LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center on the UNLV campus is expanding to allow 80 more children to enroll.
Four new classrooms for children ages 3 to 5 are under construction. They're expected to be completed in the summer with a potential opening in the fall.
The program currently sees about 160 students from 6 weeks to 5 years old, with parents who are students, staff members or community members.
"We do try to prioritize 35% being our UNLV students, 35% are faculty/staff members, and 30% are reserved for the general public. Out of that 30%, we reserve 12% of those families to be CCSD families that have children with disabilities," Assistant Director Shin Silver said.
According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, Nevada ranked 41st in pre-K access for 4-year-olds and 29th for 3-year-olds during the last school year.
Mom Stine Odegard experienced the shortage firsthand.
"I didn't realize the shortage until I was in the experience, which I think is real anytime you have an experience you're not in, but once I learned about it, I really started to go, 'Oh my gosh, this is a really big problem,' because that's the foundation for your kids," Odegard said.
"We know childcare is tough to find," Silver said. "Our waitlist attests to that, so being able to provide four more classrooms for 3-5 year olds is really going to help our community here at the university, but our surrounding members as well."
More children also means more staff, giving more UNLV students an opportunity to work in a field they may want to pursue.
"We are one of the largest employers of students here at the university," Silver said.
Silver said the center currently employs 60 to 70 students. With the expansion, that number will grow to 80 to 90 students, all with the goal of helping the valley's littlest ones prepare for life.
"We know that play is important and interaction with their peers and having a wide variety of peers as well is so important for them to continue their growth," Silver said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
