2007 Graduate Student Child

Care Survey
476 Respondents; 139 parents; 156 children

A Joint Venture of the Graduate Student

Organization, the Division of Student Affairs, and
the Graduate School
 The Nature of the Problem
• Our typical graduate student is returning to the University later in life
(28.7 years old)
• Most doctoral programs require a 5-10 year commitment on average
• Female graduate students are either returning to their studies with
children already or are attending school through their prime child
bearing years
• Male graduate students are also returning to their studies either with
children already or with partners ready to begin families
• Many are forced to pick between career or families, with no money
to provide care as graduate students, this choice too often becomes
an either/or proposition
• Many universities are providing additional funding for faculty as part
of an effort to retain them as employees, but nationally those with
the most financial need get nothing
 Resources and Debt
• For both men and women, going back to school triggers a significant drop in
income and an increase in debt
• Next year, the total estimated cost of attendance for a graduate student,
excluding tuition, is $17,154
• This is the maximum amount grads may borrow to fund living expenses
• Nowhere in this estimate is child care a factor (fees, housing, meals, books,
personal expenses, transportation, medical insurance)
• If working as a TA, GA, or RA, the student’s total resources would range
between $27,126 (63.2% of which is debt “income”) to $37,854 (45.3%
debt income) annually
• Six years of debt at this rate would equal $102,924 for graduate school
alone (excluding stipends, grants, undergraduate and revolving debt)
making them unlikely institutional donors later
• International students are required by their visas to work no more than 20
hours per week, so they are even more limited in their ability to pay for child
care
 Survey Results
• 29.3 % of the respondents are either already parents or will be
within a year
• 39.1 % of these people are using child care providers right now;
60.87% are not
• 93% of the respondents with children have their children living with
them
• 72.2% are satisfied with their current providers (8 or higher rating
out of 10) but 72.3% would be willing to take their children out of
their current provider’s care if they could place their children at an
SU facility
• 88.6% have between 1-2 children; 1 had 9 children!
• 87.9% of the respondents are full-time graduate students
• 8% have children with special educational needs (who we found to
have some of the lowest expenditures each month on child care)
• 86.6% of the parents who responded are part of a two-parent
household; 8.8% come from single parent homes; 4.4% are living
with extended families
 What do parents look for when
choosing providers?
• Most important factor: quality of enrichment activities offered by
the provider
• Second most important: location, location, location
• Next most important: staff-to-child ratio and how well provider and
child establish rapport with each other
• Other important considerations: Quality of staff references,
aggregate experiences of workers at a facility, and hours of
operation
• Misc. important factors: center’s accreditation, total number of
children at the facility, and whether or not there are immediate
openings
• Rankings are based on number of respondents who ranked these
items 1 or 2 out of 17 possible choices offered
 When do they most need
assistance?
• Rankings based on number of parents who ranked these times
either 1 or 2 out of 8 possible choices
• Full Time, Year Round (38)
• Full Time, Academic Year (31)
• Part Time, Academic Year (20)
• Part Time, Year Round (17)
• Summer Only (8)
• All of our respondents exhibited a need for child care services from
Monday through Friday; little to no demand for weekend service
• The times during the week they are in need demonstrate no specific
pattern – they do tend to follow class and teaching schedules while
exhibiting a clear demand for a part-time option
 How much do the respondents’
households make each year?
Mean for 1 parent households: $16,140 (8.8%)
Median for 1 parent households: $18,500
Mean for 2 parent households: $43,506 (86.6%)
Median for 2 parent households: $36,000
Mean for those already with dependent children: $43,915
Median for those already with dependent children: $37,000
Mean for those with children and expecting more: $21,455
Median for those with children and expecting more: $18,000
Mean for first time parents expecting this year: $38,381
Median for first time parents expecting this year: $35,000
Mean for those without children: $23,959
Median for those without children: $17,000
 How do parents pay for child care?
• Most common way they pay: with partner’s salary (only 1
respondent had child care benefits through the workplace)
• However, on average, 2 parent households do not have twice the
income of individuals without children
• Take on more debt through student loans
• Ignore the “you shall do no other work” clause in their contracts and
take a second job
• A handful use pre-graduate school savings and a few have their
own parents pay for some of the expenses for their grandchildren
• Even more common answer: go without – they do not have the
means so they juggle their schedules so that others watch their
children while they perform their duties on campus
 What does Child Care Cost in CNY?
• Range: $400-800 / month (85.1% of the respondents fall into this
range)
• Full year: $4800-9600 per annum
• Academic year: $3600-7200 per annum
• Can cost as much as $2000 per month once you have to pay for
more than 2 children
• Does not cost anything if they cannot afford it

Where do they place their children?

