
Media Contact
Kenya King
Director
Public Relations and Marketing Communications
Perimeter College
[email protected]
ATLANTA-Georgia State University’s Perimeter College Panther Parent Pride program is expanding to offer nine childcare center sites around metro Atlanta to help serve students at the college’s five campuses.
The program for free and reduced-cost childcare is funded through a five-year U.S. Department of Education’s Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) federal grant. It is directed by Dr. Ursula Thomas, professor of education and associate chair of Cultural and Behavioral Sciences.
Adding new childcare locations reflects Perimeter’s geographically diverse campuses, from North Fulton to Newton County, Thomas said.
“We are being responsive to the needs of our students and have increased to offer for-profit childcare centers as well as the additional Head Start centers that are part of the metro area,” she said.
The childcare centers include the Head Start programs at A&W Young Family YMCA; E.A. Ware Early Learning Center; the Woodson Park Early Learning Academy; the Academy of South DeKalb; the Chattahoochee Early Learning Center; Dean Rusk Early Learning Center and Hollis Innovation Academy. For-profit centers include the Kiddie Academy of Alpharetta and Apple Tree Prep in Covington.
Students who are parents of children ages 2-4 are eligible to apply for the program.
For Decatur Campus dental hygiene student Kaediann Cooper, the program was a great help in securing affordable childcare for her 3-year-old daughter.
“My experience with the Panther Pride program has been amazing. I saw the posters around the school's campus back in January of 2022. I reached out to the coordinator, and I was able to get a response immediately. They connected me with the person who oversaw getting my daughter into the closest school. I only have one child and she was three at the time. I was able to get her in a Head Start program and it was a phenomenal program.”
“Connecting Perimeter College’s student-parent population to affordable childcare is the mission of the grant,” Thomas said.
“We have decades of data that shows that by supporting college students with families—especially the high-needs students we serve—those students are more academically successful. We also know that when a parent participates in post-secondary education and has appropriate childcare that there are better outcomes for their children as well.”
In addition to helping students with childcare, the grant also will provide a high-quality field placement site for Perimeter education pathway students.
Students can apply for the program through the website, or email the office at [email protected].