SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- The COVID-19 pandemic has been even harder on working parents without child care.

Clara Vazquez of Sunnyside said she's been looking for affordable child care for her seven-year-old son for four years, and that coronavirus has made that search nearly impossible.

Her son is starting distanced learning soon, and Vazquez said she might have to give up caring for one of her clients to ensure her son doesn't fall behind in school.

"I might end up having to work four hours a week," Vazquez said. "Which is not like a livable wage for us, just so I can help my son not be behind on school and everything else."

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is the primary sponsor of the Child Care Is Essential Act, which includes a $50 billion fund to support child care.

Catherine White, director of child care and early learning for the National Women's Law Center, said the child-care system is on the brink of collapse without public funding and the lack of affordable options has impacts on parents and businesses.

"Child care is really the backbone of our economy," White said. "So if we don't invest, there's going to be serious implications for all of us."

White said policymakers have to understand the scope and depth of the shortage.

"We need at least $9.6 billion every month for the duration of this crisis," White said. "And $50 billion is just the sort of short-term stopgap to get us through the next five to six months of keeping our system alive."

For Vazquez, the need is simple.

"I need to find a place where I can put my son," Vasquez said. "So they can take care of him and make sure that he's in a safe environment, and where I know that they're going to be monitoring him on his school work, and making sure he's getting his school day done while I'm at work."


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Nearly 60% of Nebraska three- and four-year-olds are not enrolled in preschool programs, which are associated with increased success in school and beyond.

But for at least a decade, most preschoolers on Nebraska's Winnebago Reservation have been part of the national Educare Learning Network.

Amy LaPointe-Houghton, education director for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, said the Educare program was once described to her as "Head Start on steroids." She noted in their years with the Educare system, Winnebago children have gone from testing near the bottom to being "right in line" with children in the 24 other Educare centers across the country.

"We've made that huge leap and it's all around the data," LaPointe-Houghton explained. "We have our data compiled in a book every year, and things that are identified in that book, that's something we make improvements on."

She noted evaluators from the University of Nebraska Medical Center assess the children at the beginning and end of each school year. Educare Winnebago is the only Educare program in the country on an Indian reservation.

LaPointe-Houghton attributed their success to Educare's four pillars: data utilization, professional development, high-quality teaching and intensive family engagement. She pointed out one focus of their program is a social-emotional curriculum, teaching skills like identifying and expressing emotions in acceptable ways.

"To be able to better handle situations when they're encountering some kind of traumatic event, or a stressful event," LaPointe-Houghton added. "They have some tools to be able to help themselves."

LaPointe-Houghton emphasized research about the negative effects of stress and trauma on physical health makes them hopeful if their children learn how to manage stress, they will have better overall health, as well as more success in school.

"We have high numbers of diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease," LaPointe-Houghton observed. "It makes me think it could be contributed because of all the traumatic things that happen in people's lives and you don't even realize that it's doing damage to your body."

To enroll in Educare Winnebago, children must live in Winnebago but do not have to be tribal members. The program has eligibility requirements to ensure they're serving the children with the highest needs.


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Oregon is poised to distribute funds for early childhood learning and literacy. In 2023, lawmakers passed the Early Literacy Success Initiative, in part because only about half of the state's students were proficient in reading through third grade. School districts have since applied for grants with the Oregon Department of Education and funds are expected soon.

Marina Merrill, director of research and strategy with the Children's Institute, said the investments are exciting because brains develop faster in a person's first eight years of life than at any other point.

"Those years are just so critical, especially that 90% of a child's brain is developed by the age of five. Yet most of ur investments in young children start at age five," she said.

Grant applications from more than 200 districts and charter schools have focused on building capacity for early literacy through professional development and coaching. The Children's Institute is holding a webinar tomorrow about the state's investments and evidence-based early learning practices.

Herb Turner, founder of ANALYTICA, will participate in the Children's Institute webinar. He said evidence-based practices are ones that have been studied and shown to improve students' outcomes, meaning they can be used with confidence in the classroom.

"Oregon deserves a lot of credit for taking this on and for creating this emphasis on evidence-based practices and strategies, and getting behind evidence-based reading initiatives," he explained.

Cesiah Vega-Lopez, a pre-k teacher at the bilingual school Echo Shaw Elementary in Cornelius, outside Hillsboro, said she's used different practices to teach literacy, such as highlighting each letter of the alphabet with an animal that starts with that letter, and added that this is a critical time for kids.

"For them to be able to have this knowledge early on really helps support their learning as they move on through their trajectory of school, especially as they move on to kindergarten. So I think the focus on them learning or being aware of language is very important in their overall development," Vega-Lopez explained.

The Beaverton School District is blazing a trail in early education through bilingual learning labs, which emphasize playful inquiry and habits of mind.

School officials said the Early School Success initiative is designed to showcase the power of early learning and help make the case for expanded public investment in preschool.

Monique Singleton, principal at Vose Elementary in Beaverton, said the program helps children, many from immigrant families, successfully adjust to their new surroundings.

"I think the important part about the inquiry work that we're doing with Children's Institute, and I've talked about this with other principals and teachers, is that I think it's really important just to be exploring and listening to your community and be able to explore it," Singleton explained.

Vose Elementary hosted a learning lab earlier this week, showing participants in the district the transformative work the school is doing to improve outcomes for students and the community. The goals for the event were to hold space to nurture cross-district relationships and collaboration.

Singleton noted the emphasis is on teaching children life skills to help them cope with complex emotions and situations they either face at school, at home or both.

"The goal is to help them feel honored with a sense of belonging and a sense of safety around our emotions and a sense of identity," Singleton pointed out. "So they don't feel like they have to shut down a part of themselves in order to be successful at school."

Vose's faculty and staff are hands-on leaders who model empathy, learn alongside their staff, and consistently message the need for playful inquiry as an equity stance, Singleton added. They aim to provide children at Vose the same kind of learning experiences one might expect at an elite private school.


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