One of the things that makes Salt Lake Community College unique from other institutions of higher education is the number of parents who are enrolled in classes. Because of this, the child care system available at the Taylorsville Redwood and South City campuses is helpful to both students, as well as staff.
At the Taylorsville Redwood campus, the Eccles Early Childhood Development Lab School is located at the outer edge of the campus on the southeast corner. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The school takes 2 to 5 year-old children and offers a full-time and part-time schedule to accommodate a variety of needs. Full time is all day Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., while part time can be either 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Recognizing the typical scheduling of classes, children can attend Monday through Friday, just Tuesday and Thursday, or just Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They do not offer drop-in childcare at this location.
“We have a waiting list, but I do give priority to students and faculty, although we do accept children from the community,” said Sharlie Barber, the manager of the Eccles school.
Cost for this child care is 24 dollars for a 9 hour day, although a sliding scale is available based on household income.
The school feeds the kids breakfast and lunch and gives them an afternoon snack. The child care follows the federal food guidelines when preparing meals.
“We have a wonderful program,” said teacher Jackie Matthews. “We are the model for other programs. We are one of the best in the valley.”
The Eccles childcare facility does have students working there during the fall and spring semesters. These students are studying child development and are lab students. The teachers employed by the Eccles school have their early childhood development associates degrees, or bachelor degrees in early childhood development.
The South City childcare offers almost the same program, though there are a few differences between it and the program at the Taylorsville Redwood campus. No students are employed at the South City location. South City does offer drop-ins if they are pre-registered at the childcare. The cost for drop-ins is 3 dollars per hour. The hours at South City are different also. They are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Friday they are open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The South City child care does follow the SLCC academic calendar, including all holidays and snow days. The cost for this facility is seven dollars for 0-3 hours per day, 14 dollars for 3-6 hours, and 22 dollars for six or more hours per day. There is a one time 15 dollar charge for enrollment that is non-refundable.
To enroll a child, a parent needs to fill out the application for enrollment that is basically a contact sheet. At the Eccles child care, times for parents must work with the child care’s schedule. Applications for these child care centers can be found online at www.slcc.edu/eccleslabschool, or at www.slcc.edu/ccfs.
