Problem

America as a whole, and Linn, Benton & Lincoln Counties in particular, are suffering from a severe child care crisis for birth-to-five-year-old children, characterized by high costs and a lack of availability.

More information:

•  “America’s child care problem is about to get a lot worse. Here’s why,” CNN, 27-Sep-2023: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/politics/child-care-pandemic-support-program/index.html
• “U.S. Child Care Crisis Is Holding Back The Workforce,” Forbes, 2-Nov-2023: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariaflynn/2023/11/02/us-child-care-crisis-is-holding-back-the-workforce/
• “What the Child Care Crisis Does to Parents,” The New York Times, 16-Jan-2024: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/opinion/child-care-parenting-stress.html

Solution

Do you want to know why this is happening, what is being done to correct the problem, and ways you can help yourself, your employees, and your community?

The Early Learning Hub’s Business Outreach Initiative (BOI) is here to help. We ally with Linn, Benton & Lincoln Counties employer leadership representing business, higher education, public sector, non-profit organizations, or other entities, to educate them about the Child Care Crisis and to seek out beneficial means of helping their organizations and employees.

Isn’t this expensive?

While some options, like Subsidizing child care or Employer-Sponsored Child Care can be expensive, other options to assist your employees with child care are Fast, Cheap, and Easy, including providing child care referral sources during onboarding or annual open enrollment, offering Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, or something as simple as being more flexible or predictable with scheduling.

What is Employer-Sponsored Child Care?

Addressing the lack of availability for their employees, employers provide child care for their employees by developing on-site/near-site child care programs or partnering with existing child care programs to contract slots using a Priority Access-Priority Waitlist arrangement.

Why provide Employer-Sponsored Child Care?

ESCC is a terrific recruitment and retention tool for your business that helps you stay competitive in a highly competitive labor market, especially for employers needing to recruit professional, educated/skilled employees from out of the area.

It also provides a great way to help raise employee morale and productivity, while lessening tardiness or absenteeism relating to a lack of child care.

 

Downloadable Resources

• Employer's Child Care Solutions Menu (PDF)
  A simple one page outline for employment leadership to consider various child care solutions, comparing their cost, effort, and time.

• Employer's Child Care Toolkit  (PDF)
  A highly detailed guide that provides in-depth information about the various child care solutions that interested employers can enact.

• Employee Survey Example (PDF)
  For employers seriously considering implementing Employer-Sponsored Child Care, these proprietary employee surveys are meant for employees who are parents/guardians of young children to provide information necessary to ensure their needs and preferences are known for the decision-making process.

• Guide for  Finding Child Care Tips (PDF)
  This is the ultimate insider’s guide for existing or soon-to-be-parents to understand the complexities of child care in Oregon and where to find it, and how to look, including “Pro-tips."

If you are interested or want further details, please contact:

Bryan Steinhauser
Business Liaison, The Early Learning Hub of Linn, Benton & Lincoln Counties
Linn Benton Community College
6500 Pacific Blvd SW, LM-132
Albany OR 97321
(541) 917-4914
steinhb@linnbenton.edu