Oregon's Strategic Plan to Improve Access to Child Care

Strategic Plan to Improve Access to Child Care for Oregon Children with Special Needs and Their Families

Background

During 1996 and 1997, the Oregon Child Care Division partnered with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Oregon Developmental Disabilities Council Respite Care Initiative to hold a series of community meetings on child care for children with special needs. These discussions provided information and direction for the present strategic plan.

This plan was developed by the Child Care for Children with Special Needs Advisory/Work Group. The plan is consistent with the principles developed by the Childhood Care and Education Council for ChildCare and Development Block Grant and the Family Support Principles developed by the Oregon Family Support Council.

Early in 1998, Oregon was selected as 1 of 10 states to participate in the national Map to Inclusive Child Care Project. Technical assistance and other supports from the national project further contributed to the planning effort. The strategic plan consists of four components:

1. vision statement and guiding principles;
2. key issues;
3. barriers to locating and using child care for children with special needs; and
4. recommended objectives.

Vision Statement

The State of Oregon is committed to all children with disabilities and their families being able to choose appropriate quality care that is safe, community based, responsive to family needs and resources, affordable, accessible, and inclusive. The child care community will have access to the information, training, and resources necessary to ensure quality care. Policy makers and communities will be engaged in ongoing activities to support a comprehensive system of affordable care for children and youth with disabilities.

Guiding principles for strategic plan to improve access to child care for children with special needs state that planning and strategies will:

• Be consistent with guiding principles for Oregon's 1997-1999 ChildCare Development Fund and Oregon Family support Principles listed in ORS 417.342.
• Be based on the principle that all children and their families deserve quality, affordable and accessible childcare.
• Promote understanding that similarities are greater than differences, and see children and children first and families as families first.
• Recognize that there must be an array of childcare options appropriate to each child's level of need.
• Value family knowledge, expertise and choice.
• Recognize that childcare providers must have an array of broad-based supports to providing care for a child with special needs, no matter where they live in Oregon.
• Build on existing resources.
• Address childcare for children and adolescents with special needs.
• Recognize that children and families have unique strengths, concerns and stresses.
• Promote recognition that each child has unique interests and abilities.
• Promote practices that are developmentally appropriate.
• Apply to the unique concerns of Oregon's diverse cultural communities and geographic areas.
• Support partnerships of families and providers.
• Assure that all documents produced through the process will be accessible, available and written in commonly understood language.

Key Issues

Seven key issues that must be considered in all planning and strategies for inclusive child care are:

1. Definition of child with special needs.
A child under the age of 18 and who requires a level of care over and above the norm for his/her age due to a physical, developmental, mental, behavioral, or medical disability. . . . The higher level of care may include but is not limited to additional staffing, special medical procedures, adaptive equipment, or structural or other types of accommodation.
2. Child care for children and youth with special needs who are over the age of 12.
Many families with an older child with special needs face the same childcare needs as families with young children. Consequently, all aspects of this plan for child care for children with special needs must include the concerns of families with older children.
3. Children with serious emotional and behavioral disorders.
4. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
Without access to appropriate childcare, parents of children with special needs face added difficulties meeting work requirements in TANF and related welfare reform programs.
5. Americans with Disabilities Act.
Families and providers need solid information on the ADA, including clear direction on issues such as accessibility, individual assessment, and reasonable accommodation.
6. Oregon's Diverse Cultural Groups.
The diversity of Oregon's families must be taken into account in planning for inclusive childcare.
7. Rural Oregon.
All plans and recommendations must consider issues such as mileage costs, developing transportation options, support to providers who are family or neighbors, and other needs which are often greater in Oregon's rural areas.

Barriers to Locating and Using Child Care

The following barriers to locating and using child care for children with special needs were identified over a 2-year period through community discussions:

• Families have few options and limited choices in child care for their children with special needs.
• There is a serious lack of qualified providers to care for children with special needs.
• There are perceptions that care of children with special needs will result in higher costs or undue burdens for child care providers.
• Real cost to families and to providers can be a barrier to providing care for children with special needs.
• Information on child care providers for children with special needs is difficult to find.
• There are not enough opportunities for training to help providers improve the quality of care offered to children with special needs.
• There is not sufficient support to providers who are willing to care for children with special needs.
• Child care resources for older children and adolescents are especially hard to find.
• In rural areas, families and children may be required to travel long distances to find a qualified provider.

Recommended Objectives and Activities.

Oregon's strategic plan establishes eight objectives within five topic areas. (Please note: selected key activities for each objective are included in the plan but are not listed here.)