Description
Several universities in the US contract with external services to provide emergency or backup child care for their students and/or faculty and staff. The University of California and Harvard University offer these services to their employees, while Michigan State University and the University of Michigan offer them to students and employees. Care can be home-based (Harvard University; University of Michigan; Michigan State University for sick child care; University of California) or center-based (Michigan State University for emergency child care; University of California).
Payment structures vary. Michigan State University offers five days of free emergency child care per child and subsidizes 70% of up to 16 hours of sick child care per fiscal year, with students receiving an additional 10% discount. Harvard University and the University of Michigan provide some subsidy, based on income level. The University of California also provides some subsidy, with faculty paying $2/hour for center-based care and $4/hour for home-based care.
Implementation lessons learned
Financial assistance can be very helpful for student and faculty parents need they need access emergency child care. Program planners should consider whether such assistance is possible. Michigan State University, for example, provides 524 emergency child care spots at a cost of $75,000 per year, according to an interview with Family Resource Center staff. In 2009-2010, over 300 people used the service. The university spends under $10,000 per year to subsidize sick child care, which is accessed by 50-75 users.
While the provision of financial assistance has costs, institutions also benefit from offering emergency or backup child care. For example, according to data provided by the University of California, Berkeley, the university’s two-year pilot program saved the equivalent of 550 work days.
Examples
Michigan State University emergency and sick child care
University of California at San Francisco’s backup child care
Additional information: PDF