This is the fifth part of a series highlighting the multitude of student organizations on the University of Wisconsin campus.
Student parents on the University of Wisconsin campus need look no further for affordable, flexible childcare. The UW Office of Child Care and Family Resources provides a variety of resources to help students with children focus on their family and career while pursuing an education at UW.
Lynn Edlefson, director of the childcare program at UW, said OCCFR provides help to student parents balance their lives among school, work and family.
"We provide family support and education classes that help student parents with issues such as child discipline and language development," Edlefson said.
According to Edlefson, student parents can also utilize childcare facilities and other resources offered by UW.
"We have a family childcare training program, and we have a family childcare network to try to provide really flexible care for student families within a home that's not as expensive as center-based care," Edlefson said.
Edlefson said also UW offers non-traditional childcare resources for student parents that can be just as useful as traditional childcare. The program offers student parent luncheons once a month, as well as provides backup, in-home sick and evening care to aid student parents during stressful times.
"If [the student] has a final at night and they're a single parent, we send somebody to their home," she said.
In addition, UW also offers assistance in paying for childcare through the Child Care Tuition Assistance Program, or CCTAP.
"The Child Care Tuition Assistance Program, that's funded by student government and it helps students pay for childcare while they're attending class," Edlefson said. "Our goal is to get [the student parents] graduated."
The university also offers Eagle's Wing Childcare, which provides flexibility to student parents.
University Housing's Children's Services Manager Debra Schaubs works with University Apartments and Eagle Heights to provide this type of care.
"We try to keep as flexible as we can for student families because we realize that it's difficult to find childcare that meets their class schedule," Schaubs said.
Schaubs said many families use funding provided by CCTAP to assist them in paying for childcare costs, which are already low due to subsidizing by the Department of University Housing.
"The families of students are eligible for [the] CCTAP system through Lynn Edlefson, but Housing is able to provide some assistance because it subsidizes the program," Schaubs said.
According to Schaubs, staff members at Eagle's Wing and other UW childcare facilities include both professionals in the field of childcare and UW undergraduate students.
"We require that our teaching staff all have at least an early childhood bachelor's degree," Schaubs said. "We're really fortunate because many of our teaching staff also have their master's degree. We also do supplement the staff with [limited-term employment] staff and some student staff, most of which are also housing residents in the UW residence halls."
