WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The Dunham Children’s Learning Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology received a $92,118 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help lower child care fees for eligible students who enroll their children at the facility.
The funding is known as a CCAMPIS grant, which stands for Child Care Access Means Parents in School. It helps the Children’s Learning Center to provide discounts to Penn College students whose income makes them eligible for federal Pell Grants. Reductions range from 25 percent to 75 percent of the Children’s Learning Center fees, based on a student’s income as reported to the college’s Financial Aid Office. In addition to the Department of Education’s contribution, the college has budgeted a $241,680 match to ensure the sliding fee scale is available to every eligible student who applies.
Twenty-two Pell Grant-eligible Penn College students are benefiting from the sliding fee scale in 2018-19, allowing them to attend classes secure in the knowledge that their children are safe and receiving an excellent early childhood experience on campus.
Part of the CCAMPIS grant is also used to fund a part-time teacher assistant, who “floats” to each classroom one day per week to allow teachers to have uninterrupted planning and documentation time to meet accreditation standards. They use the time to plan lessons, meet with parents and complete child assessments.
The Children’s Learning Center at Penn College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, through its Commission on Elementary Schools, and by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. It holds the highest rating — four stars — from the Pennsylvania Keystone Stars program.
In addition to offering child care and early education, the Children’s Learning Center provides a working laboratory for students in Penn College’s early childhood education department and other majors.
To learn more about the Dunham Children’s Learning Center, call 570-320-8026 or visit www.pct.edu/childcare.
For information about Penn College, a national leader in applied technology education, visit www.pct.edu, email admissions@pct.edu or call toll-free 800-367-9222.