OCTOBER 9, 2020 — UTSA’s Child Development Center is aiming to further student success by ensuring students who are parents reach their goal of graduation through affordable child care.
The Child Development Center recently received a Child Care Access Means Parents in School grant of $315,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to support its new initiative, the Aim High Childcare Project.
“This award allows institutions in higher education to create innovative projects that offer flexibility and affordability in child care as well as provide subsidized tuition for the children of student parents to receive care at the institution,” said Pamela Ray, director of the center.
Through the Aim High Childcare Project, the center’s first goal is to recruit, select and enroll children of student parents who are trying to complete their education at UTSA, Ray said.
“Our second goal is for us to provide extended services for parents. This will allow us to extend our child care hours into some evenings, for example, during the week before finals,” she said. “That would allow them additional study time and prep for research or whatever it is they’re working on. We want to provide them support for success because the end goal is for them to graduate.”
Besides extended child care hours, the grant will allow the program to provide a subsidized portion of the child care tuition.
“The grant is available to undergraduate and graduate students who are full time in the spring and summer,” Ray said. “They must maintain a specified GPA—undergraduates need a 3.0 and graduates need 3.5. They also need to meet our income eligibility guidelines.”
The center provides child care to student parents, faculty and staff on campus. Its program is meant to enhance “emotional, social, creative, physical, language and cognitive development through creative learning experiences.”
Ray says she’s seen the benefits of the grant at her previous institution.
“While it really helped us with retention, our goal was to see the students graduate,” Ray said. “They wear a lot of hats: They are a student, they are a parent, they are working and trying to balance everything and be able to have affordable child care.”
Research shows that when student parents have access to quality, affordable child care, they are very productive in their goals, Ray continued.
“They become productive workers, parents and students,” she said. “It will just give them that opportunity to know that they’re closer to graduation without worrying about all of the other things that come with life as a student parent.”
UTSA is currently the only four-year institution in San Antonio to have the grant, Ray said.
⇒ Learn more about the Child Development Center at UTSA.
“We want to thank President Taylor Eighmy, PreK4Sa, Mayor Nirenberg, Texas Association for the Education of Young Children and Region 20 for all writing us letters of support,” Ray said. “The grant speaks to one of our main destinations of student success. Here at the Child Development Center we strive from good to great, so that’s why we are very excited to provide an opportunity to our UTSA students, and even just bringing it to San Antonio.”
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.