Since 1993, OCCD has been collaborating with partners to professionalize Oregon's field of child care and education. In the early 1990's, Oregon saw a need to respond to the crisis of fragmented training and education, high personnel turnover, as well as low compensation and benefits. Partners including representatives from professional associates, resource and referral agencies, state agencies, community colleges, universities, and practitioner groups worked together to eventually create The Child Care and Development Block Grant Advisory Committee. This group recognized that the professional development of child care providers and educators were central and essential. A Center was later established in 1993, housed in the Office of Community College Services in Salem, Oregon. As the work of the advisory committee progressed, the Center found its home at Portland State University in 1995. In 1996, the Center was renamed to the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education (OCCD).
Within the same year of it's renaming, OCCD established the state's trainer program, then called Oregon Certified Childhood Education Trainer (OCCET). Two years later in 1998, then called the Professional Development Registry (PDR), was implemented to both acknowledge and validate the professional achievements of those working in the field of childhood care and education. The programs were later renamed to the Oregon Registry Trainer Program (ORTP) and the Oregon Registry. In 2001, the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) began funding scholarships for family child care provider accreditation. A year later, the program expanded to both family child care and center-based staff. This initiated the beginning of OCCD's scholarship programs. In 2011, Oregon Registry Online (ORO) and the Training Calendar were launched. Three years later in 2014, online training modules and myORO access were launched. Afterwards, OCCD collaborated with state and local partners to roll out Oregon's QRIS system, which increased Oregon Registry participation in 2015 and 2016.