Legislation Aims To Fund Child Care For Parents Attending College
EAST GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- In New York State, 18% of college undergraduates are parents and almost half of them are single mothers.
Now, there's a new plan to help students with infants or toddlers handle the financial burden.
Natasha Law, of Valley Stream, is a full-time nursing student with a 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
"It's very hard to find good child care, affordable child care, and go to school and not have that mom guilt," Law told CBS2's Jennifer McLogan.
Law is one of New York State's 200,000 undergraduates juggling young children.
"I had to take out some loans. It's just, it's really a hardship, especially being a single mom," said Amy DeJesus, another single mother and college student.
But if Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and other United States senators prevail, $9 billion will soon fund child care for student parents, expanding programs like the Nassau Community College Children's Greenhouse Center, allowing low-cost or free infant or toddler care while parents are in classes or studying in the library.
"When you have an early childhood learning environment like this one, you know your children are getting access to words and numbers and being able to be socialized," Gillibrand said.
Amy DeJesus' sons love the campus center.
"I like to play with all the other kids," one boy said.
"I like to read a book here," another boy said.
The new grant proposals earmark parents attending community colleges and minority-serving institutions across the state.
Law is unable to afford even part-time child care in her neighborhood at $1,800 a month. Here, it's $1,800 a semester, and if the Prospect Act is passed, it would become even more affordable.
"It's about her. It's about being able to provide her with a better future and without child care, I really, really can't," Law said.
Supporting dreams, says Gillibrand, while addressing a nationwide child care crisis.