• at a family member’s home (18.7%)
• at parent’s own home with a sitter (16%)
• nursery or elementary school (18.6%)
• dropped off at a private provider’s residence (9.8%)
• Bernice Wright or SU Early Ed. & CC Center (8%)
 What do our graduate students make?
• Most TA, GA, and RA contracts contain a “you shall do no other
work” clause prohibiting them from taking other employment during
the academic year
• Incomes for graduate students on contract are limited to stipends
and loans
• Range: $9,972 – $20,700
• Median: $15,336
• Average: $14,500 (approximated)
• Graduate Students on Fellowship can make upwards of $29,000 – a
few of our respondents wrote in to tell us that they pay for childcare
expenses out of this difference
• Graduate students who work outside the university make more and
can in general better afford child care, but then we lose them as
teaching resources and researchers
 SU’s Role in Resolving the
Problem
• Only 23.5% of the respondents sought help from SU in finding child
care services
• 50.9% do not expect assistance; 49.1% do – almost all would find it
an important improvement if we provided assistance
• 64.7% have never attempted to enroll their children in any SU facility
• BUT 63.4% would prefer to have child care services provided by SU
than by a private provider
• Many wrote in to tell us that they either did not know we had a
daycare facility or a nursery school, they couldn’t afford it, or the
facility did not have room to accommodate their children
• Two greatest obstacles parents report: affordability and availability
• Graduate student minimum expectations: subsidized daycare,
increased capacity on campus, and referrals to preferred provider
networks
 Current Syracuse Model
• Our Early Education and Child Care Center provides services for
infants 2 months old up to children 5 years old – they are licensed
for 60 children of faculty, staff, and students
• Bernice Wright Nursery School provides education for children 2-5
years old with a capacity for 42 children of faculty, staff, students,
and the off-campus community
• If space is not available, students are often directed to Child Care
Solutions (formerly the Child Care Council of Onondaga Co), which
maintains a list of licensed home providers
• After age 6, children are ready for school, but there is still a need for
before and after-school care, summer care, and part-time care
during frequent school breaks
• The GSO subsidizes a partial tuition discount each year at both
centers through student fees, but the subsidy only can cover so
much of the tuition and be delivered to a limited number of families
• Capacity on campus does not meet demand, our referral network is
underdeveloped, and student fee driven subsidies can never come
close to meeting demand
 Princeton Model
• A pre-K phenomenon
• Based on total household income, limited to 2 children
• Apply annually, funds are reimbursed from original receipts, amount
of funding determined by a committee, not all grants are the same
• Cannot get grants if spouse or partner is a stay-at-home parent or if
total household income is above $130,000
• $5000 grants are only available to those families or unmarried
parents with combined incomes less than $65,000 where both
parents are students or working
• A funding limit is set at 5 different income levels, which decline as
the parents make more money
• If income is 0-65K - $5000 per child; 65-80K - $4000; 80-95K -
$3000; 95-110K - $2000; 110-130K - $1000 (we could eliminate the
last four income categories in Syracuse)
• Administered by Director of Financial Aid
 Michigan Model
• Expansive eligibility and lower subsidies
• Have to be: (1) enrolled at least half-time in a degree program, or
(2) be in a certificate program with approval, or (3) be a single
parent or a parent whose spouse or partner is either a student or
works outside the home for more than 20 hours per week, and (4)
have children under the age of 12 or 19 if that child has special
needs, who is (5) making satisfactory progress, and (6)
demonstrates financial need
• Subsidy covers up to three children, disbursed by semester ($1815
for 1 child, $2750 for 2, and $3685 for 3)
• Funds are paid out through a payroll check but student has to
produce receipts, contracts, and evidence of provider accreditation
before checks are released
• The subsidy formula: take the cost of attendance, subtract the
estimated family contribution for childcare based on reported income
on student’s federal return, subsidize the difference up to pre-
determined limits
• Administered by the Office of Financial Aid
 Duke Model
• Open only to PhD students
• Funds cover off-campus providers, who must meet certain
accreditation standards as established by the North Carolina Dept.
of Health and Human Services
• Subsidies are allocated by the Graduate School according to
financial need
• Program is a mix of on-campus and off-campus providers approved
by the University – 150 centers in Durham and 350 private providers
• Duke students can list themselves and their spouses as providers in
the “Care Connections” network for part-time care
• They have a Child Care Scholarship Program
• Duke is also partnered with local the Child Care Services
Association whereby Duke provides grants to local child care
centers in order to improve the quality of their services if they do not
meet program standards
• All of these programs are the result of a strong collaboration
between Duke’s Graduate School, the Dean of Students Office, and
the Office of Financial Aid
 Maryland Model
• Have a child care center on campus for faculty, staff, and students
with limited space available for children ages 3-5
• Their Office of Off-Campus Housing Services maintains a list of
local providers
• Students are also directed to 12 networks of child care providers in
the Baltimore- Washington, D.C. area

