Emporia State University will close campus childcare center next year

Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., is closing its Center for Early Childhood Education.

The center will close in August 2023 in preparation for the demolition of the Butcher Education Center, where the childcare center is housed, reports The Emporia Gazette. 

The university does not have plans for what will replace the Butcher Education Center. The Campus Master plan states the space may be used in the construction of a new academic building.

Gwen Larson, director of media relations at the university, said that the childcare center will accept enrollment for families who need childcare up to August 2023. The university has no plans to relocate or reopen the Center for Early Childhood Education.

“At Emporia State University, we have been for the last several months looking at all aspects of campus, how we do things, what we offer our enrolled students, and we are looking at the best ways to invest our resources, and those decisions sometimes include deciding that we need to discontinue programs,” Larson said. “The Center for Early Childhood Education, as it is now structured, does not fit Emporia State’s mission for educating the current college students that are working for their own future.”