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Supporters
- Children First for Oregon
- SEIU Local 503, OPEU
- AFSCME - Child Care Providers Together
- Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children
- Human Solutions
- Amazing Place 4 Kidz
- PlayDates Child Care Center
- Fruit & Flower Child Care Center
- La Petite Playschool
- Second Home Daycare
- AFT-Oregon - Early Learning Alliance
- Zepeda Learning and Leadership
- Native American Youth and Family Center
- Peninsula Children’s Center
- Morgan’s Child Inc.
- A Sunny Place Learning Center
- American Federation of Teachers-Oregon
- Knowledge Universe/KinderCare Learning Centers
- Provider Resource Organization
- YMCA of Columbia-Willamette
- Neighborhood House
- Happy Hearts and Hands Chidcare
- PJA-Afterschool Programs
- Little Foot Academy
- Little Smiles Child Care
- Learning tree Day Schools
- Giggles N Wiggles Preschool
- Gramma’s Karalot Childcare
- Venture Kidz Children’s Center
- New Vision Fellowship
- A Caring Family Child Care Home
- Romelia’s Daycare
- Joyful Noise Child Development Centers
- Full Spectrum Childcare
- Stand for Children
- Childswork Learning Center
- Let The Blessings Flow
- Today’s Little Scholars Childcare
- A to Z Primary Matters
- Crocodile Kids Preschool & Child Care
- Wildflower Day Care
ERDC in the News
Working Moms’ Challenges: Paid Leave, Child Care
April 20, 2012
NPR, Jennifer Ludden
Two-thirds of women with young children now work. Nearly half are their family’s primary breadwinner. But the high cost of child care and other workplace challenges create barriers to income stability and employment for working mothers.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, head of the mother’s advocacy group MomsRising, says having a baby is a leading cause of temporary poverty. Many women with no maternity leave end up quitting their jobs to care for a baby.
“And when they lose those needed jobs, it’s very hard to get back into the labor force,” she says, “because all of a sudden, we have a cascading impact of motherhood. Right now, child care costs more than university costs in many states in our nation.”
...Combine that with women’s unequal pay — and it’s worse for mothers — and, Rowe-Finkbeiner says, some see no choice but to stay home, because they can’t afford child care.
Need good child care? Start looking two years ago
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Susan Nielsen, The Oregonian
In March, our child received the acceptance letter we’d prayed for. The letter followed multiple campus visits, a written application, a wait list and a few pleading calls to the admissions office.
The acceptance letter wasn’t from a college, mind you. It was from a day care.
A lovely, regular, non-fancy-pants Portland day care.
Before having children, my spouse and I didn’t realize the extent of the child care crunch in Portland. We knew child care was expensive, and that parents in places such as Manhattan and San Francisco got crazily competitive for elite preschools. But we never realized that Oregon was seventh worst in the country for the affordability of child care. We certainly never knew that many Portland child care centers encourage parents to apply for a slot months or years in advance—in fact, before the child’s birth.
Now we know. And now that our 8-month-old and our preschooler are both finally squared away with four-day-a-week care, our monthly child care bill handily exceeds our mortgage payment. This predicament isn’t unusual in Oregon: The state average for full-time care is about $10,750 a year for babies and $8,300 for preschoolers, and we’re paying pretty close to that.
This helps explain why my spouse and I eat PB&J most days for lunch, and why our last real vacation was sometime during the Bush administration.
Statewide limit on day care subsidies may affect local parents
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Carisa Cegavske, The News-Review
Before adjourning last week, the Legislature capped the program at 8,500 families, a drop from the 10,000-family cap set in 2010. The new cap won’t kick any families off assistance. Enrollment in the program was frozen in December. Through attrition, the number of families receiving aid dropped to 7,600. Some families on the waiting list will now receive subsidies. Many more will not, however.
. . .
Child care advocates say the subsidies increase the number of quality day cares and encourage parents to work and stay off welfare. “I know plenty of people that if it wasn’t for the subsidies wouldn’t be able to work because they couldn’t afford child care,” said Roseburg day care owner Shelby Shaw. “I think people want to better themselves, but they’re victims to the economy right now.”
