GLENDALE : College to Offer Evening Child Care

The Glendale Community College Child Development Center will offer evening child care to night school students starting this fall.

The price of the service will vary, however, according to how many children a student brings to the center and how many nights a week the student uses the center, said center Director Linda Manzano-Larsen. The base price will be a low $1.25 an hour.

To receive the subsidized day care, students must stay enrolled in school and regularly attend classes, officials said.

The Glendale Community College District Board of Trustees voted this week to approve the evening child care program. The vote did not allocate money for the venture. The center is not subsidized by the college and instead is supported by grants and fees for daytime day care programs.

The evening program, which will accommodate up to 12 children a night, four evenings a week, was created to meet the needs of a large number of students who attend night classes because they have full-time jobs during the day.

The Child Development Center will use evening day care as a nighttime lab for students studying early childhood education, Manzano-Larsen said.

The center is also used as a lab during daytime hours, when students work for credit with the 57 children, ranging from infants to 11-year-olds, the program serves each day.

Children who come to the center are not “baby-sat,” Manzano-Larsen said, adding the kids are involved in child development programs designed to teach them social and emotional skills.

The programs show children how to express themselves, including how to get out their anger, how to share with their peers, how to lose and how to care about one another, Manzano-Larsen said.