When Monica Tijerina re-enrolled in Texas A&M University-San Antonio last fall, she quickly realized childcare for her 5-year-old daughter London would be one of the hardest parts to manage in order to finish her degree.
Her employer let her get off work at 3:30 to pick up her daughter from pre-k, but by the time she got to campus for her evening class, she had been in the car driving for an hour and a half — and only got to see her daughter for 30 minutes of that time.
“Thirty minutes in traffic to get her from school, 30 minutes to get her to my mom's, 30 minutes to get to campus. All because everybody's on the road at those hours,” Tijerina said. “It was too much. The traffic is frustrating. And then I'd have to pay to eat out when I don't have money. I'm barely making it.”
Tijerina’s employer had recently transitioned her from a contractor to a full employee on the condition she finish her degree, but Tijerina said the stress of it all made her think she might need to find a different job.
“Last fall, I would go take her to my mom's. I would try to do my homework there, but it was kind of hard because there's not a dedicated study space at my mom's house. So, the TV would be on, people were coming in and out,” Tijerina said. “Or I would take her to my sister's. She would beg me to go to because my nieces are there so she could play with them. And I would just stay in my car and read my assignment in front of my sister's house.”
Then Tijerina got an email that made her realize she could stay in her job and finish her degree.
The email said A&M-San Antonio would be opening a childcare program on campus for the spring semester.
“And I thought, OK, well, it’s going to be during office hours,” Tijerina said.
But, when Tijerina called to find out more, she learned the program was specifically for parents enrolled in evening classes, open from 3:30 PM to 8:30 PM, Monday through Thursday.
“And I just cried,” Tijerina said. “I just told her, ‘You don't know how helpful this is.’”
Tijerina only has class on Monday nights this semester, but she said she and London come to campus about three evenings a week.
“She loves coming here.” Tijerina said. “And then I get to just go and take a breath because I'm out of work. I've dropped off my kid. I get to breathe and my mind is fresh, my mind is relaxed, and I can go sit at the library and actually focus.”
A&M-San Antonio got a $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to open the childcare program. Right now, it operates out of a modular building with space for 50 children from preschool through sixth grade.
“A lot of after-school programs stop by 5:30, 6:00, and if you have a 7:00 class, that just does not work for you,” said Melissa Jozwiak, an early childhood professor who manages the grant that funds the program.
Jozwiak said A&M-San Antonio students can enroll their children in the program free of charge if they are single parents or are eligible for Pell grants, which are awarded based on financial need.
“We would like in the future to expand out to be able to have a sliding scale where students could pay tuition,” Jozwiak said. “But at this point, we're just kind of scaling up to that. We hope to see that in the next year or two.”
The childcare program, called Young Jaguars, serves dinner and provides enrichment activities. The teachers are A&M-San Antonio alumni who oversee student workers.
“Not only are they teaching the young children, but you have university students coming in to learn from them,” Jozwiak said. “Right now, I am teaching an assessment class and my students are coming in and they're learning from the teachers: How do you assess a child's development? How do you fill out a developmental screening? How do you plan instruction that is responsive to that development?”
Tijerina said the books and materials at the facility are things her daughter loves to play with — and things she has neither the space or the money to buy.
The university is in the process of building a 25,000 square foot childcare facility slated to open in the summer of 2026. When it opens, Jozwiak said it will have the capacity to serve 200 children from birth to sixth grade.
“Student parents are 20% less likely to graduate than non-parents. If we want our students to be successful here at Texas A&M, San Antonio, we've got to provide that support for them,” Jozwiak said.
“When you're a student parent, you have a much larger unmet financial need than a non-student parent. And so, we wanted to provide this service because we know that not only are they less likely to succeed, but they are more likely to need the financial support of a free child care program.”
Almost 40% of A&M-San Antonio students are 25 or older, according to federal statistics. Advocates estimate that about a quarter of today's college students are parents.
