Help Keep UPNS Open
UCLA has asked University Parents Nursery School (UPNS) and its remaining Early Care and Education centers to close by summer 2027.
For 60 years, UPNS has been a beloved cooperative preschool for UCLA-affiliated and neighborhood families, built around play, care, and a deeply involved parent community. We’re asking UCLA to help preserve this extraordinary community by allowing UPNS to remain in its current home if possible, or by helping secure a new home where the school can continue.
Why we are asking UCLA to reconsider
UPNS began in 1966, when parents living in UCLA Family Student Housing came together to create a cooperative preschool for their children. For sixty years, it has provided high-quality early childhood education while building a strong community among UCLA faculty, staff, students, and neighborhood families.
The possible loss of UPNS comes at a particularly difficult time. Fernald Child Care Center has already closed, and UCLA has now announced that its remaining Early Care and Education centers will close in summer 2027. UPNS and UCLA ECE are separate organizations, and we do not assume that the circumstances behind these decisions are the same. But the combined effect on families is significant: a major reduction in childcare options for people who work and study at UCLA.
Reliable, financially accessible, high-quality childcare is already difficult to find in Los Angeles. For faculty and staff with young children, access to childcare affects their ability to work, teach, conduct research, and build long-term careers at UCLA. It also affects UCLA’s ability to recruit and retain faculty and staff, particularly families relocating to Los Angeles without established childcare or family support networks. For student parents, dependable childcare can determine whether they are able to complete their degrees and participate fully in university life.
UPNS has helped UCLA meet this need through an unusually efficient model. UPNS is an independent nonprofit cooperative. UCLA does not operate the school or employ its teachers. The program is sustained through tuition, its teachers and staff, parent participation, fundraising, volunteer leadership, and the cooperative community.
At a moment when UCLA is losing other childcare capacity, preserving an established independent provider like UPNS is especially valuable.
What we are asking UCLA to do
We understand that there may be facilities, operational, financial, or other considerations behind UCLA’s decision that have not yet been shared with the broader community. We are not asking UCLA to disregard those constraints, nor are we asking the university to take over or operate UPNS. We are asking UCLA to work with the school to identify a viable path forward.
- 1. Explore whether UPNS can remain in its current location beyond summer 2027. If there is a feasible way for the school to remain, we ask UCLA to seriously consider it before closure becomes irreversible.
- 2. If the current location cannot continue, actively help UPNS identify another suitable site. Work with UPNS to identify a UCLA-owned, UCLA-controlled, or UCLA-supported location where the school can continue operating.
- 3. Provide sufficient time and transition support for relocation. A licensed preschool cannot simply move overnight. Site selection, approvals, facility adaptation, fundraising, and licensing all require time.
- 4. Meet with UPNS leadership and families. Meet with representatives of the UPNS Board, staff, parents, and UCLA-affiliated families so the community can better understand the decision and participate in exploring realistic alternatives.
If UPNS’s current home cannot continue, we ask UCLA to help it find a new one.
The value of UPNS extends beyond the number of childcare spaces it provides. Its cooperative model asks parents to participate in classrooms, care for the school, support fundraising, and become part of one another’s lives. Many families arrive at UCLA and in Los Angeles without extended family nearby, and UPNS becomes an important source of community during the demanding years of raising young children.
Its teachers, traditions, relationships, and institutional knowledge have been built over decades. Once that community disappears, it will be extraordinarily difficult to recreate.
Together, we can help keep this community alive.
Sign the Petition
Join families, community members, UCLA faculty, staff, students, and alumni in asking UCLA to preserve UPNS.
Read UPNS Stories
Families, alumni, faculty, and staff have shared personal stories and reflections on why preserving UPNS’s 60-year community matters.