. . .
After the state imposed the 10,000-family cap, fewer working parents sought child care and some day cares closed, said Anna Aasen, project specialist at Family Connections in Roseburg, a state-funded child care referral agency. She said she believes both may have been largely caused by cuts in subsidies.
Budget May Limit Aid for Day Care
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Steve Lathrop, Albany Democrat-Herald
Friday’s budget agreement between the Governor and the Ways and Means co-chairs caps Employment Related Day Care enrollment at 8,500 cases and raises copayments for working parents like Erika Noice of Sweet Home. Read more about how these program cuts are hitting Linn County in Sunday’s Albany Democrat-Herald:
Noice is glad she’s still among those receiving help. “My kids have been in day care since I moved here ... Without help, there is no way I could afford to keep them there.”
Day care costs average more than $10,000 a year and have risen nearly 7 percent since 2004, according to Children First. It is an important financial boost to the county’s 178 active day care providers who work with ERDC children.
Budget Ax Aimed At 3 Critical Areas
Budget Ax Aimed At 3 Critical Areas
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Peter Wong, Statesman Journal
ERDC isn’t the only program struggling. Here’s some of what the Statesman Journal had to say:
State-supported day care for low-income families — generally those headed by a single working parent — would drop from a budgeted 10,000 to 8,500 under the legislative rebalancing plan.
To stay at the reduced level, the plan proposes to transfer $6.2 million from $16.6 million in federal child-care development funds carried over by the state Employment Department. Advocates hope they can tap the rest.
“We won’t know exactly how much of that money we could use until after this session is over,” said Stacy Michaelson with Children First for Oregon, which organized a Capitol lobbying effort on Feb. 7. “Our request is that $7 million be held in reserve, pending a final answer from the feds about how that money can be used.”
State Budget Cuts Could Slash Childcare Subsidies
State Budget Cuts Could Slash Childcare Subsidies
Friday, February 17, 2012
Andy Giegerich, Portland Business Journal
Coverage from the Portland Business Journal highlights how the ERDC Program can help families better their economic situation and take care of their children.
Yet supporters, primarily family advocate group Children First for Oregon, fear that impending budget cuts will prevent the program from expanding this session. If so, lawmakers would break promises they made during last year’s session to eventually boost the program’s enrollment to 10,000 families.
. . .
Stacy Michaelson, Children First for Oregon’s policy [associate], maintains that the day care subsidy “is a jobs program because it helps people get and keep jobs.”
Low Income Child Care Faces Cuts
Low Income Child Care Faces Cuts
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Shannon Finnell, Eugene Weekly
Mounting child care costs are making it hard for thousands of Oregon families to be able to afford to work. As the legislature contemplates slashes to the Employment Related Day Care subsidy, many working parents are being forced to choose between leaving their children in unsafe environments or keeping their jobs. Read more in this week’s Eugene Weekly.
Oregon’s diminishing coffers have put many social services at risk, and Employment Related Day Care (ERDC) is no exception. Money has been set aside for the program, but advocates fear it will get lost in the budget fray.
. . .
Stacy Michaelson, a policy associate at Children First for Oregon, says that the average monthly cost of child care for ages 0-6 years can reach $939 in higher-cost metro areas, gobbling up a huge portion of a family’s income.
Save ERDC Advocacy a Success
Supporters rally to preserve child care program
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Legislative Session Notebook, The Statesman Journal
Queenie Wong
Child care providers and parents called on lawmakers Tuesday to preserve a state program that helps low-income families pay for child care.
Children First for Oregon’s “Advocacy Day to Save Employment-Related Day Care” attracted more than two dozen participants.
The Employment-Related Day Care program was budgeted for 10,000 families for the 2011-2013 biennium, but a budget-rebalancing plan unveiled last week would clamp a new limit of 8,500.
