Kids tuition: Child Care Costs & Tuition Information

‘For Kids Only’ Child Care Center Tuition

ANNUAL REGISTRATION FEE: $60.00 Per Family for all Programs. This is a non-refundable yearly fee. Due every March 1^st.

 FULL-DAY (FD) RATES.  HALF-DAY (HD) RATES: Based on no more than a 5-hour day, AM or PM.  There is a prorated charge for each additional hour past enrollment times. Preschool Half-Day can be any time throughout the day, but not to exceed 5 hours. Preschool full days take precedence over half days. 

FULL TIME enrollment (4+ Full days) Take precedence over part-time (less than 4).

ADDITIONAL CHARGES may occur for special events, field trips, and\or bussing.  Sibling discounts do not apply to additional charges. Sign up is available in advance of all such activities. These activity fees are non-refundable.

SECURITY CARDS are assigned the first week of childcare. A $20.00 per card deposit will be charged to your account at that time. This is refundable upon returning the card(s) when childcare services end. (Card must be in good condition.)

TUITION INCLUDES A full education program, lunch, and snacks. Breakfast is served by request between 7:30am and 8:00am at an additional cost of $0.50 per day. Children must be here by 7:50 to be served.  There is a family sibling discount of 10% off the oldest child’s tuition or lowest rate. Three (3) and four (4) children discounts are also available.

WEEKLY TUITION is due and payable on Friday for the following week. Tuition is considered past due at Noon on Monday. A late Fee of $15.00 will be charged at that time.

Returned Check Fee is $30.00.  (Cash payment is required for replacement of NSF check).

WE ARE OPEN 6:00am – 6:30pm, Monday – Friday.   The Department of Human Services (licensing) governs our hours of operation. Any violation of these hours will result in a charge of $1.00 per minute after the 6:30pm scheduled closing time. This goes directly to the staff on duty, as they then become your personal caretaker.

WE ARE CLOSED EIGHT (8) HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, Presidents Day (staff development) Memorial Day, July Fourth, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. We require ALL families to pay full tuition for these days. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, we will be closed Friday. If the holiday falls on Sunday, we will be closed on Monday. Days will be posted, watch for any changes.

WE REQUIRE A TWO (2) WEEK WRITTEN NOTICE for all vacations (M-F)*, schedule decreases, and for ending child care services with us.  *Each child receives 2 unpaid vacation weeks (M-F) per enrollment year (based on your enrollment date) with a 2-week written notice. *Weeks are per your enrollment date year. 

IF YOUR CHILD BECOMES ILL while at ‘For Kids Only’, they must be picked up within 1 hour of initial phone call.  No refunds are given for any missed child care hours. We follow MN Department of Health Exclusion Policies.

Tuition Assistance — Child Educational Center

Tuition Assistance.

In an effort to offset child care costs for families who would not be able to afford the tuition, we have implemented a tuition assistance program. Assistance is provided to families who qualify as funds become available. Additional information and applications can be found in the office. For JPL/Caltech employees, tuition assistance may also be available through a program on-Lab/campus.

Philosophy and Purpose

High-quality care and education programs for children are expensive. Well-educated staff and teacher-child ratios that support both research-based curriculum and relationship-based caregiving account for the two highest budget expenses in these types of programs. All too often, it can be a challenge for parents of young children to afford these services when added to the costs of raising a family. We are keenly aware that some families need financial assistance in order to enroll with us.

Mindful of this challenge and committed to economic diversity within our community, the CEC’s Tuition Assistance Program helps parents bridge the gap between tuition and what they can afford. Regretfully, these funds are limited and may not allow us to provide tuition assistance to all families who apply, and/or at the level requested. Priority is given to helping as many families as possible, and all tuition assistance awards are confidential.

Qualifying for Tuition Assistance

Before applying for tuition assistance, we ask that parents assess all personal resources to determine the maximum amount of tuition they can reasonably afford. If all available resources are still not enough to meet the CEC’s tuition costs, we encourage parents to submit an application to determine eligibility. While families ask for the guidelines regarding levels of household income or the debt-to-asset ratio necessary to qualify for tuition assistance, unfortunately, there are no absolute guidelines by which eligibility can be determined because each family’s situation is unique. As a result, the CEC utilizes FAST (Financial Aid for Student Tuition) to determine financial eligibility and make awards for which we have funds.

Criteria for Awarding Assistance

The FAST (Financial Aid for Student Tuition) program helps independent schools across the country determine a family’s financial need. With the help of FAST, our Tuition Assistance Committee determines whether a family qualifies for assistance based on need and if the amount needed falls within the scope of our funding ability.

Financial need is determined by taking many factors into account including family income, assets and liabilities, unusual expenses, and the number of children attending tuition-based schools. In addition, due to limited funds, each parent must be employed. Note: International students are welcome to apply based upon visa restrictions for spouse/domestic partner.

At the CEC, tuition assistance is first committed to enrolled children who are already receiving assistance. We then consider qualified enrolled children who may, for the first time, be applying. Assistance is then offered to newly-enrolled children. Once a family is awarded tuition assistance, they are required to re-apply each year. Tuition assistance awards are effective September 1 through August 31 and are based upon the child’s confirmed and current schedule. If the child’s schedule changes, then the award will be reviewed and revised if applicable.

Despite our commitment to providing tuition assistance to qualifying families, the number of applicants who qualify each year typically exceeds the CEC’s allocated funds for this purpose. Therefore, the CEC cannot guarantee that applicants who qualify will receive tuition assistance.

Application Process

Families submit the following items to FAST before the Tuition Assistance Committee can determine eligibility and funding:

• The FAST application, completed in full. There is a $45 non-refundable fee for application.

