The Butte College Child Development Center (CDC) strives to provide high-quality child care that is respectful of and responsive to children by developing a partnership with the parents and families. To provide high-quality lab instruction to incoming students who are learning to work in the Child Development Center. Our goals are to promote optimal growth for their child, while supporting student learning spanning a variety of disciplines.
The CDC serves nearly 250 college students per semester. These services range from offering laboratory opportunities to providing child care to students from all disciplines. The CDC serves as a lab for the following programs: Child Development/Family Relations (CDF), Nursing, EMT-Paramedics, Foods and Nutrition, Communication Studies, and Education. The CDC is conveniently located on the main campus. Last year nearly one hundred families were served. These were made up of college students, faculty, staff and the greater community. Due to the c Covid-19 pandemic for the 21/22 academic school year our program is allowing practicum and curriculum students in person only. Our funding sources come primarily from the District and from parent tuition. The CDC has four classrooms serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Breakfast and afternoon snack are offered to all children in our program. The CDC is reimbursed for meals through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). In fall of 2015 we received child care vouchers for Student Equity students giving them free childcare as well as giving our center three student interns who help support the center in a variety of ways. In 2016 we received a California State Preschool grant that allows us to provide free to low cost child care options for our preschool ages only. In October in 2017 we acquired the CCAMPIS federal grant to assist with growing our infant toddler classrooms and provide low cost child care to student parents. The Strategic Plan directs us to focus on and increase student success. The CDC serves a population not mentioned in the strategic plan, parents. More than 90% of the children served by the CDC are children of Butte College students. Many of our students have young children and need reliable child care in order to continue their education. The CDC is committed to the success of these students and provides high-quality child care on-campus, thus alleviating the student�s anxiety over transportation and care needs of their young children. The CDC fulfills an essential need for these students and, therefore, is a vital link to their success. In addition to providing high quality and reliable child care, the CDC is continually looking at ways to help students. We were approved for student equity funding to support our student parents on the dashboard. We also secured funding from the California Department of Education to help secure slots for preschool aged children. This CSPP program on site provides free to low cost child care for parents who qualify. In the past few years, the CDC in collaboration with the (ECFS) instructors have been working on the Curriculum Alignment Program (CAP) and a Transfer Degree to develop foundational core courses that can be easily transferable between community colleges and the California State University system. The CDC is moving forward to provide students with the best experience possible within these core classes that utilize the CDC lab. This effort has primarily focused on a number of time students are in the lab as determined by each lab related course. The result is a less flexible yet highly efficient schedule with concentrated groups of students moving through the lab within a 13-week window. The infant room has the capacity for 8 infants staff from CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents in School). However, due to Covid-19 we are keeping these rooms smaller on purpose for safety. With this change we have prioritized student parents for the slots. This allows student parents to return to school even sooner by creating a safe environment for their baby while they are in class. In addition, this change has also allowed our lab students to observe children as young as 6 weeks old through 5 years old. As we look to the future, it is important that the CDC continues to fulfill its mission as well as develop new plans. By increasing quality, early care, and education the CDC is aligned with a campus strategic initiative, enhancing an innovative, flexible, responsive and accountable culture, as well as increasing the availability of critical services. The community�s need for high-quality early care and education is recognized and plans are being developed to better meet these needs. Fall of 2021 the CDC was awarded NAEYC accreditations for the next 5 years. This quality marker is used as evidence that the CDC on campus is the best of the best in the nation.
The CDC unit plan is our Administrative Program Review. We were also reviewed last cycle with Education, family, and Consumer Sciences.
The Butte College Child Development Center strives to provide high-quality care that is respectful and responsive to children by developing a partnership with their parents and families; that promotes optimal growth for children while supporting student learning for Butte College students in a variety of disciplines.
Goals of the CDC are:
Strategy 1 - Renovating and Infrastructure- New Equipment
The Child Development center is in need of infrastucture repairs/equipment replacement in the following ways:
The CDC requires equipment and materials for the health and safety of children and students.
The CDC's budget is not sufficuient to manage when there is a peice of equipment that has stopped working. Recently, we recieved funding from the district for a new dishwasher in the infant room. These appiances are vital to the health and safety of our center. We are asking that we have funding in our budget to cover when items quit working. Our center was built in 1994 and many of our appiances are outdated and are in need of replacement. The cook top in the kitchen is next on the priority list.
The CDC has had several security issues in the last few semesters and we arein need of funding for a panic button. Our clientle requires that we have a way of notifying the campus police with out putting ourselves in danger. Our security doors in the front do not go all the way to the top of the door and there is no way to notify classrooms to lock down without someone running down to them on foot.
