Oregon Uses Stimulus Dollars to Promote Professional Development

Professional Development, Financing, Child Care, Financing, Professional Development

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On May 11, 2009, public and private partners in Oregon launched a new statewide initiative, the Education and Quality Investment Partnership (EQUIP), to improve the quality of the state’s early childhood workforce. EQUIP uses $2.9 million in federal Child Care and Development Block Grant stimulus funds and $200,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation to create incentives for early care and education professionals to attain higher levels of education and training. Members of the partnership come from the public and private sectors and include the Oregon Community Foundation, the Children’s Institute, the Oregon Commission for Child Care, the Oregon Child Care Division, the Oregon Child Care Resource and Referral Network, and the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education at Portland State University.

EQUIP incentivizes providers to improve their training and education by providing education awards that are tied to the Oregon Registry, a voluntary, statewide program that documents the professional achievements of the early care and education workforce. Providers who work at least 20 hours per week with children under the age of 13 in a licensed facility are eligible for the education awards, as are certain license-exempt providers. Awards range from $50 to $500 depending upon their education level and if they meet the work requirements listed above. The education awards are administered by the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education.

EQUIP is the result of the partnership’s strategic early planning and collaboration that enabled Oregon’s child care administrators to quickly make use of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Acts funds when they were made available earlier this year. The group originally came together in 2008 through the Oregon Commission for Child Care to create new strategies to improve the quality of early care and education in the state, and is now working collaboratively to implement the EQUIP initiative and build support for future work. Dependent on the availability of funds, the partnership plans to create programs that incentivize providers to remain in the early care and education field, as well as encourage providers to reach new benchmarks for quality care.

Updated June 2009