Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation

Stanford's Philosophy for On-site Child Care Programs

Main content start

Stanford understands the value of a good education. We also know that academics aren’t everything. To enjoy a fulfilling life, you need community, connection, social skills, and to have fun! 

The research agrees, children who engage in high-quality play experiences are more likely to have well-developed memory skills, language development, and behavior regulation.

Our guiding principles include building strong teacher-child relationships and providing a play-based learning environment that encourages developmentally appropriate, inclusive, and creative experiences to help children navigate day-to-day challenges. These principles are essential to the social-emotional development that lays the foundation for lifelong learning, and prove most critical for children up to age five.

Our Values

  • Excellence in education: We value evidence-based, experiential learning and prepare young people to be lifelong learners, problem solvers and future leaders. Our educators are engaged, culturally sensitive and knowledgeable about current research in child development. They offer activities that engage curiosity, promote investigation and build meaningful parent partnerships.
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion: We treat all people with respect. We embrace diverse educational environments and varied approaches to teaching that have a common thread of high-quality, early childhood programming. We value diversity and differences, and we are fully committed to diverse representation in our community. We use an Anti-Bias Curriculum to engage children in an active and respectful exploration of differences in thinking, cultures and lifestyles.
  • Safety and well-being: We maintain the highest health and safety standards for all children in our programs. We facilitate a culture of well-being and encourage exercise and nutrition as daily practices.
  • Family engagement: We strive to support families to be positive influencers and advocates for children, families and the community.

    We support Stanford families by providing flexible care schedules and multiple locations across campus. We foster diverse, inclusive parent/community relationships and seek to make a positive difference in the lives of children, their families, and the world.

Our Commitment to Affordability and Access

For over 50 years, Stanford has worked to expand access to child care by creating partnerships with community-based child care operators. Stanford has built a solid early education program, becoming one of the largest national child care providers among higher-education institutions and Bay Area employers.

Stanford provides operators with rent-free facilities and subsidized utility costs so that tuition can be directly applied to the quality of care. By using sustainable business models and keeping up with market-rate economics,  Stanford is able to provide the highest quality of child care, at or below market rate average costs, while keeping pace with competitive teacher salaries.  

The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased operational costs and exacerbated the already existing national teacher shortage. Throughout the pandemic, we remained committed to providing high-quality child care. We continue to financially support the child care programs to ensure a successful reopening, in alignment with COVID-19 protocol. We work closely with our child care operators to monitor the situation and provide the best care possible during this time.

The WorkLife Office and campus partners offer the following financial assistance programs to help families gain access to care:

For Students and Postdocs

  • Child Care Assistance Grant (CCAG): New as of March 1, 2021, this program provides postdocs with up to $5,000 per year to assist with child care expenses. 
  • Postdoc Family Grant Program: In addition to the Child Care Assistance Grant Program, the Family Grant offers postdocs with families up to $5,000 per year for living expenses that span beyond child care, including food, transportation and medical expenses.

  • Graduate Student Family Grant Program: This program offers graduate students up to $20,000 to cover child-related expenses such as child care, healthcare, insurance and rent.

  • Tuition Reduction Program: The Tuition Reduction Program offers all Stanford students and postdocs a five percent reduction in child care tuition costs, for each child enrolled. This program is available directly from the child care operator upon enrolling a child in an on-campus child care center.

  • Tuition Assistance Program: The Tuition Assistance Program exists in addition to the Tuition Reduction Program. Income-eligible student and postdoc families can receive additional tuition support from the Tuition Assistance Program. This program is available directly from the child care operator upon enrolling a child in an on-campus child care center.

For Staff and Faculty (benefits-eligible)

For Faculty (benefits-eligible)

For all University affiliates

  • Child Care Application Fee Reduction: Effective September 1, 2021, the on-site child care application fee for university affiliates has been reduced from $50 to $15 per child, per center. This university-designated funding provides a significant reduction in application fees for families, while also allowing our child care operators to meet their business needs.