Congressman Horsford Announces $1.18 Million in Federal Funding for Campus-Based Child Care

Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This week, Congressman Steven Horsford (D-NV-04) announced his office has secured more than $1.18 million in federal grant funding to provide campus-based child care to low-income parents at four Nevada colleges and universities.

"By supporting student parents, we can lift up entire families," said Congressman Steven Horsford. "COVID-19 has brought new challenges to Nevada's student parents, many of whom struggled to get the on-campus resources they needed before the pandemic. I'm proud to have secured this much-needed funding, which will help bring students back into the classroom and increase completion rates at our two and four-year colleges."

"At CSN, our goal is to make sure our students complete their education. This grant will help us do just that by making sure that students who are also parents can stay in school," said Dr. Federico Zaragoza, President of the College of Southern Nevada. "Our Early Childhood Education Lab has been a critical part of CSN's Students First philosophy. I want to thank the U.S. Department of Education and our congressional delegation for their hard work and dedication to Southern Nevada's college students. We are all in this together -- parents, students, and children alike."

"These funds for child care access are vital as they will enable UNLV to provide stipends to low-income students with young children," said Sunny Gittens, Executive Director of Student Engagement at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "It's a true win-win for both our students and their children, as we'll be able to keep more of our students in school and on-track to graduate while at the same time opening doors to quality early childhood education for our students' children."

"We are very pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Education has selected UNR's proposal for funding. These are great news for the Wolf Pack family, particularly for those who, because of income limitations, struggle to cover the cost of child care while trying to achieve their own academic goals and aspirations. The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program will assist UNR with the retention of low-income student parents through the provision of funds to cover the cost of campus-based child care services. This is a partnership between UNR Student Services' First-Generation Student Center, the College of Education and Human Development through Dr. Melissa Burnham and the Child and Family Research Center Director Sherry Waugh. Starting October 1st of this year, the grant will provide funds to fifteen (15) Federal Pell-Grant eligible undergraduate and graduate students to assist/cover the cost of childcare services for a grand total of $215,173 per year for four years. This is indeed remarkable," said Dr. Maritza Machado-Williams, Executive Director of the Student Services' First-Generation Student Center at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"The CCAMPIS grant provides essential support for our students," said Vickie Shields, Provost and Executive Vice President of Nevada State College. "Many students at Nevada State are returning adults with children. The ability to enroll their children in high-quality childcare gives them the opportunity to take more classes per semester, to access services such as tutoring, and to take part in campus life. We're thrilled that the CCAMPIS grant will allow some of our students to take advantage of the new Early Childhood Education Center on campus, which will also give their children an excellent pre-K foundation that will set them up for success as they move on to K-12 education."

In a 2013 study, researchers found that community college students who used on-campus child care were nearly three times as likely to graduate or transfer to a four-year college within three years of enrollment as student parents who did not use the center. According to data from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, student parents are overwhelmingly women, with people of color disproportionately represented among the student parent population.

The Nevada grants announced this week are part of the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS) program. The funding allocation is as follows:

University of Nevada, Las Vegas: $460,091

College of Southern Nevada: $435,179

University of Nevada, Reno: $215,173

Nevada State College: $74,531

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