An online petition is asking UW Oshkosh to reconsider closing its campus child care center.
Chancellor Andrew Leavitt announced in early May the Children’s Learning and Care Center would shut down at the end of June. He said at the time of the announcement that the facility was licensed for 150 children, but only had 50 children enrolled for the spring semester and was operating at a deficit. Leavitt also cited the difficulty of staffing the center and concern that the inability to attract and retain staff would impact the quality of child care being provided.
The petition asks for the center to remain open until July 1, 2024. It also asks for a public forum to discuss the closure and creation of a task force to address the challenges for the center.
The petition states that the closure announcement was abrupt considering the issues that led up to it must have been obvious for months prior to the announcement.
“There is a crisis of child care in our community. Many are scrambling to find care for children displaced by the CLCC’s closure because child care centers within the Fox Valley have waitlists of months and even years. If the task force can resolve the staffing concerns, the CLCC could run at full capacity,” the petition states.
More than 1,000 people have signed the open letter.
When the closure was announced, UW Oshkosh said it would offer assistance to families in seeking other child care and would retain the facility after June 30 in case another child care provider had interest in operating it.
