NEWPORT — Lincoln County will use some of its millions in federal relief funds to help current and prospective providers increase local child care availability.
The $100,000 approved by Lincoln County commissioners Dec. 7 aims to incentivize child care providers to add slots to their rolls or to encourage new startups. Individual grants of up to $15,000 can go toward anything that enables an increase to the county’s day care stock, such as adding to facilities, hiring new staff or opening an in-house operation.
Oregon as a whole, and most counties individually, are considered “child care deserts” for all age groups, meaning there are at least three children for every child care slot. Every Oregon county individually is a child care desert for infants to 2-year-olds, and Lincoln County has a critically low availability in this age group — about 20 children per slot, according to a 2021 Oregon State University study of pre-pandemic data. COVID-19 and public health restrictions only worsened the picture.
County administrator Tim Johnson said there is no direct formula to award funds based directly on the number of slots created, but applications, expected to be available on the county website after the first of the year, will probably be reviewed with this factor in mind.
— Ken Lipp/YachatsNews
