NELA colleges and universities making it easier for parents to attend classes

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - Grambling State University recently received $75,000 to re-open a child development center on campus to help students who are also parents.

Louisiana Delta Community College (LDCC), Louisiana Tech, and the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) all have programs to help parents as well.

“Well, it’s nice they can just come to one place,” Sandee Clawson, LDCC’s Child Care Center Program Director, told KNOE. “They can drop their child off here and go to class or even study.”

Tammy Anderson is in charge of ULM’s Child Care Means Parents In School program.

“What that grant does, it allows us to pay child care payments for the income-eligible students,” Anderson explained.

Anderson says full-time eligible students who attend ULM in-person or online can take advantage of the grant if they have a 2.0 GPA and attend a financial literacy and parenting seminar each semester.

“They’re able to use whatever daycare in the community they want,” explained Anderson. “I have one student that is out of town, so she uses the daycare close to her.”

At LDCC’s Monroe Campus, students can drop off their kids at an onsite learning center for three and four-year-olds.

“We use a Frog Street Curriculum for the children, so every day we do the math, science, language arts, movement, and music, so we try and reach all areas of development for young children,” said Clawson.

Anderson adds some students at ULM who take advantage of the program may not have been able to finish school without it.

“[Child care] is so expensive,” explained Anderson. “It runs about an average of $150 a week for child care, and some of them do have two children. We also cover after-school care. They have older children that go to aftercare.”

Meanwhile, LDCC offers an associate’s degree in the Care and Development of Young Children. Those students use the Child Care Development Center to get hands-on experience.