The Early Link Podcast

Christina Weiland is an assistant professor at the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Weiland’s research focuses on the effects of early childhood interventions and public policies on children’s development, especially on children from low-income families. She is particularly interested in the active ingredients that drive children’s gains in successful, at-scale public preschool programs. Her work is also characterized by strong, long-standing research collaborations with practitioners, particularly the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood. Christina is also an author of book Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality.

Host of The Early Link Podcast, Rafael Otto, talks with Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson about her recently released Preschool For All report that explores how to provide preschool for all families in the county.

In the city of Drain, Oregon in Douglas County, a new health clinic has just opened, thanks to lots of community-based work involving schools, parents, and advocates in the region. The North County Health Clinic is operated by the Umpqua Community Health Center based in Roseburg.

I visited the clinic during their recent open house. I wanted to find out what it took to open the clinic, and why the community was motivated to do so. I spoke with several people from the Umpqua Community Health Center, also known as UCHC: Ruth Galster, the UCHC board chair, Mark Tsuchiya, the UCHC marketing and development director, and Kendra Bickham, a grant writer at UCHC and member of the Early Works leadership team Yoncalla Elementary. I also spoke with Sara Ruiz Weight, a parent leader at Early Works, and Andy Boe, the superintendent for the Elkton School District.

Dana Hepper from Children's Institute and James Barta from Children First for Oregon provide a legislative recap to close out the 2019 session. In this segment, they discuss the final days that resulted in passage of nearly 150 bills, including all remaining bills from the Early Childhood Coalition legislative agenda. Among the highlights are bills that fund universally available voluntary home visiting and create a task force on child care. Oregon also passed HB 2005 which creates a paid family and medical leave insurance program by 2023.While the 2019 legislative session resulted in historic investments in children and families, Dana and James reflect on the work ahead. That includes advocacy efforts to support the Student Success Act. The way in which this bill is funded will likely be referred to voters in January 2020. It also includes the work of implementing new programs, a focus on ensuring program quality, and continued advocacy in the months and years ahead.

Ajay Chaudry was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to that appointment in the Obama administration, Dr. Chaudry was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. He has led public policy research focused on child poverty, child well-being and development, human service programs in the social safety net, and the early childhood care system for young children. Dr. Chaudry is also an author of the book Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality.

In this episode of the Early Link Podcast, we spoke with Dr. Chaudry about America’s early childhood crisis and how Oregon compares when it comes to supporting working families with young children.

Dana Hepper, director of policy and advocacy at Children's Institute, and James Barta, strategic director at Children First for Oregon, provide a timely policy update on the current legislative session.Key takeaways:

-The Senate vote on HB 3427, which has passed the House and allocates $2 billion to education, continues to be delayed.

-Approximately $400 million in this package is dedicated to early childhood.

-Oregon Business and Industry is neutral on the bill.

-Many Republican senators are pushing for further negotiations.

-If the bill secures 18 votes in the Senate it will become law; it's likely it will then be referred to voters.

-Your voice matters!

Bob Harding and Teri Seaton are two people who might not seem like they have much in common. Bob works as a bank executive and, with his wife Shannon, is raising three young kids on a 5-acre hobby farm in Stafford, Oregon just east of Tualatin. They have 30 chickens, 3 goats, a cat, and a dog.

Teri Seaton lives in North Portland with her husband, Greg Stevens. Not a single chicken, goat, dog or cat can be found in her house. But though she has no children of her own, she does spend a lot of time with them. Teri, you see, is a Head Start preschool teacher. And Bob, you might be surprised to learn…was once a Head Start student.

Head Start is a federal program that serves low income children and families. Both Oregon and Washington offer the program, but neither state receives enough funding to serve all children and families who are income eligible, so they supplement the federal program with state dollars.

Child advocates, education, and political leaders have called for increasing access to early learning and early childhood programs. That’s alongside a growing body of research on the long-term benefits of early care and education programs in general. With that backdrop in mind, we wanted to hear directly from those who have benefited from the program and those who work directly with children and families every day.

Dana Hepper, director of policy and advocacy at Children's Institute, and James Barta, strategic director at Children First for Oregon, provide a timely policy update on the current legislative session. They discuss draft legislation that includes a $400 million investment in early childhood, the recent work of the Early Childhood Coalition, the power of voter voice, and more. 

Take your voice to Salem! The next public hearing in the Joint Committee on Student Success is Thursday, April 18, 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

John Tapogna, president of the Portland-based economic consulting firm, ECONorthwest, recently completed a cost analysis of early childhood programs in Oregon. His work reviewed enrollment numbers, program eligibility, and cost per child spending for a suite of early childhood programs for children birth to age 5. These include publicly funded preschool, child care subsidy programs, home visiting, parent support groups, and special education services, among others. Tapogna recommends increased per child spending for almost every program as well as expanding these programs to provide rich early learning opportunities for children who are eligible. The recommended spending increases for early childhood totals about $1 billion per year. Tapogna views early childhood investments for low-income families as an imperative for the state. He also describes how funding a range of programs and services is really in service of creating a functioning early childhood system in Oregon.

Note: This analysis represents estimated costs of expanding access to existing eligible populations and improving quality. It is based on baseline enrollments and costs circa 2017 and draws on a wide range of state and national data sources. The initial analysis was completed in the fall of 2018 with some updates made in March 2019.

We visited John Wetten Elementary in Gladstone, Oregon recently to learn about how the district and the school are working to address ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences. Superintendent Bob Stewart and Principal Wendy Wilson have worked to establish a “Culture of Care” in the school that relies on building relationships with students and establishing an environment of predictability and safety. They’ve recently added a new classroom called the Skills Learning Center (SLC) that serves as a resource for kids needing to work on self-regulation, behaviors, and habits. In this segment, we hear from Stewart and Wilson about their work addressing ACEs, as well as Erika Nelson who works directly with children in the SLC.