Early Childhood

Portland Children Niños - Hacienda CDC

For the past two decades, a growing body of research confirms that children’s first years of life are critical to their academic success and overall well-being in later years.  Best practice interventions support and strengthen children’s early cognitive, social, and emotional development; providing these opportunities to historically underserved populations can help mitigate early disparities. 

Drawing on public input, local data and research, PCL adopted the following goal for early childhood investments:  Support children’s early development and kindergarten readiness. 
The strategies adopted to work toward this goal are: 

  • Intensive Home‐Visiting for children prenatal – 3 years old.
  • Preschool, Head Start, or structured preschool‐like experiences for 3 – 5 years olds 
  • Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation 

In addition, PCL’s Allocation Committee invested unanticipated additional revenue into re-starting a childcare affordability effort, The Community Childcare Initiative.  PCL created and funded the highly successful CCI during 2007 – 2012,  but had to cease its funding when the economic recession dramatically reduced Levy revenues.  As levy revenues have increased recently, PCL re-invested in the CCI for 2015 – 2019 during the current 5-year levy period. CCI continues to make a positive impact for Portland families and childcare providers, as illustrated by a recent report summarizing its performance over the past 4 years.

See a full list of the Levy’s 16 Early Childhood investments for 2019-20.

PCL publishes annual performance reports on early childhood programs for each fiscal year. Performance of early childhood programs during the previous Levy period (2009-2014) is covered in PCL’s 5 year Report.