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In July 2021, then-Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a pair of bills into law that will soon affect how early childhood programs in the state are run.
Together, the two bills tag team an ultimate goal that’s set to take effect in just a few weeks: Starting July 1, the state will prohibit the suspension or expulsion of children participating in early childhood care and education programs licensed by or receiving public funding from the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care.
A survey DELC conducted in 2022 indicates about 9% of Oregon families with children under 5 were affected by one or the other punitive measure that year. Those figures were even higher for Black students and students with disabilities—16.1% and 22.1%, respectively. Dr. Maneka Brooks, dean of Portland State University’s College of Education, says the school-to-prison pipeline starts in early childhood education with punitive measures like these.
“As a society, our first input is to remove people from the environment and to say, ‘Well, you did this wrong, so therefore we’re going to punish you,’” Brooks says. “What this bill is doing at the younger level is saying, removing someone who’s 2 or 3 years old from the instructional environment is not going to do anything to help.”
The two bills are House Bill 2166 and Senate Bill 236. The former has been in effect since 2021. It created the Suspension and Expulsion Prevention Program, termed “Every Child Belongs,” which establishes preventive measures like professional development and family engagement to help retain students in schools.
But SB 236, which prohibits suspension and expulsion altogether, will officially take effect in July. That’s to the apprehension of some preschool providers, who say that while such punitive measures are seldom used, they can be helpful as a last resort to ensure safety. Ahead of its rollout, WW is taking a closer look at implementation thus far.
WHAT EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE PROVIDERS SAY: Three preschool providers that spoke to WW for this story agreed with the intentions of the two bills, but worried about SB 236’s large-scale implementation. Many of their concerns echo ones raised by large groups in opposition to the two bills in 2021, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 132, which represents the state’s licensed in-home family child care providers.
“No teacher ever wants to expel a child from a classroom,” says Erin McCloud, a preschool provider in Multnomah County. “It’s a problem based on lack of resources and lack of support from the state.”
McCloud says expulsion is a last resort if a preschool cannot meet a child’s individual needs, either because of a disability that increases care needs or cases in which the child repeatedly harms themselves or others.
McCloud receives some external assistance for at-need students, but says resources are limited at best. If the state could fund one-on-one support services for all children who needed them, she says expulsions would never be necessary.
“If the state really wanted expulsions to end they would create a fully funded program,” she says. “Otherwise, this is a Band-Aid that places blame on preschool teachers.”
And McCloud worries the legislation casts providers who suspend or expel students in a broad light that portrays them as “racist and ableist,” “without providing enough support to really make a difference for the teachers or kids.”
Angie Garcia, owner of the Escuela Viva chain of preschools, says that while she’s been aware of SB 236’s impending implementation for a number of years, she thinks there could have been stronger communication from DELC to prepare providers for the impending ban. Both Garcia and McCloud say they worry about the resources in place to aid providers.
“I don’t know what the mechanisms will be if there are challenges and people want to complain,” Garcia says. “Those pieces have to be ironed out really well so that providers know where to go.”
DELC officials, for their part, say they have done work to communicate the upcoming ban. They’ve done so through regional providers responsible for disseminating information locally and overseeing infant and early childhood mental health consultation services. (The department divides the state into 15 regions, which vary in size.)
Alyssa Chatterjee, DELC’s director, tells WW the department has created a website for providers to request help, and that the department responds to inquiries within two days. Yet she anticipates demand will outweigh available resources. “I would say we actually know this probably isn’t sufficient,” she says, adding the governor’s recommended budget includes additional investments.
Despite hesitation from some preschool providers, others are eager for the ban to take effect. One classroom educator, whose employer follows a no expulsion policy, says she has worked with a number of students who required a lot of work and might have been candidates for expulsion. (She was not authorized by her employer to speak to WW.)
Expulsion can have long-term ramifications for a child and their family, the educator tells WW.
“It’s so easy to be like, well, this person has bit and kicked. But that’s just because they’re not getting the right support,” she says. She’s seen major transformations, she says, of children who might have otherwise been categorized as a problem but, because of the policy, stuck it out. When the child is allowed to come back to the teachers and friends they know, she says, the changes over time can be transformational.
HOW THIS WORKS: There’s a big test case for a no suspension and expulsion policy in Oregon in Multnomah County. The county’s Preschool for All program has long operated with this provision, much to the hesitation of some prospective providers who have worried about losing control over their individual businesses (“In Timeout,” WW, Oct. 24, 2024.)
Danisa McLean, the county’s director of preschool and early learning and a former early child care provider herself, says she doesn’t think there was ill intent among most providers who used suspensions or expulsions, and says it can be “daunting” for providers to have less control than they once did.
And it takes a lot to enforce a ban. Garcia, whose preschools have participated in Preschool for All since its inaugural year, says it’s been paramount to have additional resources for at-need students. And McLean says when a provider and family are struggling, the program engages a multidisciplinary team that assesses everything from inclusion supports to the child’s environment. The program closely tracks the situation for at least six weeks before resorting to other measures.
“Every case is a little different, and it’s really complex, depending upon the needs of the child,” McLean says. “I wouldn’t say there’s a one-size-fits-all in terms of resources or process.”
And Preschool for All is unique because it can transfer students between different schools without financial detriment to a family, something more complicated for the hundreds of early child care programs DELC licenses or helps fund. Chatterjee, for her part, clarifies the department is not looking to strip programs of licensure or funding if they violate the ban. “This would not be a one strike you’re out kind of thing,” she says. “It’s about making sure they get access to the services they need to keep kids in care.”
Melissa Williams, an early childhood interventionist in Multnomah County, sees the bill’s upcoming implementation as an opportunity to rethink child care programs across Oregon. It might make it more pressing to examine challenging behaviors in young students, she says, and could inadvertently change early learning to focus more on social emotional education. She earned PSU’s Infant/Toddler Mental Health graduate certificate, a one-year online program, and says training programs offering alternatives to punitive measures are increasingly necessary.
“The mantra that I, as a parent and as a provider, always try and remember is that [children] are not giving us a hard time, they’re having a hard time,” she says. “My goal when I’m working with providers is to listen to them and meet them where they are. That is the workforce that we want to put out into the world.”
