Child-care
At UCI, we understand that day care is one of the biggest expenses eating up many student parents' income. Certainly, the thought of balancing child care needs with pursuing an advanced degree or post-doctoral training program may, at times, feel overwhelming. At UCI, we care and want to enable our students and post-docs to successfully achieve their higher education goals. Consequently, we have developed some innovative and impressive solutions to this common challenge for student parents. Whether the solution for you is a UCI day care cooperative or an alternative arrangement based on your personal needs; we believe that you will find the resources on this site to be a good starting point in your efforts to achieve your ultimate goal; i.e., a quality education for yourself and a top-notch experience for your son or daughter.
These days, the type of childcare available to parents runs the gamut -- from centers to in-home caregivers and services provided by relatives, friends or student neighbors. UCI is fortunate to offer six on-campus child care options. UCI's Child Care Services exist to promote participation of student and post-doctoral parents in the teaching, learning, and research missions of the University. All of our centers have the same comprehensive mission: to support, nurture and enhance all areas of your child's development.
If off-campus options better suit your personal needs, then there are a number of web databases hosted by various groups such as the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (for in-home caregivers) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (for institutional caregivers) which provide links and contact information for local providers. In your search, you may want to focus on safety and affordability - issues most sites address through articles with tips and questions to ask staff when touring facilities.
Once you have located a few facilities or providers you like, you should spend time thinking about what's most important to you with respect to child care.
