Visit one of UCLA’s Early Care and Education (ECE) centers and you will find teachers and staff working hard to ensure that UCLA is a safe and healthy place for families. Providing stable childcare during a pandemic is not easy, but these employees are going above and beyond to ensure our youngest Bruins are cared for.
ECE operates three childcare centers at UCLA: Krieger, Fernald and University Village. The portfolio of ECE centers at UCLA also includes three partnership centers: Infant Development Program, University Parents Nursery School and Bright Horizons at UCLA Westwood. Due to COVID-19, the number of children ECE is able to serve is limited by Los Angeles County Health Department guidelines and childcare licensing. Despite the new regulations amidst the pandemic, ECE has found ways to respond to the demand for reliable childcare on campus.
After a brief closure due to COVID-19 last spring, ECE reopened to an entirely reimagined program. Teachers found themselves assigned to new classrooms and, in some cases, new sites. Teachers planned for the safest way to operate amidst COVID-19, thinking through logistics like regularly taking the temperatures of young children, creating opportunities for physically distanced play and meals and having two-year-old children wear face coverings for eight hours of childcare.
Teachers took on these new challenges with creativity and dedication. When the doors of the childcare centers reopened, teachers were excited to welcome families back. Since June, our childcare centers at UCLA have been open and serving the children of UCLA faculty, staff and students. These frontline workers are often overlooked when talking about the heroes of the pandemic. They are truly unsung heroes.
