Keyword: colleges providing daycare
Word Count: 514
Keyword Density: 8/1.56%
Highest Honors for Colleges Providing Daycare
Many parents of young children, mothers in particular, sacrifice their college education to have children and raise their families. If there were more colleges providing daycare, these young women could complete their educations sooner and provide a better life for their families. Providing on-campus daycare for employees allows colleges to attract a more diverse work force, and providing daycare for college students provides a valuable community service.
Increasingly, colleges have become aware of this need for daycare; more and more colleges today are providing daycare for their students. These colleges are finding that, not only do students wish to take advantage of college-provided daycare, but faculty and staff who work at the college want to enroll their children in the daycare. These on-campus daycare centers operate during school hours, with extended hours during exam periods.
How to Find a College Providing Daycare
Once you find a college in your area, arrange to meet with an enrollment counselor. Even if that particular college does not provide daycare, the enrollment counselor will be familiar with other colleges in the area and may even be able to provide you with brochures or catalogs from those colleges.
Colleges providing daycare will usually advertise this service in their course catalogs, as it is a service in great demand among young college students who have children. If no daycare is mentioned in the catalog, don't be afraid to call the admissions office and speak with an enrollment counselor.
The college may have a daycare facility that is too new to include in the catalog. If you confirm that no daycare is offered, be sure to tell the enrollment counselor that you would have considered enrolling if only the college had provided a daycare for its students. You never know -- the college may start a daycare program because of your call.
If you have your heart set on going to a particular college and it is not a college providing daycare, ask the enrollment office if there is a daycare provider that the college recommends for its students. There may be a daycare center nearby that cares for children of college students. Alternatively, the office may direct you to a list of college students who want to provide daycare. Work with the enrollment office to make sure you exhaust all possible leads.
Once you have a potential daycare provider, be sure to do your homework. Just because a daycare provider is located on a college campus does not mean that it is the right daycare for your child. Take your child to the facility and watch how he or she interacts with the environment there.
Interview other parents whose children attend the daycare and ask about their experiences. What activities do the children do while their parents attend class? What is the ratio of paid attendants to children? Have the parents ever discussed a problem with their child with the daycare provider, and how was the complaint received? With diligent research, you should have success in locating a college providing daycare in your area.