During the event, families and child-care providers listened to speakers and visited their lawmakers to urge them to protect the program.
“I just want to be the little birdie in their ear to tell them that there are people out there that really do need help,” Portland resident Summer Frost said.
Frost said she relies on the program to support her three daughters while she works. The program subsidizes about $1,100 per month of her child care costs, she said.
Salem resident Teresa Monahan, a single mother of three, said the program has helped keep her away from unemployment.
Participants were from groups including SEIU, AFSCME and the Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children.
The Importance of ERDC in Eastern Oregon
Child care costs rising faster than family incomes
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Observer Editorial Reports, The La Grande Observer
The cost of child care continues to rise but wages in Oregon have remained flat or increased only slightly over the past decade.
The result is “a crisis for families,” according to researchers at Oregon State University in a report that looked at child care in every Oregon county.
The report says child care prices, on average, increased 7 percent more than family incomes from 2004 to 2010. The findings are even worse for single parents, whose child care prices increased 14 percent more than their incomes during the same period.
Fortunately, it costs much less for child care in Eastern Oregon than Western Oregon.
Annual toddler care in Union County costs an average of $4,888 and in Wallowa County $2,788, while in Washington County the average is $10,400.
But many parents of young children in Eastern Oregon make minimum wage and earn only about $17,000 per year, making even low-cost child care difficult to afford.
The state offers financial assistance to help struggling parents pay for child care through the Employment Related Day Care Program. But the state decided to cap the number of participants at 9,000 because of budget shortfalls. So many families who meet the program’s income guidelines can’t join the program.
That means thousands of families across Oregon continue to face child care costs that are climbing faster than their incomes and something needs to be done about it.
Oregon’s employers should be encouraged to provide resources for parents who can’t afford child care.
Meanwhile, the state should look for additional funding for its Employment Related Day Care Program and remove the cap so that all eligible families get the help they need.
Rising Cost of Child Care in Eastern Oregon
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
By Bill Rautenstrauch, The Observer
OSU report: Child care prices on average increased 7 percent more than family incomes from 2004 to 2010
Maybe the best news in a recent report on child care in Oregon is that it doesn’t cost as much on the east side of the state as it does in other places.
Still, it’s expensive, and hits young parents — especially those who can’t get on the list for a key assistance program offered by the state — right where it hurts.
“I sometimes wonder how those parents are managing,” said Jean Johnson of the La Grande office of Child Care Resource and Referral.
The report from Oregon State University says that while child care costs throughout the state have risen, wages have remained flat or increased only slightly over the past decade. It’s resulted in what researchers call “a crisis for families.”
Struggling families face declining child care help
Sunday, June 12, 2011
By Erin Mills, East Oregonian
PENDLETON, Ore.—State legislators are cutting the budget where it hurts struggling families the most: child care.
With the cost of care steadily on the upswing — it now averages $450 per child per month in Hermiston and can be up to $685 in Pendleton — many low-income parents rely on Head Start or Department of Human Services programs such as Employment Related Day Care. But cuts to those programs are, or will soon, make life more difficult for such families.
DHS Facing Drastic Child Care Cuts
DHS Facing Drastic Child Care Cuts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Susan Gager, KOHD 9
LANE COUNTY, Ore.—The Department of Human Services is facing significant cuts, in some programs up to 75 percent.
For one single mother, it could mean losing her children to child welfare.
The legislature slashed a Lane County jobs program’s annual budget from $5.2 million to $1.4 million.
Part of the program provided child care to assist parents attending mental health and drug treatment programs.
However, DHS alerted parents that child care is on the chopping block.
“It’s really hard and I think we all know the price of utilities, housing, and the needs children have when they’re enrolled in school. Clothing, and it’s not enough when you pencil it out in a budget,” said John Radich, DHS District Manager.
Radich says DHS will still provide an employment-related daycare program.
That’s the program for those who are employed but still need financial help.
Read the Original Article . . .
Daycare assistance faces looming cuts, local providers worried
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Glen Beeby, KPIC News
ROSEBURG, Ore.—With the state facing a $3.5 billion shortfall, assistance programs for working families could be on the chopping block.
