Preschool Promise: 2019 Policy Brief

by Rafael Otto | Dec 19, 2018 | CI Publications

Our latest policy brief focuses on the expansion of Preschool Promise, Oregon’s high-quality preschool program that serves children and families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold.

The brief describes how high-quality programs operate, where Preschool Promise slots are distributed across the state, and why preschool investments are great for Oregon kids.

Our 2019 policy recommendations for the state include expanding public preschool slots to serve an additional 10,000 kids by 2020, fully fund Head Start and Oregon Pre-kindergarten, and strengthen our early childhood workforce.

Read and download the policy brief

Read our complete 2019 policy agenda

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The Time Is Now for Oregon to Invest in Early Childhood

by Melissa Duclos | Dec 18, 2018 | Benefits of Preschool, Child Care, School Readiness

The Early Years Are Critical

Children experience their most profound cognitive, social, and emotional growth in the first eight years of life. Babies are born learners and their brains produce a million neural connections each second. By the time children reach their third birthday, their brains are 80 percent developed. The quality of children’s early experiences during this crucial period of growth sets the foundation for all future learning.

Despite what we understand about the importance of these early years for lifelong healthy development, there is no comprehensive early childhood system in Oregon to ensure all children get what they need to have the best start in life. Many children who experience institutional barriers to opportunity—children from low-income families, children of color, children with disabilities, dual language learners, and children who live in rural areas—lack access to essential high-quality early care and education opportunities.

The Early Years in Oregon

Forty-seven percent of children ages 0–5 in Oregon live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. That’s 129,000 kids. Oregon can improve its support of these children and their families by first addressing our state’s child care crisis. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, Oregon is a child care desert, with 6.8 infants and toddlers for every licensed, available child care slot.

Even if families can find reliable child care in their area, they may not be able to afford it. According to the Economic Policy Institute, one year of infant and toddler child care in Oregon is more expensive than public college tuition; infant care for one child in Oregon accounts for 20 percent of a typical family’s income.

Our state must also invest more in proven programs like Early Head Start and Home Visiting that serve vulnerable families with young children. These evidence-based programs have been shown to increase optimal child development and school readiness, improve mental health for mothers and positive parenting, and decrease child abuse, neglect, and emergency room visits. Currently critical home visiting services reach less than 20 percent of eligible families. Early Head Start serves only 10 percent of eligible children, with more than 23,000 children under 3 left unserved.

Preschool-age children are similarly underserved. Only 8 percent of 3-year-olds and 12 percent of 4-year-olds participate in publicly-funded preschool, putting Oregon 31st out of 43 states reporting on public preschool access. Our public preschool programs need to reach an additional 30,000 eligible children if we want to ensure that all our kids have access to high-quality early childhood education.

The Early Years in Oregon

At a Glance

129,000 kids ages 0–5 live at or below 200% of the federal poverty threshold.
Oregon is a child care desert.
Oregon is the third most expensive state for child care.
Home visiting services reach less than 20% of eligible families.
Early Head Start serves 10% of eligible children.
Only 8% of 3-year-olds and 12% of 4-year-olds attend publicly funded preschool.
30,000 eligible children lack access to publicly funded preschool.
Only 29% of children in need of early intervention receive the recommended levels of service.
8,360 children who need EI/ECSE services do not receive the recommended levels of service.

Finally, while Oregon has prioritized developmental screenings for young children, the state does not invest enough in the Early Intervention (EI) and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) children need once they are diagnosed with disabilities and delays. As a result, more than 8,300 children who need EI/ECSE do not receive the recommended levels of service.

What Does This Mean for Children in Oregon?

We know that babies are born learners, and that future success in school and life depends on stable, healthy families and high-quality early care and education.

Gaps in language proficiency between children from low-income families and their more affluent peers are apparent as early as nine months. On the first day of kindergarten, children from lower-income families—the same children who are less likely to have access to high-quality early education—score lower in reading, math, and general knowledge than children from higher-income families.

This “school readiness” gap persists over time. Results from the 2017–2018 Oregon Assessments show a correlation between kindergarten and third grade achievement: children who are less prepared at the start of kindergarten are less likely to be reading at grade level by third grade. Those who aren’t proficient in reading by third grade are four times less likely to graduate from high school.

Here in Oregon, our failure as a state to invest in these early years has clear consequences: in 2016–2017, 67 percent of economically disadvantaged students, 81 percent of students with disabilities, and 85 percent of dual language learners were not reading proficiently by third grade. In 2016, Oregon’s high school graduation rate was 74.8 percent—the third worst in the nation.

