Spark Program rates Oregon child care providers

The redesign is a result of legislation adopted in 2021 that provides an expansion of resources for high-quality early care and education. The program reorganization specifically including language allowing family, friend, and neighbor caregivers to be a part of the program.

At the core of the program is the Oregon Spark website for families to review child care options in the area. Anyone can access their database, located at www.oregonspark.org/families/spark-rated-programs, to find programs in their area that align with the parent’s goals, including for instance, diversity, equity and inclusion goals, or a system limiting the amount of screen time their child gets.

The program is not the same as licensing requirements by the state, but instead provides a measure of how far above and beyond each program goes to provide quality child care.

Various factors play into a Spark rating system, which measures child care quality across a robust curriculum up to a ranking of five stars.

Playful Learning, a Reggio-based childcare provider in The Dalles, is one such program that recently scored five stars through Spark, the highest rating available.

Owner and child care professional Eliza Hernandez-Greenway said the program offers parents the ability to see what they can expect before they enroll their child in a particular program.

The program is beneficial for educators, such as Hernandez-Greenway, by offering program participants career development resources and grant funding opportunities to provide improvements to a given center for early childhood development.

“The idea is that everybody would get on board so that it would be easy to find quality child care,” she said.

The process was rigorous, and required a lot of time and effort to gather all the materials required for their portfolio. She was thrilled when she learned that she received the highest rankings.

“Spark shows people that we are ready to show that were needed in the community. It also solidifies that we are high quality,” she said.

It’s a good entry point for new parents unfamiliar with the ins-and-outs of early childhood development. Parents can spend a lot of time calling into places or attending open houses to learn about the program, but with Spark, the most pertinent information is already online.

“A lot of people ask me what is Reggio, because we’re a Reggio-inspired school,” she said. “We use a lot of open-ended materials, we use a lot of real life materials, and we try to tell children there’s not one way to play. So the idea of the Spark program is that if you don’t know what a quality program is, you would be able to easily find out,” she said.

Playful Learning is one of 16 child care providers shown on the Oregon Spark website, and is currently the only private provider with a five-star rating. Hernandez-Greenway said the goal of her program is to be a counterweight to the growing child care desert in the area, which has seen demand rise without supply of child care growing with it.

In the Gorge she said, the problem continues to grow. That’s why one of her priorities in the coming years is to move her center into a larger location, in order to support more children and families.

“I didn’t get into this field to make money. I got into this field because I love children,” she said. “I know how many families are looking for care, or are looking for quality care. And when you reject more people than you house, you start to feel like you’re not doing justice for the community. And so at this point, programs need to be expanded here in The Dalles.”

Playful Learning is located at 516 West 13th Street in The Dalles and can be reached at 541-705-7329.