Arianne Rodriguez, 4, right, and Daniel Fraser, 3, help Elaine Cortez put together a snack at the Cal Poly Pomona Children’s Center. A new grant will allow the center to continue enhancing child care services for students.

The Cal Poly Pomona Children’s Center has been awarded a four-year grant totaling $597,100 from the federal Department of Education. This grant will assist the center in continuing efforts to enhance child care services for students and diversify funding sources.

Support from the highly competitive Child Care Access Means Parents In School grant will be used to recruit and better meet the needs of low income student-parent families in three ways:

Extension of child care services ? Child care services to low-income student-parent families will be augmented beyond the three weekly hours currently funded through the California State Department of Education. This will provide more flexibility for parents to attend classes.

Subsidized sliding fee scale ? Student-parents who qualify based on financial need will pay a reduced fee for child-care services. Grant funding will provide child care services for the equivalent of 10-20 children for one year who are enrolled on a full-time basis.

Summer enrichment program for school-aged children ? A summer enrichment program for children, ages 5-10, of low-income parents will provide meaningful learning experiences in a high quality on-campus child care environment.

The grant will also fund a new staff coordinating position, which will monitor, maintain and implement the grant, and lead marketing efforts to increase child enrollment for low-income student-parent families. Funding will also support the implementation of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation. The center intends to meet the NAEYC accreditation requirements in three years.

Cal Poly Pomona Children’s Center is a nonprofit organization operated and subsidized by the Associated Students Inc. (ASI) and the Division of Student Affairs. For 28 years, the center has provided accessible, affordable, convenient and quality child care services to students, faculty, staff, alumni and community residents.