Gov. Tina Kotek and lawmakers have taken another important step to increase child care access for Oregonian families. House Bill 3005 establishes a $50 million child care infrastructure fund to finance new and current child care facilities. While welcoming news for parents, to truly achieve the legislation’s goals, agencies need to effectively implement the nuts and bolts of the process—and that means modernizing the state’s child care system to better work for providers, agency staff, and families.

The pandemic upended the child care landscape in states across the nation. In Oregon, it left a critical child care need for 36 counties — all of which have only one infant and toddler child care slot for every three children of the same age. These “child care deserts” also exist for preschool-aged kids in 70% of counties.

Those parents who are fortunate to find child care face another barrier: affordability. On average, it costs $13,007 annually to send one toddler to a child care center — significantly higher than the national annual average of $10,600. Unable to access or afford child care, parents are often forced to either quit or refuse a job.

The impact of the child care crisis is not confined in a vacuum. As Jenifer Wagley, executive director of Our Children Oregon, has pointed out, “we need to recognize that the lack of accessible and affordable child care is not only a concern for families but is also an economic issue. We must invest in policies and funding that prioritize supporting our working families and child care providers.”

Both are true for Oregon. A recent Oregon Child Care Research Partnership report found that the lack of child care accessibility has led to decreased productivity, costing the state’s economy $2.15 billion per year.

Expanding and constructing child care facilities is critical, but so too is the ability of the newly established Department of Early Learning and Care to connect parents with benefits from the Fund, as well as subsidies such as the Employment-Related Day Care Program. While the Fund is positive, to fully realize its potential the child care system as a whole should be modernized to become more parent-centric and provider-friendly — and that can be achieved by increasing capacity for state agencies which serve as key intermediaries in the fractured process.

Unfortunately, many agencies use software that is outdated and operates on top of processes that have room for improvement — both in need of modernization. The old technology and antiquated processes often slow down the delivery of government services that individuals and families rely on. In fact, state-based health insurance exchanges are the type of successful service delivery program that Oregon would do well to emulate. Those state agencies which embrace the new technology that SBEs have adopted, and engage in business process redesign, reduce their management burdens, increase transparency, and better serve their residents.

Oregon could implement a similar exchange for child care with technology that offers efficient solutions for eligibility and verification. Families could apply for child care subsidies and at the same time, receive a real-time/no-touch eligibility determination—one that minimizes the paperwork burden on families and allows agency staff to manage eligibility processes and streamline reporting through a single portal.

The child care infrastructure fund presents an opportunity for the state to not only expand child care options and increase funding for providers, but to go one step further to reimagine and modernize the state’s child care system. So far, Oregon has made all the right moves to alleviate the child care crisis — updating its technology and agency processes would be one more.

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