MSU Billings students now have a chance to get help with child care.
The program runs through the U.S. Department of Education and the idea is to give students a better opportunity of attending class and studying.
Sondrea Ramirez, a criminal justice major at MSUB, is taking nine units and working full-time at Cradles to Crayons Preschool and Daycare.
She has applied for help through MSUB's Child Care Access Means Parents In School (CCAMPIS) scholarship program.
"It helps me so I have time to study and do my homework and not have a toddler running around," Ramirez said.
Her place of work, Cradles to Crayons, is one of three daycares associated with MSUB's CCAMPIS program.
The "program will help me pay for childcare so then I still have like money to go to college," Ramirez said.
"Helps bring in employees, even other children too, referrals from parents that use the program," Cradles to Crayons owner Carrie Roberts said about the CCAMPIS.
St. John's United Center for Generations and Wondyer Years Preschool and Childcare Center are the other two daycares in the program.
"It's usually a guaranteed way of getting childcare costs paid on time and usually in full too and then the parents don't have to worry about anything," Roberts said.
MSUB has received about $200,000 for the program.
"This is a way for them to get some assistance and could help could help them stay enrolled in college and graduate," said Kim Hayworth, MSUB vice chancellor for student access and success.
Hayyworth said about 40% of the students are 25 or older, a group that may include student-parents.
"They know that we'll come alongside them and help cover that cost," Hayworth said.
"Know that I have a good child care to take care of my kid so I can go to college and do my work," Ramirez said. "Pursue my dream."
