Update on Childcare Facility

Dear Colleagues:

We write to let you know that our first child care center will open in Spring 2013. Delays associated with receiving the required municipal approvals have pushed back the scheduled opening from the originally announced date of Autumn 2012. We realize that some parents anticipated enrolling their children this fall. We regret the inconvenience, share the disappointment, and look forward to Spring 2013.

Operated by Bright Horizons, the child care center will occupy a new building designed by Ross Barney Architects in the 5600 block of South Drexel Avenue. As many of you know, the facility will accommodate 124 children aged 6 weeks to 5 years old. Spaces will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. A second, similarly sized child care center on Stony Island Avenue is in the design stages, with an anticipated opening in Autumn 2013.

In collaboration with the University and the Medical Center, Bright Horizons has begun developing its program and specific policies for our center. Once additional details are available, we will host some information sessions to introduce Bright Horizons to our community and invite everyone to ask questions.

A website dedicated to child care can be found at http://www.childcare.sites.uchicago.edu/. It gathers information about policies and resources related to young children and links to the websites of the Baby Ph.D. Network and the Chicago Child Care Society, our neighborhood child care partners. The new website also will connect people to Bright Horizons' enrollment information and program details once that information becomes available in the coming weeks on Bright Horizons' website.

Please be kind enough to share this information with all who may be interested. We thank you for your continuing interest and patience and look forward to a quickening pace of progress.

Sincerely,

Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Provost
Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, Dean, BSD and EVP of Medical Affairs