A daycare center at San Francisco State University that primarily serves faculty and staff while also providing educational opportunities for students is scheduled to close next year, further limiting an overstretched child care system.
The Children’s Campus, an on-campus daycare and preschool near Lake Merced, will close by August 1, 2025, as the university faces enrollment and budget declines. The child care facility was largely self-sustaining before the pandemic but has not fully recovered since then.
The news surprised parents and staff, who were informed in a letter in late July. Nathan Lovejoy, a parent who sits on the center’s advisory board, said he only found out a few hours before the letter was sent to all parents.
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Now parents are faced with the decision of either looking for alternatives or pushing for solutions to prevent closure. At the same time, they lament the loss of a unique research space to train future childcare workers. Due to the loss of trust, some families have already withdrawn. This raises fears that the facility could close sooner than expected, leaving the remaining parents in the lurch.
“For a city that is already considered hostile to children, any closure of daycare centers is tough,” says Natasha Opfell, a mother from Children’s Campus who was four months pregnant and put herself on the waiting list. “As parents, our options are severely limited. Now we have to rush to find a daycare center in an already overburdened system.”
The total number of licensed child care spaces in the city only meets 17% of the need for infants and toddlers, according to the Department of Early Childhood. While there is space for almost all preschool-age children, the total need is met by only 55% of children age 5 and under in San Francisco.
According to SFSU spokesman Kent Bravo, there are currently 49 students at the Children’s Campus, including 14 children of university employees between the ages of 6 months and 4.5 years.
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The university is “clearly committed” to keeping the facility operating through August 2025 and said it has offered professional development opportunities and incentives to retain staff until then. It cited “significant financial challenges” – a multimillion-dollar deficit and the most dramatic drop in enrollment in 40 years – as a reason it cannot support a facility that is no longer financially independent.
According to Bravo, enrollment at Children’s Campus has dropped sharply during the pandemic, resulting in budget constraints and high staff turnover.
“While the closure is unfortunate, it is the most responsible decision given the insurmountable challenges facing the university,” Bravo said. “This decision was not made lightly and was only made after careful consideration and review of all possible alternatives. We are doing everything in our power to support a smooth transition and to consider the needs of those affected.”
Families receiving financial assistance from the city will not have to reconfirm their eligibility and will be referred to city partners, the university and the Department of Early Childhood said. SFSU employees will be given priority for remaining spots in the university’s Early Childhood Education Center, which is available to students with child care needs. (Unlike the Children’s Campus, however, it is not open year-round and is not set up for training, advocates pointed out.)
“It is always hard when an early learning program in San Francisco closes, leaving families and children at a disadvantage,” Ingrid Mezquita, director of the Department of Early Childhood, said in a statement. “However, we are fortunate to have strong local funding that will allow for significant expansion of new early care and education facilities, as well as increased investment in early educator training and higher education pathways.”
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The passage of Proposition Baby C in 2018 brought promises of universal child care that are now slowly becoming a reality. New facilities were built last year, adding about 550 spaces for children, and further investments over the next three years are expected to add another 750 spaces. The city has also expanded eligibility for financial assistance for middle-income families, making a family of four earning up to $224,800 eligible for subsidy vouchers.
The Children’s Campus was established in 2009 not only to provide early childhood care and education, but also as a research and training center for students. There are observation rooms with two-way mirrors where students and researchers can test theories from an appropriate distance and get hands-on training that is critical for early childhood educators. It has also been used as a tool to recruit staff at SFSU.
“There is a great need for child care in San Francisco and the news of the impending closure of San Francisco State’s Children’s Campus is a loss for the city,” said Lorita Yip, assistant director of child care advancement for the city’s Children’s Council, who formerly taught at the facility. “Experiential learning opportunities like those offered by the Children’s Campus are an important part of the early childhood education workforce to ensure children have the resources they need to thrive.”
Catherine Hutchinson, president of the California State University Employees Union, said staff and student assistants also rely on the Children’s Campus because it is convenient and affordable, and called the impending closure “extremely unfortunate.” With booming investments and a great need for early childhood care in the city, parents are wondering how hard the university has tried to keep the Children’s Campus open.
Efforts to promote the services are few and far between, and there are likely grants the center could have applied for, Lovejoy said. Proponents are also still seeking details about the center’s finances and budget deficit to convince another university department to host it.
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“There’s very little they can do to become independently profitable,” Lovejoy said. “It feels like the administration doesn’t care. There has to be another solution.”
Reach Ida Mojadad: [email protected]
