You've heard of "food deserts," places where grocery stores selling healthy food are rare. We've also learned the hard way about "news deserts," where local news sources are hard to come by. Now we get to explore "child care deserts," with sparse options for working parents to have their children supervised.
Recent research out of Oregon State University shows much of the state would be a child care desert, if public funding had not helped increase child care options, largely because of the 2019 Student Success Act.
Bobbie Weber is a retired research associate in OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences, and the co-author of a previous version of the report. She visits to add details to the research.