CLEVELAND (NBC26) -- The pandemic has made life more difficult for people juggling school, work and parenthood, but one local college is fighting to keep students with families in school.
A second-semester culinary arts student at Lakeshore Technical College, Tanna Reel isn't the only one in her family at the school.
While Reel attends classes, her 3-year-old daughter Amelia learns in the on-site child care center.
Amelia read, danced and played with teachers and friends Friday afternoon.
“Without being able to use this child care facility here I don’t know that I’d be able to actually go to school," Reel said.
Reel also works a part-time job. With an already busy schedule, the pandemic has added extra challenges.
“With the virus and everything going on, work is definitely slowing down," Reel said. "So I’m not getting as many hours, which is a lot more difficult and kind of concerning about finishing school, because without having the child care I couldn’t come to school."
To help student-parents like Reel, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Lakeshore a grant totaling $120,000 to assist students with child care costs.
The grant will last four years. Each year Lakeshore will use $30,000 to help support 10 student-parents with child care fee assistance, holistic support for child care selection, CCAMPIS case coordination for recipients, and funding for educational and family enrichment activities.
Lakeshore reported 41 percent of its students are parents and 88 percent of those students work part-time. The pandemic has also created more demand for child care services among students.
“Access to child care goes a very long way helping them continue in their educational journey," said Paul Carlsen, president of Lakeshore Technical College. "What we want is more college-educated people in the Lakeshore region, and access to child care can prevent that from happening. So it’s extremely important for those folks who want to continue their education in a pandemic.”
Grant recipients can use Lakeshore's on-site child care center. If it's full, a quality third-party child care program is recommended.
The goal is to remove at least one obstacle for student-parents as they continue down the path of receiving a college degree during a pandemic.
“This grant means so much to me. It means so much that I can continue going to school. This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life and I’m finally able to do it," Reel said.
A spokesperson with Lakeshore said more students have applied for the child care grant. Staff members are processing the applications.
The college was also approved to offer drop-in care for kids ages seven to 12 to accommodate student-parents after some schools closed in-person learning.
