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.

2027-29 Legislative and Budget Priorities

Given the constrained revenue environment, DELC will prioritize its Workforce and Foundations goals from Growing Oregon Together for the 2027-29 biennium.

1. Workforce: The Early Learning and Child Care workforce is diverse, culturally responsive, highly qualified, and well compensated.
   
2. Foundations: Ensure DELC develops and improves operational foundations to serve Oregonians efficiently.
   

Workforce

Oregon’s early childhood workforce remains undercompensated, earning approximately 55% of the average Oregon salary according to the Oregon 2022 Early Learning Workforce report. This under compensation has created challenges in recruitment and retention, which in turn affects program quality, given the critical role of adult-child relationships in early development. To address this, DELC’s ARB includes a 9.3% non-standard inflationary adjustment for 75% of the grant-in-aid budget. This reflects the portion of funds that are used for personnel costs and is intended to help stabilize the early childhood workforce through improved compensation.

Foundations

As DELC prepares for its third biennium, both planned and emerging core functions have been identified for 2027–29. Oregon Early Learning Management System (Oregon ELMS) is replacing two decades-old systems – the background check and licensing system and the provider payments system. This unified system will allow staff, providers, and families to complete background checks, apply for child care licenses, file complaints, and receive Employment Related Day Care payments through a single portal. With Oregon ELMS coming online in 2026, the agency has outlined operational costs to support system stabilization, long-term governance, and ongoing implementation.

Beyond these planned needs, DELC has identified gaps in quality assurance and accountability capacity, prompting a recommendation to establish an Office of Compliance and Integrity. This new office will strengthen DELC’s ability to ensure efficient resource use and equitable access to services. With this priority, DELC is expanding its capacity to identify and distribute public resources effectively, strengthen our support for providers, and investigate potential fraud, waste, or misuse of funds, enabling legally enforceable recovery of taxpayer dollars.