Oregon chosen to help lead the nation in raising standards for day care
By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
April 12, 2010, 4:20PM
Oregon is one of six states chosen by the National Governors Associationto help pioneer higher day care standards that could serve as a model for the rest of the country, the association announced today.The idea is that daycare licensing standards focus mainly on health and safety and on staffing ratios and say little about the quality of the curriculum or the measurement of developmental milestones for kids.
That's a mistake, given that a child's experiences from birth to age five shape the developing brain’s architecture and directly influence later life outcomes including economic stability, work productivity and mental health, according to John Thomasian, director of the NGA's Center for Best Practices.
Oregon already is a leader in requiring its state-funded pre-kindergarten programs to match the high standards of the federal Head Start program, says Dell Ford, Head Start specialist at the Oregon Department of Education.
And Oregon already has a public-private initiative, known as Equip, underway to help upgrade the skills and training of daycare workers and to raise standards for daycare centers and home-based day cares.
The expertise provided by the governors' group and experts it hires for the project will help Oregon move further and faster, Ford said. The standards for daycare providers are designed to be voluntary, but some incentives may be built in to encourage centers and family providers to come aboard.
As an example, she said, day care programs should measure whether each
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