CCAMPIS: Program helps meet childcare needs of students each semester
By: Stephen Buechter
Staff Writer
The CCAMPIS program is a need-based federal grant program intended to keep parents who need education in school. CCAMPIS stands for Child Care Access Means Parents in School, and has always been called by that same name. It has existed for a number of years, at least two, said Claire Martin, Student Assistance Program Manager.
Martin said that the program could be described as a federal grant that the school offers to students with children to help those students pay for childcare services while they are taking classes. The program provides monetary support if parents place their children in a childcare program that is licensed and accredited by the state. Martin said that the amount of money given “takes into consideration the income of the person who applies, how many children they have, the type of classes that they’re taking, the amount of time that they would need to study.”
Martin further said the CCAMPIS program “can be combined with state child care… so that provides them with even more money to pay for childcare… They don’t have to use everything at once. The one thing that we always remind them is that it’s use it or lose it, so they cannot carry it over to the next semester. They have to apply each semester.”
Martin stated that while state funding for programs similar to CCAMPIS has dropped on a state level, the federal funding for CCAMPIS has remained. CCAMPIS program coordinator Dr. Selena Eunice Washington said that it is unclear as of now whether the amount of federal funding for the program could see cuts in the near future, but that the college plans to reapply for the CCAMPIS grant this year to cover the 2017-2021 cycle.”
Martin said that St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley is the only STLCC campus which has an on-campus daycare program available to students, and that the St. Louis Community College — Meramec campus had such a program.
However, Martin said that at Meramec, “we could not afford to keep it for long, so [we] had to get rid of it.” Dr. Washington said in an email that she could not give a general answer to the question of whether students have stated that they want a daycare on campus, but that students have a choice in where they send their children.
Martin said that the program, on a campus level, “has a tremendous impact because we have a lot of students who have families, have children, and because this is a community college we have lots of students from various walks of life… they need the assistance of a daycare.”
Martin said that “at the Meramec campus we get on average 42 students per semester.” Dr. Washington said in an email that “we typically have 150 students in our CCAMPIS program per year.”
Martin said that the way to gain access to the program is to “come here [to campus]; they can download the application online, bring the application already filled out, bring their class schedule and also a student aid form, which is a form they have to get through their financial aid. And they submit those three documents and within two days or three days they will hear back from the coordinator of that grant, who will tell them how much money they have been approved for.”
