Tell UCLA: Save Childcare for Working Families
The Issue
Overview
On August 13, 2026, UCLA announced the closure of its Early Care and Education Program (ECE) and the end of the lease supporting the University Parents Nursery School (UPNS). These programs together serve more than 300 families with young children.
Given that Los Angeles currently faces a severe shortage of childcare spaces, the elimination of UCLA's childcare program will push UCLA families into an already overwhelmed childcare market, with real consequences for both UCLA and non-UCLA affiliated families in Los Angeles.
We call on UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk to pause the planned closure of its childcare centers and make meaningful investments into preserving childcare capacity on campus.
Childcare is essential infrastructure
Childcare is now recognized as basic infrastructure that allows parents to work and contribute to the Californian economy. The State of California itself has made this unambiguous: In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 271 into law, defining “basic needs services and resources” in higher education to include “housing, food, clothing, feminine hygiene, diapers, technology, childcare services and resources, and mental health services and resources.” Earlier that year, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom stated “Caregiving isn’t just a service -- it’s the infrastructure we all need to go to work.”
Childcare is essential to UCLA’s academic mission
UCLA’s academic mission is carried out by the people who study, teach, and conduct research on campus. For parents with infants and toddlers, reliable childcare close to campus can often determine whether joining the UCLA community is possible in the first place. Eliminating childcare will therefore directly harm UCLA’s ability to recruit outstanding faculty, staff, and students, especially those families relocating to Los Angeles without nearby support.
The financial savings are modest compared to the consequences
UCLA has cited serious financial pressures. But UCLA is an institution with $12.8 billion in annual revenue, including $5.2 billion for the academic campus and $7.6 billion for UCLA Health. UCLA’s Academic Senate currently estimates the campus structural deficit to be approximately $200–250 million per year. Against those figures, the funding required to sustain ECE is incredibly modest.
This decision also deserves public scrutiny because UCLA is one of California’s flagship public universities and receives substantial public funding from taxpayers. In FY2024 alone, UCLA received approximately $670 million in state educational appropriations. Californians have a legitimate interest in how an institution supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding sets its priorities, especially when those decisions affect UCLA’s ability to serve the public.
Ending on-campus childcare will undermine UCLA Health
The impact is especially concerning for UCLA Health, one of Southern California’s largest and most important healthcare systems.
UCLA Health depends on healthcare employees whose work is demanding, often inflexible, and often impossible to perform remotely. For for UCLA Health employees with infants and young children, reliable childcare ensures they can confidently give their full attention to the patients they serve.
Eliminating on-campus childcare will indirectly undermine patient care, risk exacerbating burnout of healthcare workers, and harm UCLA Health’s ability to recruit and retain exceptional employees.
Other leading universities are expanding childcare
UCLA’s decision is also disappointing because it contrasts sharply with ongoing investments in childcare made by major universities across the United States.
Since 2024 alone, the list of universities that have announced construction of new childcare centers and/or investments to expand childcare spaces includes Emory, Dartmouth, Cornell, Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and the University of Washington. Within the UC system, both UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara have announced investments into building brand new childcare centers.
Like UCLA, these universities also face immense financial pressures, but through their investments have shown that cutting childcare is non-negotiable. At a time when peer institutions are not only treating childcare as essential infrastructure, but expanding it, it is disheartening that UCLA is proposing to move in precisely the opposite direction.
If these closures proceed, UCLA will become the only UC campus and major U.S. university to offer zero childcare spaces -- a distinction that nobody in the UCLA community should want.
We call on Chancellor Julio Frenk to immediately pause the closures, engage meaningfully with affected families and employees, and commit to investing in and preserving childcare capacity at UCLA.
UCLA is one of the world’s great universities. It should not respond to a budget crisis by eliminating essential infrastructure for the people who teach its students, conduct its research, care for its patients, and keep the university running.
Save childcare at UCLA.
1,196
The Issue
Overview
On August 13, 2026, UCLA announced the closure of its Early Care and Education Program (ECE) and the end of the lease supporting the University Parents Nursery School (UPNS). These programs together serve more than 300 families with young children.
Given that Los Angeles currently faces a severe shortage of childcare spaces, the elimination of UCLA's childcare program will push UCLA families into an already overwhelmed childcare market, with real consequences for both UCLA and non-UCLA affiliated families in Los Angeles.
We call on UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk to pause the planned closure of its childcare centers and make meaningful investments into preserving childcare capacity on campus.
Childcare is essential infrastructure
Childcare is now recognized as basic infrastructure that allows parents to work and contribute to the Californian economy. The State of California itself has made this unambiguous: In October 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 271 into law, defining “basic needs services and resources” in higher education to include “housing, food, clothing, feminine hygiene, diapers, technology, childcare services and resources, and mental health services and resources.” Earlier that year, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom stated “Caregiving isn’t just a service -- it’s the infrastructure we all need to go to work.”
Childcare is essential to UCLA’s academic mission
UCLA’s academic mission is carried out by the people who study, teach, and conduct research on campus. For parents with infants and toddlers, reliable childcare close to campus can often determine whether joining the UCLA community is possible in the first place. Eliminating childcare will therefore directly harm UCLA’s ability to recruit outstanding faculty, staff, and students, especially those families relocating to Los Angeles without nearby support.
The financial savings are modest compared to the consequences
UCLA has cited serious financial pressures. But UCLA is an institution with $12.8 billion in annual revenue, including $5.2 billion for the academic campus and $7.6 billion for UCLA Health. UCLA’s Academic Senate currently estimates the campus structural deficit to be approximately $200–250 million per year. Against those figures, the funding required to sustain ECE is incredibly modest.
This decision also deserves public scrutiny because UCLA is one of California’s flagship public universities and receives substantial public funding from taxpayers. In FY2024 alone, UCLA received approximately $670 million in state educational appropriations. Californians have a legitimate interest in how an institution supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding sets its priorities, especially when those decisions affect UCLA’s ability to serve the public.
Ending on-campus childcare will undermine UCLA Health
The impact is especially concerning for UCLA Health, one of Southern California’s largest and most important healthcare systems.
UCLA Health depends on healthcare employees whose work is demanding, often inflexible, and often impossible to perform remotely. For for UCLA Health employees with infants and young children, reliable childcare ensures they can confidently give their full attention to the patients they serve.
Eliminating on-campus childcare will indirectly undermine patient care, risk exacerbating burnout of healthcare workers, and harm UCLA Health’s ability to recruit and retain exceptional employees.
Other leading universities are expanding childcare
UCLA’s decision is also disappointing because it contrasts sharply with ongoing investments in childcare made by major universities across the United States.
Since 2024 alone, the list of universities that have announced construction of new childcare centers and/or investments to expand childcare spaces includes Emory, Dartmouth, Cornell, Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and the University of Washington. Within the UC system, both UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara have announced investments into building brand new childcare centers.
Like UCLA, these universities also face immense financial pressures, but through their investments have shown that cutting childcare is non-negotiable. At a time when peer institutions are not only treating childcare as essential infrastructure, but expanding it, it is disheartening that UCLA is proposing to move in precisely the opposite direction.
If these closures proceed, UCLA will become the only UC campus and major U.S. university to offer zero childcare spaces -- a distinction that nobody in the UCLA community should want.
We call on Chancellor Julio Frenk to immediately pause the closures, engage meaningfully with affected families and employees, and commit to investing in and preserving childcare capacity at UCLA.
UCLA is one of the world’s great universities. It should not respond to a budget crisis by eliminating essential infrastructure for the people who teach its students, conduct its research, care for its patients, and keep the university running.
Save childcare at UCLA.
Supporter Voices
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on August 27, 2026