DELC Agency Request Budget

Agency Strategic Business Plan

DELC’s first-ever strategic plan, Growing Oregon Together, reflects our mission to foster 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. We work towards a vision where all children, families, early care and education professionals, and communities are supported and empowered to thrive. 

In developing this plan, DELC built off the work that led to the creation of the agency in July of 2023. Growing Oregon Together is a five-year plan that seeks to be both ambitious and achievable. It will guide us as we work to achieve our mission. As a new agency, our focus is on creating strong, sustainable foundations so DELC is recognized for its organizational excellence and implementation, service and commitment to its customers, actionable embrace of equity, support of its employees, continuous improvement, and its role as a leader and partner for early learning and care.

Growing Oregon Together is framed by six goal areas: access, Tribal sovereignty, infants and toddlers, early learning and child care workforce, relationships, and foundations. To create Growing Oregon Together, DELC drew upon the insights of families, the early learning and care workforce, partners, and DELC staff alongside information culled from analysis and reports. Each of these goal areas will help us as we focus on a responsive and equitable system for early learning and care. Our aim is to enhance the development, growth and well-being of children, support families and communities, and strengthen the early learning and care workforce.

2025-27 Legislative and Budget Priorities

While Growing Oregon Together outlines six goals for DELC to address over the next five years, the agency will prioritize two of these goals to support the early learning and child care sector in the 2025-27 biennium:

1. Foundations: Ensure the sustainable operations of the new Department of Early Learning and Care to provide necessary infrastructure for early learning and child care.  
   
2. Access: Ensure children and families have access to the resources and supports to foster a love of reading and promote literacy in the early years.
   

Foundations

As a new agency, DELC has had to develop new functions and services to best serve children, families, and providers across the state. As the agency concludes its first year of operations, more information has become available regarding the level of staffing necessary to provide strong customer service to the Oregonians who receive agency services. This includes operational staff to manage state resources, hire staff, and assess the quality of publicly funded programs, as well as capacity to ensure sufficient monitoring and safety of licensed child care programs. DELC aims to prioritize customer service and strong operations, while operating as leanly as possible. This is why the DELC staffing and operations budget constitutes 9% of the overall ARB. Reinforcing a strong foundation will allow DELC to operate more efficiently in the future, particularly as additional infrastructure and systems launch throughout the 2025-27 biennium.

Access

As we continue to promote access to high quality early learning and care settings, it is critical that we begin to foster literacy development early – long before a child walks through the doors of their elementary school. DELC is prioritizing resources to promote early literacy development, by supporting professional development, getting books into the hands of children, and lifting up the long history of culturally-relevant literacy practices in communities.