Chatfield College Adds Emergency Childcare Center at Cincinnati Campus

Chatfield College will begin offering all students attending its Cincinnati campus, located in Over-the-Rhine/West End, access to emergency childcare starting with the Spring 2022 term, which begins on January 18. The service is free to students thanks to funding from the United States Department of Education, a generous student success grant from the Charles H. Dater Foundation, and a partnership with the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati.

“Chatfield’s mission of meeting students where they extends to meeting their needs in the personal life as well. For example, we’ve seen many parents forced to put their education on the shelf because they had unreliable childcare. Our new emergency childcare option can be the catalyst for parents to provide a better life for their family,” said Chatfield College president Robert Elmore.

Chatfield College’s opening of an emergency childcare center comes at a crucial time for students affected by barriers to obtaining a degree. According to diverseeducation.com[1], low-income students of color, primarily Black mothers, are disproportionately affected by a lack of childcare to get a degree. Nearly half of Black women undergraduate students are mothers. The United States Government Accountability Office[2] (GAO) notes that 4.3 million of the 20 million students attending college in 2019-2020 were raising children. Many colleges and universities closed their childcare centers during Covid-19 and have chosen to keep them permanently closed despite the need of many undergraduate parents.

“Chatfield is proud to offer an emergency childcare center at our Cincinnati campus, especially at a time when there are fewer choices for parents. We are thankful our community partners, like the Charles H. Dater Foundation and YMCA of Greater Cincinnati, have allowed us to offer this service,” said Elmore.

The emergency childcare center will be available for students when there is an interruption in their regular childcare plans. The center will be open during school hours for student-parents on campus. The YMCA of Greater Cincinnati provides staffing of the center.

Students interested in this emergency childcare center can begin registration now. This service applies to both new and returning students.

[1] https://www.diverseeducation.com/students/article/15107448/closing-university-child-care-centers-hurts-both-student-parents-and-future-educators

2 https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-19-522.pdf