We Know What Works

We know what children need from birth to age 5 in order to be prepared for and successful in school. And the good news is, we already have proven programs in Oregon that work well for kids and families. Now is the time for Oregon to invest more in these proven programs so that they serve all eligible children across the state. Learn more about the programs that help ensure every child in Oregon has the best start in life.

Early Head Start

Home Visiting

Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education

High-Quality Preschool

Strengthening Bonds Between Incarcerated Mothers and Their Young Children

by Niki Reading | Jun 6, 2018 | Featured Programs, Parents and Families, School Readiness

Strengthening Bonds Between Incarcerated Mothers and Their Young Children
In part I of this two-part story on mothers at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, we learn about two programs operating within the prison, Head Start and Nurturing Healthy Attachments, that help mothers and their young children form strong and healthy bonds.

Learn more about three mothers who participated in the program in Part II of this story.
Jessica Houser was trying to change her 9-month-old daughter’s diaper, but her baby wouldn’t stop screaming. Jessica got frustrated, then upset.

She remembers being on the verge of tears when a gentle voice came from over her shoulder: “You could label her feelings.” Jessica was skeptical: “I was thinking, what’s that going to do? But I said something like, ‘You look mad or frustrated.’ And she literally immediately stopped crying and took a deep breath,” Jessica says.

The voice in her ear was parent coach Carmen Slothower, who works at the Head Start preschool at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Wilsonville. The on-site Head Start is one of the few of its kind in the nation. Children with incarcerated mothers in minimum security come twice a week for three and a half hours. During that time, the parents are with their children in the classroom, and they get constant help from Carmen, the teacher, fellow moms in the program, as well as a parent advocate.

Jessica was five weeks pregnant and two days clean and sober when she was arrested. She delivered her baby while incarcerated at Coffee Creek and got to spend 24 hours with her first and only child before returning to prison.

Despite the challenges, Jessica says she and her now 4-year-old daughter have a loving and healthy relationship. She credits that to the support that Head Start offers as well as Nurturing Healthy Attachments, an innovative pilot program at Coffee Creek that combined the on-site Head Start program with an eight-week targeted group therapy session for moms through a world-renown program called Circle of Security, which is designed to help parents understand their child’s needs and respond in a way that promotes the formation of healthy bonds. The pilot project also included parent coaching and innovative classroom tools to help manage difficult parenting moments.

Incarcerated Mothers, Torn Families
Between 1980 and 2014, the number of women in state and federal prison increased by more than 700 percent. That means a jump from just over 26,000 women in prison and jail in 1980 to more than 222,000 in 2014, according to The Sentencing Project. More than 60 percent of women in state prisons have children under age 18, according to the same report.

In 2007, nearly 150,000 children in the U.S. had a mother who was incarcerated, according to a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The same study identified that 64 percent of moms in state prison had custody of their children before their arrest. And 42 percent of mothers who are imprisoned were single parents before their arrest.

Having an incarcerated parent is difficult for any child, but because mothers are often the primary parent, it can be devastating for children of incarcerated mothers. Many children go into foster care; 58 percent of mothers have no visits from their children while they’re in prison, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures report, “Children of Incarcerated Parents.”

“The literature shows that incarcerated women are likely to be single mothers who are undereducated and have a history of drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, victimization, and other trauma,” says Glen Cooper, one of three founders of Circle of Security, an early intervention program aimed at increasing attachment and security. Circle of Security is one of three programs that were combined to create Nurturing Healthy Attachments, the pilot program.

“The accumulated burdens of these hardships make even minimally adequate parenting extremely difficult,” Cooper says. Add in incarceration and separation, and Cooper says it’s easy to see how it leads to another generation of incarceration.

Research has shown it’s most critical that young children develop stable, healthy attachments with parents and caregivers to reduce long-term negative effects of parental incarceration. The NCSL report suggests maintaining regular, meaningful contact between incarcerated parents and their children as well as improving inmates’ parenting skills, yet few states have programs or policies to ensure that occurs.

That’s why the Head Start at Coffee Creek and Nurturing Healthy Attachments are so critical, Cooper says.

“Helping these mothers develop nurturing bonds with their children benefits both the parents and the children,” he says. On one hand, incarcerated moms are incredibly motivated by having a sense of connection, purpose and self worth, which all come from having a positive relationship with their child, he says. And a sense of safety and security with a parent “is correlated with far-reaching positive outcomes” for the child, he says.

