A new course at Lane Community College in early childhood education will be offered completely in Spanish this summer. It’s aimed at addressing the need for child care for a growing population of Spanish-speaking families.

Philip Martinez, Dean for Social Science at LCC, said locally and across the state, community colleges are experiencing a larger number of students whose first language is Spanish.

“That population also has a need for child care,” he said. “And, consequently, there are child care centers that are beginning, that are predominantly or entirely in Spanish to serve those families and those children. So, we want to professionalize that sector.”

The course, “Human Development and Family Services,” is part of the process to earn a certificate in early childhood education from LCC. It’s being offered as an online class this summer.

Martinez said they have approval for another class taught in Spanish and hope to offer more.

LCC has a program called PASS (Pathways Academic Skills and Services) in which a bilingual coach works with students who are English-language learners. They take courses in English with the assistance of the coach. That program is primarily for people who are already learning English.

“The Spanish-language courses are intended to do the same thing but start people in a couple of courses in Spanish and then they would transition to the PASS courses in time,” he said.

The goal would be for the students to eventually transition to taking their courses in English.

The program is modeled after one at Clackamas College. In that case, Martinez said they translated their entire program into Spanish.

“And so we’re learning from them in our own community with the resources we have. Clackamas funded that with a very large grant,” he said. “We don’t have such a grant, so we’re going to be moving a lot more slowly and learning from their experience and our own.”

Martinez said the early childhood education program is hoping this expansion will be a win-win for LCC students and the community.

Rachael McDonald is a reporter with KLCC. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/01/lane-community-college-spanish-childcare/