In 2005, the Children’s Institute commissioned ECONorthwest to produce this Oregon Children’s Budget. It asked ECONorthwest to answer the question: what federal, state and foundation spending is devoted to low income children in Oregon? As basic as this question may seem, the answer to it was unknown with any detail before the publication of this report.

In 2007, Representative Whisnant of Oregon introduced legislation to instruct the Oregon Commission on Children and Families to create and recommend a Children’s Budget to the Governor.