History
When Coffee Creek was built in 2001, the Oregon Department of Corrections partnered with Head Start to open one of the first Head Start offices co-located with a prison. Traditionally, Head Start is for children ages 3–5, and younger children attend Early Head Start. This program combines the two to allow more mothers and children to participate. The center, which is run through Community Action of Washington County, is licensed to serve up to eight children. Their mothers must be in minimum security (Coffee Creek has both medium and minimum-security areas) and have fewer than four years remaining on their sentence, Slothower says. In addition, the children must live within one hour of the prison and have a caregiver willing to drive them to and from school two days a week.

During those school days, the mothers join their children for hands-on activities, outside play and family-style meals. Slothower helps the moms navigate day-to-day challenges of parenting with practical and loving guidance, and there are two parent advocates who take turns in the classroom to provide additional support.

In 2017, Sherri Alderman, vice president of the Oregon Infant Mental Health Association and a Developmental Behavioral Pediatrician, began to develop a concept for a pilot project that would layer in additional parenting supports to help the moms build a strong, healthy bond with their children despite incarceration.

“I’ve focused my career on the most vulnerable, specifically serving very young children. I’ve done research, advocacy, systems change and workforce development all related to early childhood and attachment,” she says. Through those decades of work, she’s found models that really work—including Circle of Security. She’s also a champion of the Vroom app, which parents can download for free and receive targeted, age-appropriate ideas for ways to engage with their children.

Alderman started thinking about ways to incorporate the two vastly different—yet complementary—programs. With Circle of Security, she saw a way for the moms to dig deep and change behaviors, and with Vroom she saw a way to give parents practical tips for engagement during their regular visits.

She also wanted to layer in information particularly about phases of child development, as those times can be particularly challenging for both parent and child. “We know that unrealistic parental expectations for a child’s behavior is a risk factor for child abuse—and that can happen particularly during times of very dynamic developmental growth, such as potty training,” she says. So, she included Act Early resources through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a resource that teaches parents about developmental milestones and how those drastic changes might affect their child’s behavior.

But there were obstacles: How would she transform a phone app into something the moms, who had no access to smartphones could use? And how would she meld the three distinct programs in a way that worked together?

She worked with Circle of Security creators in Spokane and Vroom to ensure the programs were compatible. She created printouts of activities and suggestions from the Vroom app. And she worked to secure the funding to create, administer and measure the effectiveness of the pilot program.

The moms who participated continued to meet twice a week at Head Start with their kids, but also participated in a weekly two-hour group Circle of Security session where they would discuss parenting issues, talk through their problems and learn about how to promote healthy bonds with their children. In the classroom, they had posters, handouts and even key rings with Vroom materials on tiny laminated cards with ideas and pictures for positive responses to difficult situations.

Though the program finished a year ago, the moms say the intense program combined with the constant, gentle coaching from Slothower has helped them transform their ideas about parenting, attachment and themselves.

Results
“This experience has completely changed everything in my life,” says Helena Bennette, a 43-year-old mom who participated in the pilot project.

“It’s a two-way street. I can’t do what I do if you’re not hungry for information,” Slothower says. “You take the information and you’re willing to try it and run with it. I’m a firm believer in that trusting relationship,” she says.

The Nurturing Healthy Attachments pilot project is finished, but Alderman says the results spoke volumes about the success of layering it in with the Head Start program. “It’s so exciting to see, first and foremost, the change that happened with the moms and their children in a two-and-a-half-month period. The evaluations supported that—there was a change.”

She says the program evaluations showed that many of the mothers in the pilot program reported that they had participated in previous parenting classes, but “Nurturing Healthy Attachments was the first one that they really felt an empathic shift,” she says, meaning the program didn’t just teach them tools and skills but actually shifted their entire mindset around parenting.

She’s working on ways the program can continue on a rolling basis to serve the needs of moms who may only be in prison for a short time. She’s also working with Coffee Creek to post Vroom activities in the prison visiting area and phone kiosks, so all incarcerated parents can benefit from the practical tips. She’s also looking at creating a program for incarcerated fathers.

“The interest and the passion is there,” she says.

Slothower says the Head Start program is working on ways to keep the moms connected once they leave the prison walls so the support continues. “We’re hoping that, as a program, we can work on ways to continue building the community and relationships when moms parole,” she says.

Cooper, the co-creator of Circle of Security, says the programs are worth every penny. “By investing in these parents now, we can reverse the cycles of incarceration and, as a society, we can reap the benefits of our efforts for generations,” he says.

To learn more about supports for incarcerated parents and programs around the country that are getting results, read our conversation with three national experts on the topic.

Results
“This experience has completely changed everything in my life,” says Helena Bennette, a 43-year-old mom who participated in the pilot project.

