Enrollment

Enrollment

Thank you for your interest in Ben & Maxine Miller Child Development Laboratory School.

Please note that the Ben and Maxine Miller Child Development Laboratory School (MCDLS) is unaffiliated with other Purdue childcare centers. The following information pertains solely to the MCDLS waitlist.

Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN) Approved Site

Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN) is a DoD and U.S. Coast Guard fee assistance program for eligible families who cannot access military-operated child care due to distance or waitlists. With fee assistance, a portion of your child care costs is paid to offset the costs of community-based care. This makes it easier for families to afford quality child care from local community providers.

Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)

The Child Care and Development Fund is a federal program that helps low-income families obtain childcare so that they may work, attend training or continue their education. The purpose of CCDF is to increase the availability, affordability and quality of child care.

The CCDF program is administered through the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration in the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning. The CCDF state plan outlines state and local level parameters and includes program outcomes, systems development and eligibility requirements.

Eligibility and Fees

The school is open to Purdue employees, students, and community members. At the program, priority is given to Purdue staff and student families; space may be available for community members. The program is open to any family with a child between six weeks to 5 years. Call 765-494-0240 anytime to check on availability.

Waitlist Application

Creating an application for the waitlist first occurs by creating an account at https://www.purdue.edu/hr/childcare/Account/Login.

There is a non-refundable waitlist fee of $20.00 per child. The child’s “application date” is determined by the date payment is received. The fee can be paid online using a major credit card or by check. Checks should be made payable to Purdue University. A child will not be placed on the waitlist until this fee has been paid.

Children may be placed on the waitlist at any time; this includes parents expecting a birth or adoption. The child(ren) will be kept on the waitlist as long as they are age-eligible.

If a family prefers to defer enrollment until their child has reached a certain age, this should be noted on the enrollment application form in the comment section. Such children will be carried on the waitlist until the noted target age is reached. After that, they will be eligible for enrollment according to the enrollment priorities.

Any family that declines an offer of enrollment but also wishes to remain on the waitlist will be placed at the end of the waitlist. The application date will be changed to the date the spot was declined. Any family that is offered a spot and does not respond within three days will be placed at the end of the waitlist, with the application date changed to the date the offer of enrollment expired. After three offers of enrollment have been declined or have no response the child will be removed from the waitlist. If the family wishes to return to the waitlist, they must begin the process again (i.e. submit a new application and pay the fee again).

Purdue’s Human Resources office maintains the waitlist. HR periodically communicates updates via email. Families wishing to remain active on the waitlist must log on to their account every six months. If a family does not log onto their account every six months the account will become inactive and the child’s name will be removed from the waitlist. It is the family’s responsibility to make sure their waitlist account always lists their current mailing address, phone number, and email address.

Families whose children are removed from the waitlist can log back into their account to re-activate their child. The original application date will remain unchanged unless an offer of enrollment was made and declined.

If a child is enrolled in another program on campus and the family wishes to remain on the waitlist for MCDLS, the family must contact the MCDLS Secretary or Director to remain on the waitlist (mcdls@purdue.edu).

Children enrolled in the program are automatically removed from the waitlist. Once a child is enrolled in the program, if a family wishes to request a particular room, a formal written request must be made to the MCDLS Secretary or Director. The formal request must include the order of preference if requesting more than one room.

Enrollment Priority

Children on the waitlist are offered enrollment on the basis of application date, child’s age, gender, and affiliation with MCDLS, in the following order:

1. Faculty and/or Staff of the Human Development and Family Science Department
2. Currently enrolled children requesting specific rooms
3. Siblings of currently enrolled children
4. Siblings of graduates of MCDLS. Priority is set according to the most recent graduates (Example: the sibling of a child who graduated in 2022 would come before the sibling of a child who graduated in 2020)
5. Purdue Faculty, Staff and Students
6. General Public