Child care, particularly for children of preschool age, is becoming more available to Oregon families in many parts of the state, a new report by Oregon State University researchers has found.
Only nine of Oregon's 36 counties are now considered preschool child care deserts, and child care supply has increased across the state since 2022, researchers found.
Child care deserts exist when there are three or more children for a single regulated child care slot. Regulated care includes child care centers and home-based providers that are licensed by the state.
"This report shows that there is a supply recovery in process," said Megan Pratt, the lead author and an associate professor of practice in the OSU College of Health and the Extension Family and Community Health Program. "There's more child care available than there has been in the recent past."
Public funding is playing an important role in boosting and sustaining the supply, particularly for preschoolers. Without public funding, more than three-quarters of Oregon counties would be considered child care deserts for preschool children, ages 3-5, while all 36 counties would be child care deserts for infants and toddlers, ages birth to 2, the report shows.
"We're seeing public investments making a difference in the available supply," Pratt said.
The report found that public funding supports less than a quarter of preschool slots across the state, but without it, 28 of the state's 36 counties would be child care deserts. For infants and toddlers, 34 of the state's 36 counties remain child care deserts. Less public funding is available for those slots, but without that funding, all 36 counties would be considered child care deserts for this age group, Pratt said.
Publicly funded programs include federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs and state-funded programs such as Oregon Prenatal to Kindergarten. The report does not account for all public investments in child care access, including those supported by local school districts or counties that are not licensed by the state.
The report also does not factor in child care subsidy programs that help parents access child care, such as the state's Employment-Related Day Care, which helps families pay for care but does not typically create additional capacity.
The report, "Oregon's Child Care Deserts 2024," was commissioned by the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, which partners with OSU on child care research through the Oregon Child Care Research Partnership. The report's coauthor is Michaella Sektnan of OSU's College of Health.
The fourth biannual report, which follows similar reports in 2018, 2020 and 2022, is based on a snapshot of child care supply, or how much care is available, in Oregon as of December 2024. The report found a significant decrease in child care deserts for preschool-aged children in 2024, with just nine counties in that category in 2024 compared to 27 in 2018.
"It's incredibly encouraging to see state investments delivering real results for Oregon families," said Alyssa Chatterjee, director of the Department of Early Learning and Care. "The fact that more communities are no longer child care deserts for preschoolers means more children are accessing the early learning experiences they deserve, and that's a win for our entire state."
Public funding, which can include federal, state and community-level support, is particularly important to overall supply in Oregon's rural, non-metro communities, because that funding plays a larger role in the overall supply of child care in those communities, Pratt said.
"Parents still find it very challenging to find child care for infants and toddlers that meets their needs and is affordable, so any public investment or other growth in supply for this age group can make a big difference," she said.
Affordability and quality are also important factors of accessibility; if parents cannot afford the price of available child care or if the services are not offered at hours the parent needs, the care isn't actually accessible to them, she noted.
Inadequate supply is not a new problem in Oregon; the Oregon Child Care Research Partnership has been studying the issue since the 1990s. The total number of regulated slots has been growing since a low point in 2014 but demand still far outpaces supply.
One bright spot in this year's report, Pratt said, is overall statewide growth in the number of child care slots, including small family homes, which were up by 988 slots compared to 2022. This is the first increase for small home care since 2016.
"Thanks to sustained investment from the legislature, Oregon's child care supply is rebounding after the pandemic," Chatterjee said. "These gains show what's possible when we prioritize early learning - it is helping families access quality, affordable child care and building a stronger foundation for our future."