“It’s a two-way street. I can’t do what I do if you’re not hungry for information,” Slothower says. “You take the information and you’re willing to try it and run with it. I’m a firm believer in that trusting relationship,” she says.

The Nurturing Healthy Attachments pilot project is finished, but Alderman says the results spoke volumes about the success of layering it in with the Head Start program. “It’s so exciting to see, first and foremost, the change that happened with the moms and their children in a two-and-a-half-month period. The evaluations supported that—there was a change.”

She says the program evaluations showed that many of the mothers in the pilot program reported that they had participated in previous parenting classes, but “Nurturing Healthy Attachments was the first one that they really felt an empathic shift,” she says, meaning the program didn’t just teach them tools and skills but actually shifted their entire mindset around parenting.

She’s working on ways the program can continue on a rolling basis to serve the needs of moms who may only be in prison for a short time. She’s also working with Coffee Creek to post Vroom activities in the prison visiting area and phone kiosks, so all incarcerated parents can benefit from the practical tips. She’s also looking at creating a program for incarcerated fathers.

“The interest and the passion is there,” she says.

Slothower says the Head Start program is working on ways to keep the moms connected once they leave the prison walls so the support continues. “We’re hoping that, as a program, we can work on ways to continue building the community and relationships when moms parole,” she says.

Cooper, the co-creator of Circle of Security, says the programs are worth every penny. “By investing in these parents now, we can reverse the cycles of incarceration and, as a society, we can reap the benefits of our efforts for generations,” he says.

To learn more about supports for incarcerated parents and programs around the country that are getting results, read our conversation with three national experts on the topic.

Federal Budget Increases Spending for Child Care and Early Learning

by Danielle Pacifico-Cogan | Apr 11, 2018 | What We're Reading

Early childhood advocates around the country are celebrating the 2018 Omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Trump. The bill contains a $2.37 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the largest increase in history. Doubling discretionary funding for CCDBG in FY2018 will expand child care assistance in all 50 states and serve approximately 230,000 more children.

The CCDBG program, which provides child care subsidies for low-income families along with funds for improving child care quality, was reauthorized in 2014 and brought changes to care continuity for children and families and improvements to safety and quality. The 2018 funding increase will allow for full implementation of the 2014 reauthorization, including increases in reimbursement rates for providers.

The spending bill also contains increases for other early learning programs, including:

$610 million for Head Start with $115 million of that for Early Head Start expansion and growth of child care partnerships to improve care quality
$250 million for Preschool Development Grants designed to help states build or enhance preschool programs or expand high-quality programs
$35 million for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program which supports low-income parents attending institutions of higher education
$24 million for the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) to support early intervention and services for preschool children with disabilities
$20 million for 21st Century Community Learning Centers which strengthens after school programs in high-poverty and low-performing schools
$5 million for infant and early childhood mental health intervention and treatment through the 21st Century Cures Act

Total increases amount to more than $3 billion for early learning and child care nationwide and draw attention to needed improvements in child care quality. Looking ahead, states will have to grapple with using new funds to expand the number of child care slots in the existing system and increase funding per child for existing slots to bolster quality.

High-quality child care providers in this context can be expected to offer rich and diverse learning materials, have cultural and linguistic knowledge to meet the needs of kids and families they serve, have access to ongoing professional learning, and are supported with living wages.

In Oregon, only 16 percent of eligible families receive the subsidy, and when they do receive it the amount per child does not often purchase high-quality child care that supports age appropriate early learning and healthy development. While the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) estimates that CCDBG funds could reach an additional 2,480 kids in Oregon, the approximately $28 million should be used to increase per child spending in order to increase access as well as improve quality, child outcomes, and school readiness.

Interview with public health and early education expert Donalda Dodson

by Danielle Pacifico-Cogan | May 15, 2017 | Chronic Absence, Community Engagement, Dual Language Learners, Featured Programs, Parents and Families, Research and Evaluation

Interview with public health and early education expert Donalda Dodson Donalda Dodson, MPH, RN, will receive the Richard C. Alexander Award at the Make It Your Business Luncheon on Thursday, May 18. Ms. Dodson is a pioneer in public health who has dedicated over 40 years to strengthening the health of pregnant women, young children, and families throughout Oregon. She works at the nexus of early learning and public health as the executive director of the Oregon Child Development Coalition, where she oversees the innovative Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program among eight other services. Ms. Dodson sat down to talk with Children’s Institute staff to talk about the intersection of early learning and public health, Migrant and Seasonal Head Start, and her definition of equity.

