Child development center impacting Vaqueros

New grant will assist student parents with care costs

UTRGV Survival Guide: Fourth in a Series

The Child Development Center at UTRGV has received nearly $4 million in grant money from the U.S. Education Department to provide much-needed assistance to all UTRGV student parents across Willacy, Starr, Cameron and Hidalgo counties, university officials say.

The center, which is located on the Edinburg campus, assists students with children.

Director Raquenel Sanchez said the center is looking into partnering with different local child care centers with the help of the grant so students can be served not only in Edinburg but also across the four counties. 

“We’re partnering with quality centers,” Sanchez said. “They do have to be rated a four star rating through the Texas Rising Stars. … It’s not just any center that we’re going to partner with. It’s centers that are four-star-quality rating and that are committed to becoming an accredited [center].”

The new grant will assist eligible UTRGV students in paying for full-time child care at the center as well as daycares contracted throughout the Rio Grande Valley, according to Letty Benavides, associate vice president for Auxiliary Services.

“The importance of it, obviously, is just removing the financial obstacle for student parents to have reliable child care,” Benavides said. “If we could remove those kinds of obstacles for our own students, it’ll help them complete their higher education.”

With 60 to 65 slots available on the Edinburg campus, the center wants to open opportunities throughout the Valley, and they used the grant to do so, she said.

“We’re going to impact more students that way and, hopefully, it’ll translate to increased retention and graduation rates,” Benavides said. 

The center accepts children ages 3 months to 5 years. 

“We have two infant classrooms and then we have 33 toddler classrooms and one preschool,” Sanchez said.

In order to receive the grant, which waives the tuition of the center, the student must be eligible for the Pell Grant. 

“Our teachers all have their associate’s degrees or their CDA’s … which is a child development credential that they have to go to school for as well,” Sanchez said. “Most of our assistants are student workers that are either going towards child development or they’re going to be working with children in their future.”

Registration for the Child Development Center is open throughout the year.

 “If anyone is interested, all they need to do is go into our website and there is a registration form that they fill out and so we receive that right away, and if we do have a space available, we’ll call the student right away,” Sanchez said.

Parents are required to pay a $50 registration fee every semester.

Registration can be done through the center’s website.

Sanchez said there is currently a waitlist for infants, but some spots are available for toddlers.

The center is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as during spring break and semester breaks.