Oregon Early Learners Facts & Findings

Many families with young children live in what experts have defined as a child care desert, a community with more than three children for every regulated child care slot. Using this standard, families with infants and toddlers in every Oregon county live in a child care desert. The picture is only slightly better for families with preschool-age children; families in 25 of 36 counties live in a child care desert. In addition, higher percentages of preschool slots are publicly funded as compared to infant/toddler slots. Nonmetropolitan counties have higher percentages of publicly funded slots than do metropolitan counties.