University of Pennsylvania
PAE-T2-4: Childcare

University of Pennsylvania offers a discounted childcare program to Penn faculty, staff, students and University of Pennsylvania Health System employee at its Penn Children’s Center. Penn also offers additional rates at a discounted price to select faculty and staff based on income.

Penn’s Children’s Center is for children ages three months to five years of age and is conveniently located on the University campus. Enrollment in the Penn Children's Center is open to all members of the University and surrounding communities. with preference given to faculty, staff and students of the University. The center is one of few centers in the area accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Penn Children’s Center celebrates cultural, economic, and ethnic diversity through its curriculum and programming, and incorporates learning activities into traditional playtime, through stories, arts and crafts, music and movement, science, physical fitness, and field trips. The center features 13 well-equipped classrooms, computers, an indoor gym, and an outdoor playground. Teachers hold degrees in early childhood education or a related field, and are assisted by classroom aides and university students. The 10,000-square-foot center accommodates 32 infants, 50 toddlers, and 79 preschoolers.

Penn partners with the Parent Infant Center and The Caring Center in the West Philadelphia neighborhood, to provide child care options in addition to the Penn Children’s Center. These NAEYC-accredited centers have spaces for 100 more children, half of them reserved for the children of Penn faculty, staff, and students.

In addition to childcare, University of Pennsylvania also provides two additional substantially subsidized child care benefits to its faculty and staff through a partnership with Care.com.
- BackupCare allows Faculty and staff to arrange for temporary backup care in their homes, at an out-of-town business location or at an adult relative’s residence any time (day or night, seven days a week, including holidays). Benefits-eligible faculty and staff members are eligible for up to ten days of backup child or adult care per calendar year. There is a cost to those who utilize this service, but Penn partially offsets the cost through a subsidy program determined based on annual salary.
- Snow Day Child Care provides all-day care for children of Penn faculty and staff members when the University is open but Philadelphia public schools are closed due to inclement weather. Children ages 12 weeks to 12 years are eligible for the program, whether they attend a Philadelphia district school or not. Care is provided at the Penn Children's Center, the University of Pennsylvania's licensed day care center.