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Department of Early Learning and Care

Strategic Plan: About DELC

This plan is available as a PDF: View downloads here
Plan Overview About DELC Implementation

Department of Early Learning and Care Strategic Plan:
About the Department of Early Learning and Care

Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission

The Department of Early Learning and Care fosters coordinated culturally appropriate, and family-centered services that recognize and respect the strengths and needs of all children, families, and early learning and care professionals.

Vision

All children, families, early care and education professionals, and communities are supported and empowered to thrive.

Values

We are committed to dismantling the systems of oppression that harm and create disparities for communities who are historically and institutionally excluded. We are adopting anti-racist principles, expanding access to services, and ensuring community representation and shared power in agency efforts. We are fostering a culturally responsive environment in which all individuals can experience a sense of belonging as they access programs, services, and resources. ​

We believe that family is a child’s first teacher. We are committed to nurturing family partnerships built on mutual respect. We recognize and value the knowledge and experiences of families, early care and education professionals, and community partners ​.

We value the public’s trust through honesty, transparency, and keeping our commitments.​

We acknowledge the importance of nurturing relationships in the field and with community. We listen to, support, collaborate with, and celebrate the professionals, families, and children in our communities.

We put safety and well-being first for our children, families, and early learning and care professionals.

We set goals, seek input from community, and use data to improve quality of service and programs, increase quality and efficiency, and drive innovation.

We are accountable for our actions, decisions, and our work to reliably achieve high-quality outcomes.


Equity Commitment

We take full responsibility to build supports and center the needs of employees, early learning providers, and families in diverse racial and ethnic communities, while working toward improved results for children from birth to five years including those in rural and urban Oregon. DELC expects its workforce, partners, and community collaborators to embrace the same values, demonstrate the same commitment, and produce results toward eliminating disparities and improving outcomes for all children and families in Oregon.

At DELC, we are committed to dismantling the systems of oppression that harm and create disparities for communities who are historically and institutionally excluded. We are adopting anti-racist principles, expanding access to services, and ensuring community representation and shared power in agency efforts. We are fostering a culturally responsive environment in which all individuals can experience a sense of belonging as they access programs, services, and resources.

For more information about the DEI Action Plan, please visit Department of Early Learning and Care Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan: 2023 - 2026.

DELC's Core Programs and Foundational Services

DELC provides funding, policy, and other resources with the aim of having all children in Oregon thriving in early childhood and beyond, eliminating systemic inequalities in access and opportunity in all of Oregon’s communities, and having a strong, family and provider responsive early learning and care system. We do this work in a complex ecosystem that involves scores of partners whose critical effort, creativity, and commitment to positive outcomes for those engaged in early learning and care cannot be understated. DELC depends on, and embraces, many vibrant, caring partners, such as after-school programs, child care centers, Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, culturally specific service organizations, Early Learning Hubs, family child care homes, home visiting programs, infant and early childhood mental health consultants, preschool programs, relief nurseries, trainers, and others who work in communities throughout the state. These partners reflect the rich diversity of the early childhood workforce and Oregon’s families, and they are grounded in Oregon’s communities, rural or urban.

Table 1 provides an overview of DELC’s core programs and Table 2 provides an overview of DELC’s foundational services. Growing Oregon Together’s objectives and strategies refer to core programs, which are the initiatives that directly provide services to children and families. These core programs are designed to support family access to early learning and care providers to ensure that children, and their families participate in culturally appropriate, and family-centered services that recognize and respect the strengths and needs of all children, families, and early learning and care professionals. Foundational services provide critical backbone and infrastructure support. These include the child care licensing program, systems-building initiatives that center community needs and priorities, workforce supports, and DELC agency functions such as finance, budget and provider payments. As with core programs, foundational services are essential to ensuring that the early learning and care system is culturally appropriate, family-centered, and recognizes and respects the strengths and needs of all children, families, and the early learning and care workforce.

  

Table 1. DELC Core Programs

All reach data FY 22-23 except ERDC which is March 2024 data.

Table 2. DELC Foundational Services

Child care licensing data, January 2024; CCR&R data, April 2023 - April 2024; Child Care Substitutes, October 2023 – March 2024; DELC Operations, July 2023-April 2024, except ERDC which is calendar year 2023; Early Childhood Suspension and Expulsion Prevention Program, 2024; Inclusive Partners, April 2023-March 2024; Oregon Registry, March 2024; Spark, 2024.