No one in Clatsop County utilizing Child Care for Construction Program

Published 3:30 pm Friday, February 13, 2026

Subsidies could help up to $2,500 per child per month

Forty-five out of 200. Nearly 25%. That’s how far the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries (BOLI) is through their goal for the Child Care for Construction Program (CCC).

CCC offers subsidies to keep child care costs below 7% of enrollees’ household incomes, contributing up to $2,500 per child each month.

“There is no maximum household income for this program, because we are investing in your future as a construction family to help Oregon to meet its economic development and infrastructure needs,” it says on the BOLI website.

“Statistics for the Northwest Oregon region, which includes Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln and Tillamook counties, estimates in 2020 an average hourly wage of $22.58 per hour and an average annual salary of $46,965,” Clatsop County’s Comprehensive Plan says. For apprentices and new journeymen, the average salary is less, causing financial challenges for families in need of child care, which costs a minimum of about $750 monthly.

CCC was spurred by a 2024 legislative directive in the form of HB 4098, aka the CHIPS Child Care Fund. Among other provisions, the bill required Business Oregon to work with BOLI to develop and administer a program to provide financial support and child care subsidies to construction apprentices and new journeyworkers.

The program sunsets June 30, 2027, unless the legislature extends it. Until then, the Legislature appropriated $4 million for direct subsidies through Business Oregon.

According to Jody Robbins, the Director of BOLI’s Apprenticeship and Training Division, the number one reason why construction workers drop out in their early career is because they can’t find affordable, available child care.

Tyler Lyngstad, Recreation Manager at Astoria Parks & Recreation, sees these patterns in Clatsop County. “Affordable childcare plays an important role in supporting working families,” he said. “When care is reliable and reasonably priced, parents are better able to maintain steady employment, accept consistent work schedules, and plan ahead with confidence.”

Oregon Tradeswomen is a Portland-based organization that supports Oregonian women and gender-expansive people in the construction, manufacturing, mechanical and utility trades with free pre-apprenticeship programs. Pre-apprenticeships help people who are unfamiliar with the trades navigate their early careers in the industry.

Oregon Tradeswomen Deputy Director of Operations Nami Bigos said lack of access to affordable child care disproportionately affects women in the industry, who already face more barriers to entry.

Opportunity discrepancies are apparent in the number of women pursuing pre-apprenticeship programs compared to men. “Statistically, 20% of white men utilize a pre-apprenticeship program to get into this work,” Bigos said. “Now for women and people of color, that percentage is 80%.”

According to Bigos, job sites do not offer much grace when working parents call in with child care challenges. She said when workers call out because no one else can watch their children, they often lose their jobs. While pre-apprentices are not eligible for CCC, Bigos said Oregon Tradeswomen advocates for expansion of the program and, in the meantime, shares information about the program with its students for future use.

BOLI Communications Director Rachel Mann said the agency aims to have 200 CCC enrollees by March 2026. “So that’d be 200 families with stability when it comes to child care and 200 workers that contractors don’t lose,” she said.

“One of the coolest parts of the program to me is, that it builds in flexibility for people, especially for construction workers who have demanding hours and it can make it really hard to be able to secure childcare. I like that there’s flexibility built into this program that enables you to not just go through a registered childcare facility, but you can also approve a family friend or neighbor as long as they are registered with the state.”

Currently, CCC has 45 enrollees, but none of them have Clatsop County zip codes, despite the county’s sizable construction workforce of 1,070 as of December 2025. This number represents about a 3% increase since December 2024. According to BOLI Administrative Specialist Jeremy Maynard, Clatsop County has 51 registered construction-trade apprentices.

BOLI continues to use its outreach budget to spread the word about CCC in English and Spanish. “We’ve been doing radio spots, we’ve been doing different forms of outreach,” Mann said. “We are currently utilizing a partner toolkit, letting people know directly, trying to reach out to apprentices and let them know directly that this is available to them.”