I’m Stacey Smith-Clark, the Center Manager at the PCC Child Development at Long Beach City College Child Development Center & Learning Labs.. and I want to clear up a few bits of misinformation:
1) Our CDC’s have zero restrictions regarding children who are not yet potty trained. We believe toilet learning is a developmental phase and children in diapers can and should be enrolled.
2) Our CDC’s are currently fully enrolled with 5 classrooms at each CDC, serving approximately 300 children. LBCC students ALWAYS receive priority enrollment and priority for funding from our subsidized program which provides free and sliding scale tuition for income-qualifying families.
It is true that we have a waiting list and we welcome people to be added to it, as we enroll year-round, space permitting.
When I was interviewed for this article I was asked if we could add additional classrooms to the Centers and I said that at this time, all of classroom spaces and buildings are being utilized.
That is very different than “we do not have enough space.”
3) We have a preschool license which allows us to enroll children ages 2-5 years old.
Community Care Licensing tells us how many children we can enroll in each classroom and we would be in violation, should we exceed that.
If a family inquires about care for their infants, toddlers or school-age children, we offer resources on where to find such care.
Long Beach has a plethora of resources and we are happy to help connect everyone to them.
LBCC Child Development Centers have over $700,000 in grants to provide free and reduced-fee, year-round, child care to income qualifying families and we always serve LBCC students first.
The CDC’s are getting ready to open enrollment for the next school year and will soon be contacting parents and families currently on our waiting list.
If anyone is interested in being added to the waiting list, taking a tour of the CDC’s and/or obtaining resources for any type of child care services, I’m happy to help.
Feel free to call me at PCC at 562/938-3079 or email me at s2smith@lbcc.edu. If you are interested in any of the above at LAC, call Amy Bigelow at 562/938-4703 or email get at abigelow@lbcc.edu.