Back in August of 2010, KPIC News told you about local people who had received letters from the state saying they were losing some or all of their employment related daycare.
After hearing the concerns of voters, the state extended the benefits, hoping that congress would give them the extra money. It never passed during the last session.
Now, daycare providers are worried about the children they look after. Kelly Heichel, who runs a local daycare center, said, “If they (parents) were to lose their employment related daycare, they wouldn’t bother to work. They would quit working and then do who knows what. Daycare is expensive, and when you are a single dad working minimum wage, you don’t make enough money to pay for daycare.”
Rally a Success!
Families Rally In Support Of Affordable Day Care
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
kptv.com
Rally to Save Employment Related Daycare
Working Parents Rally for Help with Child Care Costs
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Chris Thomas, Public News Service
SALEM, Ore. - Lower-income parents in Oregon are looking to state lawmakers to help them afford child care so they can keep their jobs. Advocates for these families will gather on Wednesday at noon at the State Capitol. The “Rally to Save Employment Related Daycare” (ERDC) will focus on Gov. Kitzhaber’s recent proposal to increase the number of families in the program from 10,000 to 11,000.
Regan Gray, policy director with Children First for Oregon, says her group is concerned that the Oregon Legislature will try to trim ERDC, putting affordable child care out of reach for some.
“This is a wise investment that the Legislature can make. At a time when Oregon is struggling to keep people in the workforce, the last thing we want to do is make it harder for parents to continue working and cause increased job losses.”
Gray says for minimum-wage workers, child care costs can total more than what a parent can bring home.
Debs Dunn owns Rockwood KinderCare, a daycare center in Portland where about 60 percent of the parents rely on ERDC for part of their child care expenses. Some have told her they’re not sure they will be able to keep working if the assistance disappears.
“Parents are extremely nervous about losing ERDC. They actually have a co-payment – they pay a portion and the state pays a portion – so that they can afford the same good quality care that families who are making a very good income can afford.”
ERDC funding is dependent on parents working; they lose the assistance if they lose their jobs. Gov. Kitzhaber wants to make the program part of a package of early childhood services.
ERDC is Good for Oregon’s Workers
Day care funding helps save Oregon jobs
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Robin Christian and Merrily Haas, The Statesman Journal, Opinion
We want to thank the Oregon Legislature for protecting working parents and children through the recent Emergency Board action to save Employment Related Day Care.
This action was an important step to keep Oregon working.
Affordable, safe childcare is essential to the well-being of children, the economic stability of families, and the productivity of businesses from large to small. With childcare averaging $20,000 per year for two children, we know that far too many working families struggle to afford it.
Emergency Budget Board adopted a plan to save ERDC for working families
Legislature’s Emergency Board averts cuts to Oregon schools, police and day care programs
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Kimberly Melton, The Oregonian
SALEM—Oregon lawmakers voted Thursday to prevent state police layoffs, preserve day care subsidies for poor working parents and allocate federal dollars to schools.
In addition, Democratic legislative leaders laid out plans to navigate the troubled state budget through the next nine months. If they keep the promises made Thursday in a letter to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the state will have $70 million left in savings for a state budget of more than $13 billion.
ERDC keeps parents earning and children learning
ERDC is critical to Oregon’s Working Families
Thursday, September 16, 2010
KATU News
Nancy Inglehart a grandmother who has two jobs to help her son, a working single-parent, care for his young son; and Lisa Oyler a single mother with an eight hour a day job, explain why ERDC is critical to their success, and how it enables them to keep their jobs and stay off TANF.
Workers Ask Lawmakers to Hold Off
Oregon to Cut Child Care Assistance
5,000 Families; Workers Ask Lawmakers to Hold Off
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
KTVZ.COM News Sources
PORTLAND, Ore.—Oregon’s Employment Related Day Care subsidizes child-care costs for poor families so parents can keep working, but the state plans to trim the rolls by about 5,000 families in the next year, starting Oct. 1.
