Located in the southern part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, Johnson County Community College (JCCC), a suburban, commuter campus, received its most recent Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS) grant in 2022, totaling $618,204 over a four-year period. This was JCCC’s second CCAMPIS since 2018. The funding covered tuition for students to enroll their children at the Hiersteiner Child Development Center (HCDC), the on-campus childcare center. Over the two grants, 82 families have received scholarships through CCAMPIS funding.
JCCC students with young children often struggle to find childcare so they can dedicate time to pursuing their degrees. In Fall 2025, 862 Pell-eligible students indicated they had dependent/childcare expenses. The current capacity in Johnson County falls short of meeting the potential need for childcare services by 43%. In other words, not quite five out of ten Johnson County families are able to find childcare, while the remaining were either on waiting lists or still searching. This problem of capacity is compounded by the rising cost of childcare, with the annual average cost for one child to be enrolled at a daycare center being $12,149 in Johnson County.
To be eligible to receive a childcare scholarship, JCCC student-parents needed to meet the following criteria:
- Pell-eligibility
- GPA of 2.0,
- Commitment of 5-day/ full day care for the 15-week semester,
- Enrolling in at least 9 credit hours in Fall and Spring semesters
- Attending HCDC parenting classes.
For the FY22 CCAMPIS grant, the HCDC awarded childcare scholarships to up to 15 student-parents in the Fall and Spring terms and 5 student-parents over the Summer term. Depending on their level of financial need, the student-parents were able to receive scholarships ranging between 75% to 95% of the total childcare cost.
Among the students at JCCC who leverage CCAMPIS to support them in completing their studies are Kaleesi Blú Saváge, a Social Media Marketing and ASL and Deaf Studies student, and Joyce Ngobiro, a nursing student. In both of their testimonies, they stress that the reason they are able to attend and persist at JCCC is because of the access to high-quality childcare on JCCC’s campus. Without CCAMPIS, Blú Saváge and Ngobiro would have to pick between caring for their families or continuing their education.
As Ngobiro states,
The HCDC is designed to support the efforts of JCCC students to pursue their educational goals. Accredited since 1993 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Center uses the Creative Curriculum. It is a research-based, whole-child approach which ensures kindergarten readiness in all areas of development and learning: language, literacy, mathematics, social-emotional, physical, cognitive, social studies, science & technology, the arts, and English language acquisition.
In terms of the quality of care, Blú Saváge notes,
At JCCC, students who received a scholarship through the most recent CCAMPIS funding achieved the following:
- a 72% persistence rate, compared to 69% for the overall student body,
- a 48% course completion or transfer rate, above the campus average of 26%, and
- an average GPA of 3.11, compared to 2.93 for all students.
The ripple effects of CCAMPIS support both academics and a stronger parental presence, as Blú Saváge says,
Ngobiro reminds us that the major takeaway from CCAMPIS is the support it offers parenting students,
Courtney Hultgren is the Director of Johnson County Community College's Hiersteiner Child Development Center and the CCAMPIS project lead.
Image: Hiersteiner Child Development Center
