Anonymous wrote:PP, Just us Kids has managed to escape Bright Horzons. The DoJ is the sponsoring agency. Other thand that I can't think of another off hand.

US Kids, whose sponsoring agencies are DOJ, Treasury, and a few others, isn't run by a corporate entity either. I seem to recall that perhaps the Department of Transportation daycare may also be run by a board of parents rather than a corporation.

Anonymous wrote:where are these federal daycare centers? I am a fed but the only options we have near our agency are private daycare centers run by bright horizons which charge a ridiculous amount of money. Are there agencies which have a federally run daycare? If so where?

Yes, there are quite a few agencies that have daycare centers. Here is a list of the 17 in the National Capital region:
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101942

PP, Just us Kids has managed to escape Bright Horzons. The DoJ is the sponsoring agency. Other thand that I can't think of another off hand.

where are these federal daycare centers? I am a fed but the only options we have near our agency are private daycare centers run by bright horizons which charge a ridiculous amount of money. Are there agencies which have a federally run daycare? If so where?

Our center is not open to the general community - only feds (including contractors), with priority to a particular agency. If you no longer fall within any of the eligible groups, you can finish the year but will not be able to stay past the late August change-over. There is no sibling preference for anyone. It's a closed campus, so I think that plays a role in not allowing outside enrollment.

We are at a non-profit federal center. Once you are in, you are in. If the parent switches jobs you have to pay the higher tuition rate charged to families who do not work for the sponsoring agencies. Also, if you later want to enroll another child, you no longer enjoy the sponsoring agency preference, so your waitlist position may be a bit worse (although non-sponsoring agency families with sibling preference still go ahead of sponsoring agency families with no sibling preference).

I have never heard of such a policy at our fed daycare. Once your kid is in, you're in. I'm a fed, but not at the agency that sponsors the daycare, and the work ID and email are non-issues, too. If you don't work at the agency, you get a badge indicating "daycare" on it, which allows you into the building, and you just change the email address they use to send you things.

I'm a non-fed at a fed center where the policy is once you're in, you're in. We also still get sibling preference. The tuition is higher for non-feds.

OP here -- thanks for the feedback. This is an ongoing discussion among the Board at our Center, no decisions have been made yet. So I'm more looking for precedents about how these issues are handled other places than ways to try to sneak around it. I always thought most federal centers had a "once-you're in, you're in" policy, but I could be wrong about that... Thanks again!

Because you will lose your work ID when you change job. And your email (if you use a work email) will not work if they send you messages.

Why don't you ask the director of the daycare. or you want to keep it hidden. If it's at a facility that involves going through inspection on a daily basis to get into the daycare, this itself might be annoying.

No such policy at our center, which does enroll kids of non-feds, so a job change would have no effect on a kid already there.

I have never heard of such a policy at our Federal daycare center.

I can't imagine they would kick you out once you are already in.
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Our kids are at a federal center and the parent with preference has changed jobs. While our Center's policy had been to let kids stay once enrolled (but no more sibling preference, etc.) there is a movement afoot to kick out kids whose parents change jobs. What is your federal center's policy in this regard?

Thanks for any feedback!