Indiana University to expand facilities for child care

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Indiana University is planning to invest up to $500,000 to boost child care services.

Renovations of storage rooms at the Campus Children's Center are expected to decrease the total of 200 names on waiting lists, The Herald-Times (http://bit.ly/2nSwi36 ) reported.

The renovations will result in three new classrooms, allowing the center to accept 40 more children. The center will also hire more staff, including two full-time employees for each classroom.

The project is estimated to cost $400,000 to $500,000. Officials say construction will start this summer with a target completion of January 2018.

About 170 children are enrolled at the three professionally staffed centers on campus. Families with a connection to the university, such as faculty, staff or students, have enrollment priority.

Tim Dunnuck, director of the university's early childhood education services, attributes the demand to the high-quality service provided at the centers.

Curriculum is based on the latest child development research, and the centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Only about 10 percent of child care centers have received this designation, according to Dunnuck.

Munirpallam Venkataramanan, the university's vice provost for finance and strategy, said the expansion hasn't already happened for several reasons. One is the difficultly of accurately calculating demand as parents often apply to enroll their children at multiple child care facilities in the area to ensure they're accepted by at least one. Another reason is that coordinating such an expansion takes time.

"We need to do it in a deliberate fashion," Venkataramanan said. "We felt like we needed to expand, but it took a couple of years to put that process in motion."

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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com