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Children's Institute
Making Oregon the best place to be a kid.
Tell Senator Merkley to Increase Funding for Child Care!

Tell Senator Merkley to Increase Funding for Child Care!

by | Sep 3, 2019 | Action Alerts, Federal Policy

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) provides federal funding for states for child care subsidies for low-income families with children under 13. Before their August recess, the House voted to increase funding for CCDBG by $2.4 billion. The Senate has yet to decide whether to increase funding and by how much. 

Senator Merkley wants to hear from you! The Senator is interested in hearing from Oregonian’s about the high costs of child care and how they would benefit from increased subsidies. 

Tell Senator Merkley to Increase Funding for Child Care!
Parents and Educators Must Both Support Children’s Emotional Learning

Parents and Educators Must Both Support Children’s Emotional Learning

by | Aug 28, 2019 | Parents and Families, What We're Reading, Early School Success

This week, children across Oregon and the country are returning to school: meeting new teachers, learning new routines, and navigating new friendships and group dynamics. This can be overwhelming, especially for our youngest students who are still learning how to recognize their own emotions.

For parents wanting to support their children’s emotional learning, we recommend this recent article by The Ounce: “Four Daily Ways to Teach Your Child About Emotions.” Among the recommendations included in the article:

  • Teach your child words to describe a wide variety of emotions.
  • Help your child connect feelings to the actions that cause them.
  • Give your child suggestions for what to do with their feelings.
  • Ask your child specific questions about their feelings.

Preschool through fifth grade educators also have a role to play in supporting children’s emotional development. Our Early School Success (ESS) initiative aims in part to support these efforts. Launched this year in the Forest Grove and Beaverton School Districts, ESS will help districts align their preschool through fifth grade instruction so that teachers can better provide developmentally appropriate instruction and support children’s social-emotional learning.

“Through play and joyful learning, students will have a chance to establish relationships that encourage trust, respect, and care. Teachers will encourage and nurture these positive behaviors and connections. The early years set the stage for how academic learning will follow and set children up for their educational journey and life successes,” says Karen Twain, CI’s program director in charge of ESS.

By supporting young children’s emotional development at home and school, parents and educators pave the way for lifelong success, in and out of the classroom.

The Impact of Racism on Children’s Health and Education Outcomes

The Impact of Racism on Children’s Health and Education Outcomes

by | Aug 26, 2019 | What We're Reading, Health and Kindergarten Readiness, National Research, Equity

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a new policy statement this month, “The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health.” The statement explores the impact of structural, personally mediated, and internalized racism on children’s development and health outcomes. It acknowledges racism as a cause of health disparities observed between different races, such as maternal mortality rates.

According to the 16-page policy statement: “These health inequities are not the result of individual behavior choices or genetic predisposition but are caused by economic, political, and social conditions, including racism.”

Structural racism impacts where children live, where they learn and how they’re taught, and their socio-economic status, all of which in turn affect their health outcomes. In particular, the report identifies the close relationship between health and education:

“Educational achievement is an important predictor of long-term health outcomes for children. … It is critical for pediatricians to recognize the institutional, personally mediated, and internalized levels of racism that occur in the educational setting because education is a critical social determinant of health for children.”

The statement challenges pediatricians to think differently about racial disparities, considering the social conditions, including racism that cause such disparities. Addressing the impact of racism on the health and well-being of children is necessary in order for our health system to meet the needs of all patients. 

The statement closes with a set of recommendations to pediatricians to better serve children of color by improving clinical care and workforce development, engaging in systems and policy change, and impacting research. According to Elena Rivera, our senior health policy and program advisor, these recommendations resonate with Children’s Institute’s approach to developing our Health and Learning Initiative with a health equity lens.

Read the Full Statement

Additional Resources

The Impact of Racism on Children’s Health, The New York Times

Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S. Are Shockingly High, Especially for Black Women, Children’s Institute

Black Children’s Education in Portland a Dream Deferred, The Oregonian

Portland Schools Systemically Fail Students of Color, State Audit Says, The Oregonian

On Transforming Education with Dr. Pedro Noguera, The Early Link Podcast

On Implicit Bias and Preschool Expulsion with Dr. Walter Gilliam, The Early Link Podcast

What We Talk About When We Talk About Preschool Expulsion, Children’s Institute

Black Student Achievement in Portland with Kali Ladd and Ron Herndon, The Early Link Podcast

Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S. Are Shockingly High, Especially for Black Women

Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S. Are Shockingly High, Especially for Black Women

by | Aug 8, 2019 | What We're Reading, Parents and Families, Equity

According to “Out of Sight, Out of Mind? What Is the True US Maternal Mortality Rate? No One Knows,” a report issued this month from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, maternal mortality rates are higher in the United States than in any other developed country in the world. While the global maternal mortality rate decreased between 1990 and 2015, here in the U.S., the rate increased during the same period of time. Within the U.S., maternal mortality rates are significantly higher for black women and other women of color. According to the report: 

“Between 2011 and 2015, the maternal mortality rate for Latinas was 11.4 [per 100,000 live births], for white women it was 13.0, and for Asian women it was 14.2, whereas for Native American women it was 32.5 and for black women it was 42.8. Maternal mortality is rising the quickest for black women.”