An Indiana Innovation
• The “Emergency Babysitter List”
• administered by their Office of Women’s Affairs
• provides temporary caregivers on flexible schedules
• pay scale is negotiable but cannot fall below $10/hr if referral
comes from the University
• funding comes from the Chancellor’s Office
 Our Peers
• Emory: provides free outsourced referral and consultation service to
graduate students, has compiled a list of popular providers, but no
subsidies; they do have graduate exclusive housing where parent
cooperative arrangements would be easier to develop
• NYU: has a bursar credit subsidy they provide at $200 per semester
($400 annual maximum) for full-time graduate student parents
whose children are under 6
• USC: limited subsidies for students at campus child care center –
with subsidy costs still range from $700-$900/ month; without
subsidy costs range from $1,400-$1950/month. Programs were
primarily designed to aid faculty and staff but are also open to
undergraduates, masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral students.
Subsidies also available for summers.
 Our Peers (cont.)
• Notre Dame: administers referrals through the Office of Human
Resources
• Northwestern: University provides referral resources, has pre-tax
flexible spending programs for employees, but most of these
benefits do not apply to graduate students
• Cornell: has a Child Care Subsidy Grant Program funded through
the Provost’s Office. Grants can reach as high as $5,000 per year
and are extended to students (1) enrolled at least half time, (2) have
children under 12 years old, (3) demonstrate financial need, (4) are
making satisfactory academic progress, (5) are single or have a
partner who is a student or works outside the home more than 20
hours per week. Graduate student families who make more than
$55,000 are not eligible.
-level of funding is determined by the age of the child and parents’
aggregate income
 How much do these programs
cost?
• NYU’s Bursar Credit Program: $100,000 per academic year, money
is taxable, no summer funding available (1.2B endowment)
• Princeton: total program is for faculty, staff, students and
employees – total costs for new program are approximately
$750,000. They expect 50-60 graduate student families to
participate this year, or one-quarter of the total participants.
Funding comes out of the annual operations budget, which is funded
to a great extent by the endowment. (Modeled their program after
Stanford and Cornell)
• Cornell: they have a $750,000 annual budget for everyone, get a
about 1000 applications each year for subsidies to pay for off-
campus providers (they are building a child care center scheduled
for completion in Sept. 2008). Funding from graduate students
comes from the Provost’s Office, they still have a problem of
capacity within the city of Ithaca.
 Long Term Considerations
• For students in our doctoral programs, their debt payments coupled
with their living expenses after graduation can typically exceed their
income if they take tenure-track positions in their fields
• The time it takes to raise the funds to pay for child care diverts time
away from progress toward degree, which hurts our rankings and
undermines our reputation as a graduate training institution
• In the worst cases, lack of affordable and available child care stops
an academic program midstream
• Lack of daycare funding also forces some of the best candidates
away from Syracuse and toward universities with child care
programs for graduate students
• Many other institutions already have programs in place and are
recruiting and retaining the best doctoral and masters candidates
because of those programs – to stay competitive we will have to
compete with them
 What can we do?
• Begin an endowment specifically for funding this issue (for which the GSO
will be considering allocation of seed money in fall 2007)
• Reach out to alumni/-ae with graduate degrees for financial support
• Combine the models we have seen, extracting elements of their best
practices to create one that works in Onondaga Co.
• Recognize that we can make a difference by providing ANY additional help
to parents, increasing their potential as future donors and active members
of our alumni/ -ae community
• Avoid Jerold Panas’s Seven Deadly Statements of Any Board:
– We’ve never done that before
– It can’t be done
– It’s cost too much
– We’ve been doing all right without it
– We’ve tried it that way and it didn’t work
– We’re not ready now
– Let’s put it off for now and discuss it later