Original Source | Statesman Journal
By Ruth Liao, Monday December 21, 2009

School readiness efforts are starting earlier than kindergarten through a new joint collaboration that is set to improve child care facilities and child care professionals.

The Education and Quality Investment Program, or EQUIP, allows child care providers and early childhood educators on a state registry can receive financial incentives and rewards to receive training and development.

The program is a joint effort between the state Child Care Division, state Commission for Child Care, the Children's Institute, The Oregon Community Foundation and Portland State University. It is funded through about$2.3 million in federal stimulus money and a $200,000 grant by the Oregon Community Foundation.

The initiative intends to reach 9,500 providers in the state by 2011, or about half the state's early childhood workforce, said Pam Deardorff, director of the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education at Portland State University, which is managing the registry.

In small business child care alone, Oregon employs about 14,400 people in 7,900 businesses.

As of Sept. 30, 788 educational incentives totaling $359,400 were awarded to professionals, she said.

"Quality for children will lead to good outcomes for young children, and in effect, children being successful in school," Deardorff said. "It does relate to school readiness."

EQUIP also is developing a system of quality indicators that would create reports of licensed child care facilities. The information, which is still in its pilot stage, eventually will be available for parents to help make choices about child care.

Julie Hutt, a licensed child care provider who runs A Child's Place out of her South Salem home, developed her preschool plans based on Salem-Keizer's kindergarten curriculum.

"I don't want any child left behind," she said. "I want parents to have a strong feeling: Is this child ready to head off to kindergarten and ready to go to a public school setting?"

Hutt graduated from Chemeketa Community College's first early childhood programs in 1976. Since then, she's earned her bachelor's degree from Corban College and takes advantage of training opportunities offered by the state and other child care provider resources.

Hutt also taught as a substitute teacher for the district and has volunteered as a parent at Salem Heights Elementary School, which is near her home-based preschool.

She said other child care providers she knows are interested in connecting with schools.

Another program, called Family, Friends and Neighbors, is aimed at providers who receive child-care subsidies to care for low-income families receiving assistance from the state Department of Human Services.

Marion County Children and Families Department also has coordinated family literacy efforts through its campaign Reading For All, funded through the Oregon Community Foundation. The campaign includes book drives, reading events and family outreach activities.

Great Beginnings, the early childhood consortium, expanded Reading for All into pediatric offices. Books that could be taken to homes and lent to families were given to home-based child care providers and home visitors in programs such as Head Start and Even Start, a program aimed at promoting literacy among children and adults in low-income families.

Tamra Goettsch, the early childhood programs coordinator for the Marion County Children and Families Commission, began her work with the early childhood initiative about five years ago. She said she is continuously looking for new ways to partner with the community and bring on new resources.

"Our office is committed - our table is always open to folks," she said. "We want to make improvements, and the door's open. We're trying to capitalize on opportunities."

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