The Division for Early Childhood shares best practices for helping young children with disabilities in areas like learning at home, play, family routines, and how families and professionals work together. 

DEC Recommended Practices cover seven core topics: Assessment, Environment, Family, Instruction, Interaction, Teaming and Collaboration, and Transition.

The Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) has developed Practice Guides for Families in English and in Spanish. These are focused on DEC Recommended Practices and help families partner collaboratively with early care and learning teams.

En Espanol.

Note: FACT has revised some practice guides to be Oregon-specific. See the next resource listed on this page.

Deputy Director Heather Olivier is an aRPy Ambassador for Oregon who helps build state capacity to use DEC Recommended Practices.

Heather has adapted a few ECTA guides for Oregon-specific birth-5 service systems. Support your child’s move from Early Intervention (EI) to Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) and from ECSE to Kindergarten in English and Spanish.

Oregon’s EI/ECSE program is a partnership between the Oregon Department of Education and local service areas, providing individualized services at no cost to families and children with developmental delays and disabilities.

Early Intervention (EI) are services for qualifying infants and toddlers up to age 3. Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) is for qualifying children ages 3–5.

This page has information in 9 languages on how to refer a young child for assessment.

Read the Oregon Department of Education’s guiding principles for EI/ECSE services and find resources on how to get help and be involved in early education policy and advocacy.

FACT Oregon publishes a quarterly e-news with trainings, tools, and resources that help families to celebrate and develop their child’s strengths and work with early childhood teams to support positive child development and learning.

If you have concerns about your child’s development, the Oregon Screening Project has a free confidential online developmental screening for young children can be a good place to start.

regon Early Childhood Inclusion Initiative supports implementation of key frameworks that have demonstrated effectiveness in facilitating the development of early learning environments that are culturally responsive, inclusive, and identity-affirming.

With the goal of all children in Oregon thriving in early childhood and beyond, the Department of Early Learning and Care funds a variety of programs and services that support the well-being of families with young children.