Parents said they are scrambling this week after UCLA announced that two university-run child-care centers serving roughly 220 children — nearly all children of UCLA staff, faculty or students — will close next year, eliminating care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers amid an acute county shortage of child care and in a region that has some of the nation’s most expensive child care.
The move by UCLA, which has cited budget concerns, prompted a protest Monday in front of administrative offices at the Westwood campus, where parents and teachers held a sign reading “Little kids matter too,” written in gold and red glitter in a child’s handwriting, and sang, “If you’re happy with your teacher, clap your hands.”
The closure — slated for June — is the latest in a years-long drawdown of on-campus child care at universities and other institutions that have traditionally offered it as an employee benefit. Professors, graduate students and staff who use the UCLA facilities say they are frustrated by the few options available in the Westside area and the skyrocketing cost of child care. Recent hikes raised prices to up to $3,300 a month for infants of UCLA-affiliated families.
UCLA Provost Darnell Hunt notified parents of the closure Aug. 13, saying Krieger and University Village care facilities would discontinue operations at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. “This decision followed a thorough review of the program and careful consideration of all available options,” Hunt said, adding that the program’s continuation through June 30, 2027, gives families “nearly a year to plan for future child-care arrangements,” and that UCLA “will provide transition assistance at no cost.”
The university declined to say how much money closing the centers would save.
Alexis Burgess, a UCLA alumna, lawyer and the spouse of a UCLA faculty member, said the centers are “among the exceedingly few locations near campus to offer reliable care for children under 2,” removing options for “the talented physicians, professors and researchers that have dedicated their professional lives to this university.”
“Access to these world-class child-care centers enables UCLA to attract and keep top-tier talent,” Burgess said. “Closing them is just one more incentive pushing them towards the private sector.”
Infant tuition at the centers rose 4% this year amid budget woes at UCLA, which announced in March that its central accounts faced a projected deficit of $220 million. UCLA has also undertaken hiring freezes, restrictions on travel spending, cuts to administrative budgets, and consolidations in IT and administrative services to reduce costs.
In April, the centers announced they would eliminate providing diapers, formula and meals — but reversed the decision amid objections. The closures mark the second UCLA child-care rollback in two years. A previous option, the Fernald Center, closed Sept. 1, 2025, because of enrollment and budget concerns.
The latest decisions will end UCLA-run child care on campus entirely. A separate child-care program that is not run by UCLA, called University Parents Nursery School, will also close after the university ends its lease in 2027.
While hundreds of parents rely on the two centers, that’s only a fraction of the thousands of UCLA-affiliated parents who may need child care. Many already meet those needs elsewhere.
Limited local child care
The shutterings come as L.A. County’s child-care system is already strained. The county has enough licensed slots for only 4% of children younger than 24 months, according to a 2024 report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.
Jennifer Cowan, chief executive of Connections for Children, an agency that helps Westside and South Bay families navigate child-care options and subsidies, said losing spots upends family routines. She called closures “very disruptive and stressful for families to figure out what their other options may be. Especially for toddlers, we know that there are very limited options for the youngest children, and of course those programs are typically more expensive.”
Jessica Reynaga, the organization’s chief program officer, said the economics of running child care are precarious industrywide.
“At the end of the day, it’s a business model,” Reynaga said. “Is it sustainable? It’s hard to say. … Educators are not paid enough. However, the cost is still too much for families to afford.”
Cristina Alvarado, executive director of the Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles, said licensed infant and toddler spaces are especially limited near UCLA. “The biggest impact will be on infants, toddlers and student parents who need child care,” she said.
Parents react to closures
For years, Miriam Torres was accustomed to her routine: Walk out of University Village Apartments — a UCLA complex for married students and single parents — drop her daughter off at the university-run preschool, and hop on the bus to campus. Torres had her daughter as a junior at UCLA, and the child care helped keep her enrolled through undergraduate studies and a master’s degree in urban planning.
“It was really important to leave my daughter in a place where I knew she was going to be well taken care of,” said Torres, whose child’s enrollment is subsidized by the state. “And she was. And she loved it.”
Torres feels lucky compared to many parents: By June, 3-year-old Lizette will be eligible for transitional kindergarten in public school and won’t need alternative care. But she worries what the next 10 months will look like as families and teachers gradually leave. “It just won’t be the same experience,” Torres said.
The pending loss of the centers is a blow to UCLA employees.
“I cannot exaggerate how much UCLA child-care centers have meant to my family,” said Natalia Ramos, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “I’ve been able to focus on patient care, research and teaching knowing that my child is thriving in a nurturing learning environment.”
Eva Sawyer’s husband, a UCLA faculty member, was guaranteed enrollment for their children. One child has already graduated from the program and another is currently enrolled. But Sawyer said care for their youngest twins, set to start next June, will be “ripped away.” Infant tuition for two had already been unaffordable, so the family placed the 1-year-olds with a nanny instead, at $7,000 a month.
Nikki Barry, an assistant professor whose 3-year-old has attended Krieger since 2024, had planned to enroll an infant there in 2027. “I have to find another option,” she said, pointing to Bright Horizons in Westwood as one of the only nearby choices.
Evyn Le Espiritu Gandhi, a faculty member in Asian American studies, has depended on the program for her two children.
“The bottom line is that there is really no alternative — particularly for infant care,” Gandhi said. She hopes pushback will lead UCLA to reconsider.
How closures will affect child-care staff
The closures will also likely cost jobs. The two centers employ roughly 45 staff members, including about 36 teachers.
Leniz Cortes, who teaches preschool at Krieger, used sick hours to attend Monday’s protest. “This is definitely devastating,” she said. “It’s more than just a day care.”
Edith Aguirre, who has taught in UCLA’s early childhood education program for 16 years, doesn’t expect it will be hard to find another job given high turnover in the child-care industry. But she worries about taking a pay cut upon leaving UCLA, which she said pays above-average wages.
If the university’s decision holds, she may have to leave before June to to ensure she can provide for her own children.
“If we do win this battle, what’s going to guarantee us that they’re going to keep it open for many years down the line?” she said. “This is the second time around, so it’s kind of difficult for some of us to put all our trust in.”
Sequeira reports for The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.
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