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Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC)
Effective Program Strategies

Creating an Integrated System of Early Childhood Services Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

Demographic Information:
The Warm Springs Reservation, located on roughly 650,000 acres in North Central Oregon, is home to the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes, collectively known as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Approximately 4,000 tribal members live on the largely rural reservation, mostly in or around the small town of Warm Springs. Bordered by the Deschutes River on the east and the Cascade Mountain Range on the west, the diverse geography of the reservation supports an economy that is based primarily on natural resources, including hydropower, forest products, ranching, tourism, and recreation.

Type of Program:
The CCDF program of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is an exempt program. The tribe’s Essential Education Services Department operates an Early Childhood Education Center that offers full-day, full-year child care and Head Start services. Home-based Early Head Start services are also available on the reservation. The Early Childhood Education Center serves all families living and/or employed on the reservation, thereby meeting the needs of CCDF- and Head Start-eligible families while also providing a recruitment/retention incentive for employees of tribal enterprises. The 300-child capacity center is state licensed so that eligible families can pay for care using state CCDF subsidies.

Effective Program Strategy:
The Early Childhood Education Center (ECE) for The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs operates various early childhood education programs serving approximately 340 youngsters (infants through school-age children). For 20 of its 31 years as a Head Start grantee, ECE has provided full-day, full-year services to at least 20 children. In 1992, in response to parent demand for more full-day services, the Tribal Council contributed funds to ECE to combine with Head Start funds to support two additional full-day, full-year classrooms.

The partnership between ECE Head Start and the Tribal Preschool was prompted by advocacy for additional preschool funding from the Tribal Council. Because of strict eligibility criteria that gave preference to income-eligible children with special needs, children in foster/protective custody, and children of single parents or high-risk families, many families were ineligible. Additionally, the number of children needing preschool slots each year exceeded the number of available slots.

In response, the Tribal government agreed to contribute funding regardless of family income eligibility. With this funding, ECE hired staff and secured facilities to serve the growing number of preschool children in and near the reservation. The Head Start/Tribal Preschool partnership started as a 10-month, part-day program in 1990. In 1992, when ECE centralized its programs into a single building, it created four full-day, full-year classrooms with two rooms funded by the partnership. In the early 1990s, ECE also began receiving federal child care funds and incorporated full-day, full-year child care services into the partnership.

The partnership endeavored to integrate all staff, students, and programming features. All Tribal Preschool teachers were trained in the Head Start performance standards, adopted these standards in their classrooms, and considered themselves Head Start teachers. Children were assigned to classrooms regardless of family income; neither families nor teachers knew the children's income eligibility.

Results:
The positive outcomes of this collaborative venture include:

• Enhancement of the quality of children's education services;
• Extension of service hours;
• Coordination and maximization of staff training;
• More efficient use of facilities; and
• Continuity of care.

The partnership created an opportunity for ECE to develop a single set of consistent policies and procedures for all of its programs. Previously, teachers and parents were confused by differing program policies. For example, Head Start would frequently close for training, but other programs did not. When Head Start and the Tribal Preschool began operating under the same standards, ECE decided to create a single, center-wide policy manual and training plan to ensure a more consistent response to families and children.

Blending the early childhood programs enhanced the professionalism of ECE’s staff. By blending funds, ECE could offer better training opportunities to all teachers. With input from the community, ECE developed a vision for the partnership that served as a guide; that vision is "to ensure that every child's spirit is nurtured and respected." Each year, ECE returns to this vision to identify the partnership’s annual goals and objectives.

Lessons Learned:
ECE’s ongoing task is to ensure parity in partnership teachers’ salaries. Historically, salary levels varied widely between Head Start and the Tribal Preschool.

When the partnership began, ECE anticipated that the teachers and staff would feel territorial about their programs. To minimize that attitude, ECE ensured strong leadership during the transition and created opportunities for communication among the partners. As staff and teachers came together to hear from one another, they learned about the benefits of partnering, and territorial feelings dwindled.

Once the partnership was established, maintaining quality in every classroom for all children and families required increased effort and communication.

Contact Information:
Essential Education Director

Address:
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
PO Box C
Warm Springs, OR 97761

Phone: (541) 553-3241
Fax: (541) 553-3379

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This page was last updated May 28, 2004.