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

CI: What inspired you to pursue a career in public health?
Dodson: I have always loved babies and children. When I was a teenager I wanted to have twelve children. Knowing that I could not have twelve children I went into maternal and child health instead. I liked the one-on-one care in nursing, but public health really intrigued me because you could serve 20,000 families or 200,000 families. And, maternal and child care is where it all starts. Good, positive prenatal care, healthy babies; if you start there, then you are going to get a better outcome. Public health is rewarding, preventive, and anticipatory. Public health has been my career for 40 years or so.

CI: Migrant and Seasonal Head Start is an important program many people have never heard of. Can you tell us about it?
Dodson: Migrant and Seasonal Head Start serves the specific needs of children whose parents work in migrant and seasonal agricultural labor. In the migrant program, these are families who travel from state to state throughout the year for work. The idea first was to keep kids out of the fields, but with Head Start you can have a defined curriculum in a nurturing learning environment for young children and keep them safe. We serve children six weeks to five years old and some kids are in the program ten hours a day. The migrant population tends to be here for harvest, so sometimes our buses are on the road at 3:30 in the morning to get kids to our centers by 5:00 a.m. They may be with us from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It takes a lot for a family to put their small child in our custody.

CI: How do you engage with families who move so often for work?
Dodson: Head Start is two generational, it is about kids and families. These parents will come out of the fields and go to parent meetings and educational sessions, they go to parenting classes, they are just eager to learn and they are eager to support their children. About 50 percent of our families have one or more people who are not documented. Most of our children are documented, but a parent or parents might not be. Because of the restrictions on travel there is a lot of fear and we are seeing some changes in our population. Instead of entire families traveling back and forth to the U.S., children and maybe one parent will stay here while the other parent travels back to their home country because they value the educational experience so much and they know it is hard for their children to keep changing schools. Some families wait until the end of the school year before they start their migration.

We have families who pick cherries in California, Oregon, and Washington. And then they pick apples starting in Washington and go back down picking the other way. Families will call us and tell us they’re coming, “Please don’t give away my spot.” Some families have been coming for several years and the systems and connections we created help keep them informed.

The families are so engaging. Their stories, the things they struggle with. When you think what they do in order to be successful for their children. Agricultural labor is very skilled. It’s not easy work and if you want to make a living out of it, you have to be skilled.

I’ve seen such growth in parents so they understand the system and the resources that are available so they can access those resources and what they can be doing to assist their kids. All that dialogue taking place and the parents absorb it, learn and develop leadership skills. By the time their kids transition to kindergarten, so many parents are ready to take leadership positions in the school as well. It’s very powerful. I’ve seen parents come into a policy council meeting and they are very quiet and timid and they don’t know what’s going on. And two years later, they’re taking minutes and they are the ones that are representing other parents at a national meeting.

CI: How are early education and public health connected in your work?
Dodson: Well in maternal and child health, you are working with pregnant women, children, and families. In early learning, you’re often working with pregnant women, children, and families, so there is a natural connection. The first three years is about growth and development and being aware of what that is and helping parents be aware of what growth and development looks like for young children and stressing the importance of early learning. That’s the same with health. Whether in classroom or clinic setting, it is about healthy development. It’s a great merger for me. In public health and early education, we bring people together to address important issues that have wide-ranging effects on communities. We try to make sure families have the resources and information they need to make informed decisions so they can be successful. If your tummy is growling or you have an abscessed tooth, you cannot concentrate enough to learn. Early education and health are inextricably tied, they just go together.

CI: What can we do to better serve kids who have the greatest needs?
Dodson: Well, the minute you said that, It’s equity. To me, its understanding what equity is. We have to give the most vulnerable children more so they can have the same foundation and get to a place of equality with their peers. Giving everybody the same thing when there is a specific need to be addressed isn’t a solution. Let’s take our migrant children; if they don’t have quality, nurturing learning environments because they have been traveling all the time, we need to make education accessible to them. Give them more in their early years so when they get to school, they can do their best and have an equitable education. Maybe you need assistance with food so you can have good nutrition. Maybe you need assistance with housing. No matter how hard they work, some people don’t make enough money to find and keep affordable housing. I think we need to address the needs of young children and families who need support. We need to listen to them. Many of these families are very resourceful, but they don’t have access and may need some help. I learned this lesson a long time ago when I was working with a family. The mother was working full time, the father was working full time, they had two children and they were still at poverty level. They were working eight and ten hours a day. It wasn’t that they weren’t trying. We need to make sure basic needs are met so all kids get a great start in life.

We hope to see you at Thursday’s Make It Your Business Luncheon where you can hear more from Donalda Dodson and our keynote speaker, Professor Sean Reardon. He’ll discuss the research that led him to become a strong advocate for investing in early childhood education.