Eligibility will be limited to those who already receive state aid, or have received it in the recent past.
Rebecca Whittaker, child care coordinator with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503, said this week that means people who can least afford it will be paying more for day care—or opting not to work.
Changes to ERDC Eligibility
Oregon daycare assistance cuts leave half its users ineligible
New guidelines require state cash assistance within past two years
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Jason Chaney, Central Oregonian
Starting next year, half of the Oregon families who rely on state daycare subsidies will have to find another way to pay for childcare.
Currently, about 11,000 families receive Employ-ment Related Daycare (ERDC) statewide, and about 30 in Crook County.
Because of a nine percent, across-the-board cut to state services, the Employment Related Daycare Program (ERDC) has restricted their eligibility requirements. As of Oct. 1, new applicants to the daycare program must have received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for at least one month in the past two years. Those already receiving assistance will be held to the same guideline, but the new rules take effect on Dec. 31.
In order to be eligible for TANF, a family of four can earn no more than $795 per month nor hold assets, other than a home or car, with a value greater than $2,500.
The new guidelines are intended to continue providing help to those who have the greatest financial need.
Working parents brace for loss
Working parents brace for loss of day care aid
End of subsidy is result of statewide budget cuts
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Thelma Guerrero-Huston, Statesman Journal
Kim Lebahn is beside herself with worry that in the future she might not be able to provide for her children.
“It’s hard to sleep at night, and I cry a lot,” said the divorced mother of two. “I’ve done everything that I was supposed to do. I found a job, and I provide for my kids.”
Lebahn and hundreds of other low-income working parents in Salem and Marion County are facing changes to their day care subsidies as a result of state budget cuts.
The cuts “are part of the governor’s order for 10 percent reductions for all agencies,” said Gene Evans, a spokesman for Oregon Department of Human Services. “With the recession, lower tax revenues, and the governor’s order, we were forced to make changes.”
Last month, DHS’ Children, Adults and Families Division mailed letters to 1,169 families in Marion County, alerting them that changes were coming to the Employment Related Day Care program.
Many Oregonians stand to lose subsidy
Cuts to child care program coming
Many Oregonians stand to lose subsidy; job losses feared
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Scott Hammers, The Bulletin
A program subsidizing the cost of child care for lower-income families is on the state’s chopping block, a move opponents say could force some parents to quit their jobs in order to look after their….
Read Whole Article. . . (Paid Subscription Required)
Letter: For many, employment depends on child care
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Oregonian
There is more to economic stimulus than just green jobs and shovel-ready construction projects. In the article “We’re in the money—and out of it” (July 26), Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney is quoted as saying, “People can’t afford day care without people working.” True, but the reverse is also true: Parents can’t afford to work if they can’t afford day care.
The average cost of full-time infant care in Oregon is $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year. That puts quality child care out of reach for most families, forcing parents to choose between placing their kids in substandard care or leaving their jobs.
When we invest in making child care more affordable, as we do with state programs such as Employment Related Day Care, we help parents stay employed, out of poverty, paying taxes and connected to health care. When we help kids stay in quality care arrangements, they experience long-term educational benefits. And these investments also create jobs within the child-care industry, one that is heavily dominated by woman-owned and woman-run small businesses and one that deserves economic stimulus investments, too.
Of course, I applaud our Legislature’s efforts to create much-needed jobs, but the reality is that we also need structures in place to help people stay in their jobs when they’re caring for a family. Investments in child care, adult care and family-friendly workplace policies prevent poverty in the long term, which saves our state money. And for a state that depends so heavily on income taxes, keeping people employed should be a top priority.
ANDREA PALUSO
Paluso is director of Family Forward Oregon in Portland.
ERDC Cut Affects Rogue Valley Working Households
State cuts day care subsidy
Friday, July 30, 2010
Paris Achen, Mail Tribune
Faced with the loss of state help in paying for day care, mother-of-three Krystal Turcotte says she can see only one way to provide child care for her 5-year-old and 8-year-old while keeping her full-time job: asking her 17-year-old son, Cory, to give up varsity football this year to babysit his siblings after school.