• A copy of completed/signed tax returns for the current tax year, with W-2 and schedules attached (either uploaded electronically or mailed to FAST; no tax documents/materials are to be delivered to the CEC)

FAST Application

Applications for tuition assistance are accepted year-round. Priority consideration for currently enrolled families is given to those submitted on or before March 1 for the upcoming program year and this year’s Summer Exploration Camps.* For families who have been offered enrollment, applications are considered at the time of submission.

*If you are currently receiving tuition assistance and have enrolled or will be enrolling in the Summer Exploration Camps, you do not need to re-apply for your child’s summer enrollment. However, if your child will be enrolled in any CEC program beginning mid-August, you do need to submit a new application.

Please note: FAST applications will not be reviewed by the Tuition Assistance Committee until FAST has received and verified your most current tax information/returns.

Confidentiality

The CEC understands the personal and sensitive nature of financial documents and the Tuition Assistance Committee keeps all such information strictly confidential. Program staff are not informed of tuition assistance decisions-

Anti-Discrimination Statement

The Child Educational Center enrolls children and families without regard to religion, sexual orientation, family composition, differing abilities, race, color, or national or ethnic origin. It does not discriminate in the administration of educational practices, admission policies, financial assistance, or other CEC-administered programs.

Questions may be directed to Helen Ruppel, Director of Administration by email or phone at (818) 354-3418.

Drawing by dots for children

Drawing by dots for children of lines, figures and animals. Draw by dots to develop writing skills.

Beautiful handwriting and successful learning to write depends on the correct use of a pencil, skillful pressure and the ability to draw lines of various shapes. Start by learning dotted lines and shapes, and then have your child dotted animals and color them.

• Prompted
• Lines
• Shapes
• Pictures
• By numbers
• ALL

• 900 21
• 9 0021

Drawing by dots, developing skills gradually

Drawing lines with a pencil or pen is an excellent practice that helps to accustom your hand to writing, develop small muscles, teach your baby to hold something firmly.

The dotted line serves as a guide and helps the child, because at any time you can slow down the speed of drawing, increase or decrease the pressure on the pencil, without spoiling the picture, and therefore without losing interest.

As soon as the child learns to draw lines, straight lines and all kinds of waves, move on to figures, and then to animals. The curves of the dotted lines will develop enough drawing skill to start learning the spelling of letters and numbers.

Tips for using suggested materials

When offering a printed material with a picture on which you want to draw something in dots, first ask the child to trace the lines with the index finger of his right hand (or left, if the child is left-handed). Then ask him to draw with his finger not on the sheet, but as if in the air above the picture. Repeat the exercise several times, and then complete the task with a pencil.

When the child learns to draw with dots with a pencil, offer him a pen or marker.

Pay attention to dotting animals without taking your hand off the paper.

How else to develop fine motor skills besides drawing by dots?

If for some reason your child is not interested in dot-to-dot materials, you can have fun developing fine motor skills in other ways.

1. String large beads together on strings or sort through beads;
2. Stick a large sheet of paper or old wallpaper on the wall and have your child draw their own pictures on the sheet. Drawing on a vertical surface requires more effort and pens train faster;
3. As soon as your child is already strong enough to hold small things in his hands and does not let go of them with a slight pull, start teaching him to tie shoelaces or weave braids from any ribbons or ropes;
4. If you read newspapers or magazines, give your child a marker and have him circle all the headlines with it;
5. Good grip between thumb and index finger is most easily developed by transferring beans or even peas from one bowl to another using only two fingers, not the whole hand.
6. Frosty windows or misted bathroom mirrors are great places to learn how to draw with your index finger.

If you wish, you can use each of the ways to develop your child’s fine motor skills in everyday life, this will help him learn to write faster in the future.

Go to the section teaching children

Labyrinths and guides for children

Print and go through the best mazes for children ! Choose children’s mazes by age: simple mazes for children from 3 to 4 years old; classic – from 5 to 6 years old and complex labyrinths for children over 7 years old.

• Baby Leads
• Easy
• Medium
• Hard
• ALL

• 900 21
• 90 021
• 9 0021

What is a labyrinth?

Labyrinth is a puzzle with different difficulty options. The purpose of the maze is to find the way from the entrance to the exit.

There are algorithms for passing mazes, but children do not need to show them right away. It is better to let the kid be quick-witted and solve the logical puzzle himself, and not learn to think in a stereotyped way. After all, mazes for children are not only entertainment, but also the development of thinking.

How to choose a labyrinth to complete?

The beauty of mazes for children is that the division into difficulty is rather arbitrary. Children, even at the age of three or four, can go through rather complex mazes, color them and mark the paths found with a felt-tip pen … You just need to start studying with your child in a timely manner!

The choice of labyrinths for children is wide, the section is updated periodically, you can print a color labyrinth, or you can black and white, so that the child first paints it himself. This option is ideal if you are teaching your child how to navigate mazes for the first time. The kid will be surprised when he sees that at first glance a simple coloring turns into an entertaining game before his eyes!

Logic and imagination

It is important to develop in him not only logic, but also intuition as the child goes through the labyrinths, so that at the first glance at the picture, one of the options for passing through is drawn in his thoughts. However, before that, you need to go through a winding road of explanations and training, choosing more and more complex pictures over and over again.

Children use different skills to solve mazes. Someone tries all the options step by step, relying on logic, and some imaginers “run at random”, it is important for parents and educators to ensure that in each next maze the child uses the experience already available, and does not start all over again. It is very important and interesting to ask the child to comment on the process of passing the maze, why he takes any specific steps. It is equally important to give mazes to different children for speed.