Associated Students Children's Center SF State

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Nov. 2003

I am interested in hearing about any recent experiences at the San Francisco State Child Study Center. How long has it taken to get through the waiting list? Is it a great place for a 4 year old? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kristin

The SF State Children's Center is excellent--both my 3.5 year old and 7 month old daughters attend there. The facility is almost brand new, with a huge ourdoor play yard, the teachers are all very well-trained (mostly in early childhood education) and the administration is top-notch. It's probably the best school my kids will ever go to (since it will be public schools after this)! Low-income undergrads get first priority so it's also very economically and racially diverse. It's play-based so there's lots of art and creativity.

That said, the class sizes are all fairly small so it's not that easy to get in--I'm a faculty member & fairly low-priority so I signed my older daughter up at six months old. We went to a private daycare until she was 2 so we'd been on the waiting list a while & got right in last spring. But new enrollment fluctuates from semester to semester according to demand--last spring when we were admitted there was less demand because student fees had just gone up. Plus they only offer set schedules i.e., MWT afternoons, or TTh all day and so forth, so sometimes the people at the top of the waiting list can't get the schedule they need and have to pass.

Anyway, if you're at all interested you should put yourself on the list for sure. You may get lucky and get offered a slot right away or you may have to wait a while. But if you get in you'll probably like it--the ony complaint we have is the fixed schedules and the fact that as a faculty member I get nearly last priority in scheduling. Small complaints for a great place-- vsoe

I wanted to point out that there are actually two separate pre-schools on the SFSU campus. One is the Associated Students Child Center and the other is the Child Study Center. The previous poster seems to be describing the A.S. Child Center which is where my children have both gone. I agree that it is wonderful. The program has great ratios, is very diverse, has a great child-led play based (Reggio-inspired) ciriculum, and is in a wonderful new facility. They do lots of art, some cooking, and great projects. The teachers we had were very caring and really helped the kids develop socially. It is NAYC accredited and many of the head teachers have MA degrees in child development.

However, the Child Study Center is a completely different building, and is a completely separate program. I have not heard that much about it, but the people I know who have looked at both programs picked the A.S. center. I believe they do a lot of teacher training there for students in the Education department. Good luck, a parent of two