According to the report, the increased mortality rates for black women aren’t related to education attainment or income.

“For example, in a study conducted in New York City, college-educated black women were nearly three times more likely than white women who had never graduated from high school to die during pregnancy or up to one year after childbirth. … ‘Weathering’—a term coined by public health researcher Arline Geronimus to describe the effects of increased levels of stress on women of color due to the perpetual need to anticipate and manage racism—is thought to explain some of this disparity…”

Read the Full Report

Ensuring Black Women Are Aware of the Risks

SELF Magazine has recently launched a series on black maternal mortality. According to digital editor Leta Shy, a black mother who experienced her own complications after childbirth, the goal of the series is to give black people who are already pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant as much information as possible about black maternal mortality and morbidity.

“The objective isn’t to scare you,” Shy writes, “but rather to help us all understand what we are working against—and in so doing, maybe help each other out a little bit. Because there’s strength in our numbers, and this public health crisis needs all the attention it can get.”

The first three articles in this on-going series are already available:

“Allyson Felix Wants to Save Black Mothers.” The most decorated female track and field athlete in the U.S. history has a message for black women.

“We Asked All 2020 Presidential Candidates Their Plans to Address the Black Maternal Mortality Crisis.” Black moms are dying. Here’s what politicians—on both sides of the aisle—had to say about it.

“11 Health Conditions You Should Know About If You’re Black and Pregnant.” Sometimes knowledge really can be power.

What Are We Doing About Maternal Mortality Rates?

The article in SELF and the report from Rockefeller both point to California’s efforts to lower maternal mortality rates. According to “Out of Sight, Out of Mind?” California reduced its maternal mortality rate by more than half, largely thanks to a collaborative effort among doctors, nurses, midwives, and hospital administrators called The California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. According to SELF, however, maternal mortality rates in the state are still higher for black women than white women.

Following last year’s passage of HB 4133, Oregon established its own Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, the first step toward understanding maternal mortality and its causes in Oregon and shaping strategies to address it. According to the United Health Foundation, Oregon’s maternal mortality rate increased from 13.2 deaths per 100,000 births in 2016 to 13.7 in 2018. (There is no state data disaggregated by race available.)

Read More

ProPublica: “Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth“

The New York Times Magazine: “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis“

Providence Health & Services: “Why Are Maternal Mortality Rates on the Rise?“

 

The Path to the Student Success Act

The Path to the Student Success Act

by | Aug 2, 2019 | Oregon Policy, Early Works, Parents and Families

This year, Oregon passed the Student Success Act: a new annual $1 billion public investment in education. Twenty percent of this budget—nearly $200 million per year—will go toward early childhood programs and services. This new funding is in addition to existing allocations to early childhood, roughly doubling the state’s commitment to programs and services for kids under 6.
Speaking at the City Club of Portland, House Speaker Tina Kotek credited these historic investments to the determined efforts of advocates over many years. Those efforts included educating lawmakers on the connections between early childhood experiences and future academic success.

Lawmakers Won’t Fund What They Don’t Understand

Students in preschool classes at Earl Boyles (above) and Yoncalla Elementary Schools (below).

The profound cognitive, social, and emotional experiences children have in the first five years of their lives set the foundation for all future learning. “If we want to improve health and education outcomes in Oregon, we need to ensure all kids have equitable access to high-quality early care and education,” says Swati Adarkar, president and CEO here at Children’s Institute. “Lawmakers need to understand the connection between the early years and long-term academic success. We work alongside partner organizations around the state to make that case.”

Making the case takes more than presenting decades of research on the long-term benefits of high-quality early education. In 2010, we launched the Early Works initiative to demonstrate the impact of combining high-quality preschool with other supports like infant and toddler play and learn groups, health care and housing supports, and parenting education.

Adarkar explains: “Our Early Works sites at Earl Boyles and Yoncalla Elementary Schools have served as learning laboratories. Lawmakers and educators can see firsthand what happens when families and schools meaningfully partner together to make sure kids get high-quality early childhood experiences.”

Working Together, Advocates Delivered a Consistent Message

Educating lawmakers on the importance of early childhood was only the first step. Because we’re still in the process of developing a comprehensive system for children under 6, it’s not possible to “invest in early childhood” in the same way the state invests in K–12 education. Instead, lawmakers needed to determine which programs and services to fund, and how much money to give them.

