Admissions

The University of Southern Maine Child and Family Centers is a family-centered, child focused program that exists to support the children and families of our campus community and by extension the overall mission of the University. By providing high quality child care and supporting services to families actively engaged in the learning communities of the Portland and Gorham campuses, we augment a full array of campus community services that add to the USM experience. To that end, we use the following guidelines and priorities to inform admissions decisions for those who choose to use our services:

1)Children who are currently enrolled, and the siblings of those children whose families maintain employee and student status.

In filling open spaces in the USM Child and Family Center programs, first priority is given to currently enrolled children in need of additional space and the siblings of currently enrolled children providing for a family-centered approach to the provision of child care services. If a family’s status has changed since their initial enrollment, and they are no longer actively engaged in study or employment at the University, the family will not be granted priority status for a sibling.

Additionally, in order to ensure orderly, developmentally appropriate transition of children throughout our programs, priority for spaces in each classroom is given to currently enrolled children who are ready to transition from another classroom (i.e., infant to toddler).

2)Children who are in the same age range as the children in the classroom where the space is available.

In filling open spaces, children with the next highest priority date will be enrolled only if the available space is age appropriate. For example, if an opening in the toddler room occurs, only children within the age range served in the toddler program will be considered. Also, consideration of how soon the child would transition out of the specific age range will also be considered so that children will not enroll in one program only to then be subjected to a lengthy wait for the older classroom space to become available.

3) Selection will be made within the context of a 20% employee to 80% student ratio of enrollment. Selection will be made to bring the percentage most out of range closer to the desired ratio.

Approximately 80% of the spaces in the centers are allocated for children of current USM students, and approximately 20% of the spaces are allocated for the children of current USM employees. Ratios will be determined by the original status of the child’s parents or legal guardian upon enrollment. If all of the 80% of USM student-designated spaces cannot be filled by children of current USM students, those spaces are made available to current USM employees. In order to ensure the ongoing fiscal health and vitality of the centers, USM reserves the right to enroll children from the alumni and general community categories on a space available basis, thus slight variations in these percentages may occur. Since USM operates child care centers on both the Gorham and Portland campuses, applicants may select to apply for admission to either the Gorham and Portland Centers or ask to be on the waiting lists for both.

4)Families who have been on the waiting list the longest

Based upon original date of application

General Guidelines:

In all instances, admissions, as well as continued participation in the programs, are based on initial, as well as ongoing, assessments of each child in order to assure the appropriateness of the program in meeting the child’s needs.

USM Child and Family Centers reserves the right to give admissions priority to a child who has a critical need for childcare. Examples of such need might be, but are not limited to the following: a child with special needs; a child who is involved in custody and/or child protection proceedings; any circumstances in which the social, emotional, safety, and/or educational needs of a child are at issue. The Centers also reserve the right to grant a child enrollment in support of critical employee/student retention. Cases of critical need are determined by USM Child and Family Center and University administration, as appropriate.

Please call one of the Centers, Portland, 780-4125 or Gorham 780-4300, for more information or to request an application and program book.