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TWU student Nickaresha Brown and her son,\u00a0A’sai, are among the families enrolled at\u00a0Bezos Academy Denton, a preschool that has opened on TWU-owned land across University Drive. The school, which serves children ages 3 to 5, is Bezos Academy’s largest Texas location and costs families nothing.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Texas Woman\u2019s University<\/p>\n
Tuition-free preschool<\/a> will give Nickaresha Brown’s 3-year-old son a place to learn while she works full time and finishes her degree at Texas Woman’s University<\/a>.<\/p>\n About six months ago, the childcare franchise her son, A’sai, attended closed. Brown began working from home while caring for him, a routine that divided her attention and limited her ability to take extra work shifts or fully participate in campus life.<\/p>\n But now, A’sai is among the children enrolled at Bezos Academy Denton<\/a>, a 120-seat, full-day Montessori-inspired preschool that has opened on TWU-owned land across University Drive. The school, which serves children ages 3 to 5, is Bezos Academy’s largest Texas location and costs families nothing.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: Why it may get harder to find childcare help in Dallas County<\/a><\/p>\n The academy covers the full day, meals, snacks, curriculum materials and supplies. It is not part of Texas’ childcare-assistance system, however. Bezos Academy does not accept state childcare subsidies, referrals or funding in Texas, and officials said a child’s enrollment does not prevent a family from applying for or remaining on the state assistance waitlist<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Brown, who expects to earn a business administration degree with a concentration in human resources in January, the new arrangement offers relief from the constant question of whether her son is safe and engaged while she works or attends class.<\/p>\n “It just gives me the mental space to dream of being able to pursue school even more and get my master’s,” she said.<\/p>\n TWU says student-parents make up 13% of its graduate and undergraduate student body. In the university’s fall 2023 Trellis Student Financial Wellness Survey, 32% of student-parents said they had missed class during the previous semester because they lacked childcare.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That can mean students bring children to class or miss class because they have no one to care for them, said Monica Mendez-Grant, TWU’s vice president for student life. The university previously had a daycare facility on campus, but it closed years ago, leaving a gap for families with children who had not yet reached kindergarten.<\/p>\n A classroom at Bezos Academy Denton, a preschool that has opened on TWU-owned land across University Drive. The school, which serves children ages 3 to 5, is Bezos Academy’s largest Texas location and costs families nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Texas Woman\u2019s University<\/p>\n Bezos Academy and TWU also chose the site because the surrounding area meets the definition of a childcare desert<\/a>, Mendez-Grant said, meaning access to licensed, affordable early childhood education is limited. The academy seeks to serve communities with families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level.<\/p>\n At the academy’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Texas Women’s Foundation president and CEO Karen Hughes White said half of Texans live in childcare deserts, defined as areas with at least three children for every available childcare seat. She said full-time, center-based infant care averages about $11,000 a year in Texas, a cost that can force parents, particularly mothers, out of the workforce or delay their education.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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