The nearly 40 advocacy organizations in Oregon’s Early Childhood Coalition (ECC) played a key role in helping legislators make those determinations. Dana Hepper, our director of policy and advocacy, helped lead the coalition, which formed in December 2017. “The investments in early childhood that were ultimately included in the Student Success Act were based on recommendations developed by the ECC. We worked together over six months to determine which programs and services needed to be funded and at what levels, educate lawmakers about their impact, and engage Oregonians to support the investments,” Hepper explains. Thanks to Governor Brown’s leadership leading up to the 2019 session, the ECC was able to use investments in early childhood included in the governor’s recommended budget, released in November of 2018, as a starting point for their legislative agenda.

Speaker Kotek echoed the importance of this advance work to determine the coalition’s priorities. “Success [in the legislature] is grounded in the hours and hours of work that are done even before the session starts in January,” she told attendees of the City Club’s Friday Forum last month. “Education experts consistently told us that more resources for early childhood education were necessary if every student were to be able to succeed.”

The consistency of the message was key. “The ECC was successful because we aligned our efforts by aligning our missions,” says Cara Copeland, executive director of the Oregon Association of Relief Nurseries. “When early childhood providers work and fundraise in isolation, they lose sight of the fact that families raising young children need a variety of supports in order to thrive. A family may receive support from a Relief Nursery to help build their protective capacity, but after that child leaves our therapeutic classroom the parent must still have affordable child care and a plan for quality preschool.”

The ECC’s requested investments in Relief Nurseries, Early Head Start, parenting education, Oregon Pre-Kindergarten, Preschool Promise, Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education, an Early Childhood Equity Fund, and opportunities for the early childhood workforce were all included in the Student Success Act.

ECC recommendations to fund the universal voluntary home visiting program “Family Connects” and launch a task force to address Oregon’s child care crisis were also passed by the legislature this year in separate bills.

Parents and Educators Spoke, and Lawmakers Listened

Evidence-based policy recommendations on their own are never enough to sway lawmakers, especially when it comes to allocating record amounts of money. To pass the Student Success Act, legislators needed to hear from those most impacted: parents and educators. When the Joint Committee for Student Success (JCSS), co-chaired by Senator Roblan and Representative Smith Warner, announced their state-wide listening tour to formulate a plan to improve education in Oregon, the ECC pushed for early learning sites to be included.

The JCSS sought to understand Oregon’s education crisis: the state ranks 49th in the nation for high school graduation, has the fourth-worst chronic absenteeism rate, and is in the midst of a behavioral crisis. “Research shows that all of these issues are tied to early childhood experiences,” explains Danielle Pacifico-Cogan, our director of community affairs. “But stories from real people have a bigger impact than statistics. When lawmakers visited early learning sites, they were able to hear directly from parents who want and need high-quality early care and education for their young children.” Members of the JCSS reported to Speaker Kotek that this listening tour was one of the highlights of their legislative careers.

“The message they heard was consistent across the state: early childhood services and programs deliver huge benefits, but many families don’t have access to them,” Pacifico-Cogan says. Thirty-thousand children living in low-income families in Oregon currently lack access to high-quality preschool; child care in the state is just as scarce.

In addition to bringing lawmakers into early learning settings, the Early Childhood Coalition brought supporters to Salem for Early Childhood Lobby Day. Over the course of the day, nearly 150 parents, educators, child care providers, and advocates met with 63 state lawmakers to voice their support for the coalition’s agenda.

Amanda Manjarrez, director of advocacy for Latino Network, participated in small group meetings between constituents and lawmakers throughout the day.

“Lawmakers hear from me all the time about the need to fund culturally specific early childhood programs. On Lobby Day they heard from providers who need these resources to close opportunity gaps for children of color and dual language learners. They met parents who want access to programs like Juntos Aprendemos that equip Spanish-speaking parents and kids with the skills they need to succeed.” The Student Success Act includes $20 million over two years for an Early Childhood Equity Fund dedicated to culturally specific early learning services.

The coalition also engaged supporters who couldn’t make it to Salem. Attendees of two screenings of the early childhood documentary No Small Matter wrote postcards to their senators in support of early childhood investments; hundreds of other voters sent emails. All of this was part of the ECC strategy to enable constituents from across the state—particularly those represented by members of the JCSS—to share their lived experiences with lawmakers, and to support these stories with data. The end result: lawmakers learned that in Oregon—like in many other parts of the country—there is broad support for funding for early childhood.

Early Investments Have Long-Term Impacts

This year’s historic investments in early childhood followed years of research, innovative initiatives, partnerships, and community engagement. Following the announcement that opponents of the bill will no longer be working to refer it to the ballot, this funding is now one step closer to reaching critical early childhood programs and services. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to work with our ECC partners to share personal stories from across Oregon about the impact of early health and learning. We’ve seen how important the voices of parents, educators, and health care providers are, and we’re committed to making sure they get heard. If you’d like to add your voice to this movement, use the link below to share with us why early childhood matters to you.

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