“He was not pleased,” says Turcotte, a Gold Hill resident. “I’ve been crunching numbers, and nothing is working.”
Turcotte is one of about 11,000 Oregon families who will lose a day care subsidy this December from the state for low-income, working families through the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Employment Related Day Care, or ERDC, program.
DHS will reduce the program by about half as part of 9 percent cuts in spending ordered by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, saving the agency more than $17 million, said DHS spokesman Gene Evans. The cuts are effective Dec. 31.
About 22,000 low-income families across the state receive the subsidy, which ranges from $25 to several hundred dollars per month depending on family size and monthly income, with the average benefit being $527.84 per month, according to DHS. About half of those families will lose services.
Child Care on Chopping Block
Child care on chopping block in state budget cuts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Kelly Koopmans, KVAL News
EUGENE Ore.—Holly Plumb takes her two children to PlayDates Child Care every morning.
“We have a nice routine,” said Plumb. “I go to work, my kids go to school, and all day I’m able to support my family.”
Right now the state pays about two-thirds of Plumb’s child care, which costs about $6.25 per hour, under the Employment Related Day Care program.
It’s a lot of help for the single mother who makes about $1,500 a month. But now that financial aid may be coming to an end.
Plumb, like about 700 other families in Lane County, received letters from the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) stating the details of the cuts. It’s part of Gov. Kulongoski’s 9 percent across-the-board budget cuts.
OR DHS to make cuts in day care
Ore. DHS to make cuts in day care program
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tove Tupper, KDRV.com News
July 27, 2010
MEDFORD, Ore. - Hundreds of Oregon families will soon lose their state-funded childcare benefits.The Oregon Department of Human Services plans to cut part of its Employment Related Day Care Program as part of state-mandated budget cuts. ERDC provides help with childcare to low income families.
The program will be dropped through at least December for about half the families on the program. That is estimated to affect nearly 600 families in Southern Oregon.
DHS hopes this is just a temporary cut. It says its up to the Legislature whether to maintain program funding on next year’s budget.
Child Care Subsidy Gets Cut
With budgets tight, child care subsidy gets cut
Monday, July 26, 2010
Shellie Bailey-Shah and KATU.com Staff, KATU News
PORTLAND, Ore. - Low-income parents may find themselves without child care in the next few months after a program meant to help many of them work is being slashed.
The latest victim, Employment Related Day Care, is part of the nine percent cut Oregon’s Gov. Ted Kulongoski has ordered across all departments.
Terra Buchanan, a single mother of two, will be one of 5,500 families out of 11,000 who will lose the day care subsidy by the end of the year. In all 10,250 children will be affected.
She got a letter this weekend that said her day care subsidy will be eliminated Dec. 31. Buchanan gets $631 a month to pay for child care so that she can work at a $13- an-hour job at a call center. Without it, she says she’ll have no choice but to go back on state assistance.
Oregon State Budget: Roads and ERDC
State budget: Oregon can’t move money from roads
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Harry Esteve, The Oregonian
At Oregon State University in Corvallis, construction is under way on the $12 million Hallie Ford Center, where researchers will focus on the long-term well-being of children and families. At the same time, Malina Newell in Keizer worries that state cuts to day care will threaten the immediate needs of her family.
Newell, a single mom who works at Walmart, has learned that a state budget shortfall will wipe out $17.3 million that was supposed to help thousands of low-income families pay for day care. Without the subsidy, Newell says, she has two choices: Leave her 6- and 7-year-olds home with her 15-year-old or ask for reassignment to a lower paying, overnight shift.
It’s a perplexing issue not just for the Keizer mom but for the entire state. Because of the way Oregon’s budget works, some families are losing aid while other state dollars are fueling a public building and highway construction boom.
KOIN News: Cuts Could Hurt Parents
Budget Cuts Could Hurt Parents
KOIN News
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