Due to health and safety concerns we would require a sunshade for over our playground area on the preschool side. Fall semester heat makes it unsafe for the children to use the slide in any way.
NAEYC recomends for best practice that all interior carpet in facility be removed and replaced with hard "easy to clean surface".
Strategy 2 - Budget Augmentation- Tuition shortfall
The CDC tuition pays for supplies for the center as well as the salary for the program assistant and the director position. In previous years we did not use this augmentation. Lack of staff means fewer children in the center for tuition accounts. At this time we are seeing a rapid increase in enrollment but can not keep up with student parent demand. We secured a California state preschool grant and the enrollment needs to grow. Taking on this contract caused a huge increase in tuition. The more children we have the more center needs in supplies like food and gloves. The Centers budget is no longer functional for the budgetary needs of the program. The ability to pay for our grant funded staff relies on wether we earn our CSPP contract. Last year, we ended the porgram year with a deficit of $23,000. This augmentation will keep the facilities running while we work on bringing in more staff and gain more enrollment.
Having the budget augmentation will allow the CDC to keep operating regardless of the amount of tuition it brings in. This sustains the quality care and lab classroom. The more staff the center has bigger the capacity for enrollment. The larger the enrollment the more students and children we can serve.
Strategy 3 - Increasing the Center Director Position to 12 months
With grant funding the program assistant and center director have been able to work two weeks in the month of July due to grant funding terms and conditions. The program needs the month of July to be partially operational to enroll student parents and do items for grants and seek additonal funding
There is work that is required to be done the month of July and both the director and program assistant need to be on site to enroll families and report data to our grants. At this time we are using a temporary timesheet to get this work done.
Strategy 4 - Student Equity On-Campus Child Care Support
The CDC priortizes student parents that are disproportionaly impacted due to current Student Equity standards. When funding is available these parents get free care based on current equity list. The time thier child can be at the center free of care is based off of number of units and grade standing. The current SE plan has the CDC focusing on serving our On-Campus childcare funding for these special population of disproportionally impacted students.
When student parents have a place to take thier child with them on campus, while they work on thier degree/certificate completion it takes a way a giant obsticle. The center director and program assistant communicate with the student parents receiving these funds in proactive way. We follow up with 6 week and 12 week grade report. Having a strong relationships with our SE recipient families helps them to stay focused, nurtured, engaged, connected , and valued. When they feel these things they can succeed in a college setting.
None at this time.
The CDC is presently being funded beyond the Child Development Program by the following:
CSPP (California State Preschool Grant $160,000.00
CACFP (Food Program) $ 12,000.
Parent Tuition/Registration $80,000.00
Student Equitiy Scholarships for student parents $53,587.00
CCAMPIS Grant funding in the amount of $179,000
$170,000 of this funding is for staffing on the infant/toddler side.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Art/Fam (CDC) | Equipment | $140,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Renovating and Infrastructure- New Equipment | The Child Development center is in need of infrastructure repairs/equipment replacement in the following ways: Appliances are outdated, worn, and will need to be replaced when they fail to work. $5,000 A panic button and notification system for classrooms for lock down. $10,000 A sunshade for the preschool area $6,000 for shade $20,000 installation Interior carpet removed and replaced with hard "easy to clean" surface. $89,000 |
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| 2 | Art/Fam (CDC) | Operating Expenses | $60,000.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Budget Augmentation-tuition shortfall | The CDC tuition pays for supplies for the center as well as the salary for the program assistant and the director position. In previous years we did not use this augmentation. Lack of staff means fewer children in the center for tuition accounts. Our waitlist are increasing but if unable to keep current CCAMPIS funding staff will be lost and we wont be able to enroll. We may have to turn students away. We keep this in case there is a time when the CDC can not meet enrollment due to lack of staffing. |
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| 3 | CDC | Operating Expenses | $53,587.00 | $53,587.00 | ||
| Continued Student Equity funding for On-Campus Childcare | The CDC seeks to continue its Student Equity on Campus Childcare program. This funding provided by the student equity plan helps impacted student parents have one less obstacle with their education. |
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| 4 | Art/Fam (CDC) | Personnel | 11-000-520-1-30500 | $9,500.00 | $9,500.00 | |
| Support for Child care services | The Child Development Center is in need of: The Center Director to be 12 months to complete required Grant paperwork and enrollment. Total Cost $11,000- Can be covered by CCAMPIS grant or CSPP or a combination of the two. |
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