Big Grant for The Child Development Center
Stan State will be receiving a 1.1 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education to offer subsidized child care services in the Child Development Center to students with children.
The grant was written by Dr. Gina Cook, Dr. Roseanne Roy, and Stefani Smith, Director of the CDC. Dr. Gina Cook says that in addition to subsidized, quality child care “we will be able to connect student-parents with campus resources, provide parenting classes and parent socializations.”
Plans to Improve the Program
According to Smith the facility’s current primary purpose is as a student lab for Child Development majors, but ideally that will soon change as the program’s offerings expand.
“This grant will help establish that we are here not only to serve as a lab school but to serve our student-parents,” says Smith.
The CDC has been in the same temporary annex building since 1979 and has great need of improvement. This grant is one step toward a proposed goal that includes a new building, expanded classroom sessions, and more student-parent services.
The CDC currently offers half-day or full day child care for kids six weeks to five years old. The infant and toddler program (up to age three) costs $35 per half-day session, and the preschool program for ages three to five costs $25 per half-day.
The program is staffed by student interns enrolled in the Child Development major program. It’s an intensive lab class for advanced students and requires in class lectures as well as the lab portion of the class. Thanks to this student staffing, many children in the community and on campus can be served.
On Campus Child Care Could Serve Many
One in five students in the U.S. and one in six at Stan State have children. Many parents like Hannah Richter, a Stan State alumnus who uses the program, benefit heavily from the program’s offerings.
“It’s been great, my kid that I have going there now is my third one to go through the program,” says Richter.
For student parents, a program with extensive, affordable offerings could be life changing for their school career.
“I could only take classes online or at night mostly, so it was hard to always get all the classes I needed and being a full-time parent and student definitely hurt my grades,” says Christina Gonzalez, a recent graduate.
For many students with children, affordable, on-campus child care could be the difference between graduating or not.
