A crisis of availability and affordability of child care affects every county in the state
In a recent issue brief on the state of child care in Oregon, the Oregon Voices team came to a conclusion that will not be a surprise to a single working family with children: Child care services are expensive and hard to find.
Respondents to the Oregon Voices survey, which polled households across the state on their lived experiences, were united on the issue of child care. It’s hard for anyone to find, regardless of location, race, ethnicity or income. Parents in many rural counties have an especially difficult time. And child care costs are high — for many families, it’s beyond affordable.
Child care is an issue that affects all Oregonians, and affects many rural issues including economic development, family well-being and early childhood education. Access to high-quality child care and early childhood education benefits children’s cognitive, language and social development. Child care influences socioeconomic mobility for families and the economic health of communities and our state.
“Child care availability and access have long been challenges for Oregon families and even for those who can find child care, it is largely unaffordable,” says Dana Bleakney-Huebsch, program officer at the Foundation supporting early childhood education across the state. “All but one of Oregon’s 36 counties, Gilliam, are considered child care deserts for infants and toddlers. This means that for every slot available, there are at least three children who could fill it.”
“Childcare, [or] lack of, is crushing the ability to have dual earners…”
— Rural household with children under 5, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Klamath County
Federal standards consider child care affordable when it is 7% of household monthly income. In Oregon, most families pay closer to 16% of their income before subsidies, or 30% for low-income families. And, while child care is expensive for families, wages for child care providers remain low.
“…Child care is impossible, even with money.”
— Rural household with no children, white, Umatilla County
It doesn’t matter where you live in Oregon, survey respondents of all incomes and ethnicities strongly agreed that child care is hard to find. Hundreds of survey comments were focused on the lack of child care slots for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
“We are in desperate need of child care, housing, [and] higher paying jobs…”
— Rural household with children under 5, white, Coos County
Respondents from rural counties in southwest and northeast Oregon expressed the most concern about child care availability. This was true particularly in Baker, Clatsop, Coos, Douglas, Jefferson, Lane, Umatilla and Union counties.
“Sería bueno tener un lugar donde puedan cuidar a niños para bajos ingresos y así las familias saldrían adelante. Porque las guarderías son muy caras para pagarse. It would be good to have a place where low-income families could access child care. In that way families would progress, because child care places are too expensive to afford.”
— Rural household with children under age 5 and children aged 5-17, Hispanic/Latino, Multnomah County
Survey respondents repeatedly commented that they cannot afford child care, especially alongside other costs of living like housing. This rang true even in urban and suburban areas. “My community is becoming increasingly unaffordable,” said a Clackamas County resident. “It’s difficult for families to find affordable housing and child care.”
A Washington County resident agreed. “We need so much more child care. It costs as much as our mortgage to pay for child care.”
Progress was made in 2021 when the Oregon Legislature approved an alternative way to set rates for the Employment Related Day Care program. This new method will result in rate changes that more accurately reflect the true cost of providing child care. More funding will be needed to adopt the alternative rate-setting method without negatively impacting the number of children the program can serve. As of August 2024, the program already has over 7,000 families on a waitlist.
Several newly passed state laws also hold promise for easing the child care crisis, including one that calls for development of a sustainable model for “micro centers,” or centers that serve 3-30 children for more than four hours a day. Another law creates a new, refundable child tax credit of $1,000 per child under the age of six for qualifying families.
Despite this progress, it is clear that there is still substantial work to be done to strengthen the child care system in Oregon. Only then can our youngest residents — and their families and communities — get the support they need.
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Oregon Voices is an innovative listening project from The Ford Family Foundation and its research partners, Portland State University and ECONorthwest, that aims to learn more about the lived experiences of households in our state.
Download the financial well-being issue brief at orvoices.org/childcare.
For other issue briefs, as well as interactive tools and a look at the rich data set and personal stories collected by Oregon Voices, visit orvoices.org.