played together, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and parents found time to connect. 

“It was a beautiful event, and I appreciated the opportunity to visit, as a head start kid, with my fellow head start families.”

Thank you to Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Head Start for the invitation, we look forward to next year!

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Caring Communities Tour Mid-Year Update – July 2025 

In February we launched the Caring Communities Tour, a two-year long journey visiting early learning and care partners and leaders across Oregon. In collaboration with Early Learning Hubs and Child Care Resource and Referrals, DELC leadership will visit each region to connect with and learn from local leaders, Tribes, providers, families about the unique needs, experiences, and approaches to early care and education across the state.   

Updated September 2, 2025

In February we launched the Caring Communities Tour, a two-year long journey visiting early learning and care partners and leaders across Oregon. In collaboration with Early Learning Hubs and Child Care Resource and Referrals, DELC leadership will visit each region to connect with and learn from local leaders, Tribes, providers, families about the unique needs, experiences, and approaches to early care and education across the state.   

We have learned from and connected with each region by observing joyful classrooms and listening to providers express their commitment to early education. New ideas have been sparked from learning about creative approaches to complex problems. Since February, we have visited the following regions,   

  • Linn, Benton, Lincoln   
  • Clackamas   
  • Harney, Grant   
  • Southern
  • Lane

To every single person who helped plan and coordinate each of these visits, thank you. Your investment of time and energy has made these visits an opportunity to learn and connect, to build and strengthen relationships. It is inspiring to be in collaboration with you in this child and family centered work.     

During each visit we heard about the challenges posed by the local economy, workforce shortages, geographic landscape, and natural resource limitations bring. Additionally , we were inspired by the creative, community-driven solutions emerging across regions  to solve and thrive despite these challenges- strategically braiding funding to improve programming, repurposing a grocery store into early learning spaces, including grand-parents and neighbors into children’s care, providing alternative transportation options, offering business accelerator program for registered family providers, increasing pedestrian safety in collaboration with local transportation districts, strengthening collaborations with supportive backbone agencies, and initiating partnerships with local employment organizations for workforce shortages.   

After each visit, we are taking time to reflect on our observations and what was shared with us. We are celebrating your work and thinking ahead to improve our policies, programs, and continue addressing system-level challenges. Moving forward, because we believe we can always do better, we will also strengthen our follow-up response to questions raised during visits by regional partners.   

We look forward to the late summer and fall visits and continuing to provide mid-year updates about the Caring Communities Tour. Thank you for collaborating with us to ensure all children, families, early care and education professionals and communities are supported and empowered to thrive.   

We look forward to visiting Yamhill before end of summer, and wrapping up the first year of CCT with visits to Eastern and Blue Mountain regions. We continue to coordinate with Hubs and CCR&R’s for 2026, but our tentative schedule as of now includes Washington and Northwest regions for Spring 2026, and Four Rivers and South Coast for fall 2026. While some dates may change due to scheduling availability, host logistics, and weather conditions, we aim to wrap up the tour and visit all regions by Fall 2026. Thank you for collaborating with us to ensure all children, families, early care and education professionals and communities are supported and empowered to thrive.

For questions related to the Caring Communities Tour, please reach out to karina.guzman-ortiz@delc.oregon.gov 

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ECB Connect: Early Access Pilot Launching July 2025 

The pilot of Oregon’s new Every Child Belongs (ECB) Connect system is launching in select regions starting July 2025, with phased expansion through July 2026.

   
The pilot of Oregon’s new Every Child Belongs (ECB) Connect system is launching in select regions starting July 2025, with phased expansion through July 2026. Co-developed by DELC and the Oregon Infant Mental Health Association (ORIMHA) with feedback from early learning partners, ECB Connect offers a centralized way for child care providers to request support when a child is at risk of suspension or expulsion. 

This effort aligns with a new law effective July 2026 that prohibits suspensions and expulsions in early learning settings. Through ECB Connect, providers may be connected to technical assistance, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health consultation (IECMHC), Early Intervention/ECSE, or other regionally coordinated services. Every Child Belongs helps keep children connected to safe, supportive environments where they can grow and thrive. 

Partners in participating regions will receive access to: 

  1. Online support request forms 
  1. Training materials and guidance 
  1. Regional coordination tools 
  1. Engagement opportunities through office hours and feedback sessions 
     
     
    Over the weeks ahead we will be continuing to build awareness, launch trainings with early access regions, and translate information. As system testing continues, we appreciate the feedback of partners and communities as we refine the consultation approach. This will help ECB to build a responsive service in lead up to a full statewide launch next year.   

 
We are working closely with Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) agencies, IECMHC providers, and other community groups to ensure a phased and equitable rollout that meets the needs of providers and families across Oregon. 
   
 
Learn more and stay updated at: Visit the everychildbelongs.org website 

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