The Child and Family Center serves CSULB students, staff, faculty, and Long Beach families with high-quality, NAEYC-accredited child care. We serve children from ages 3-months through pre-school, providing important educational experiences as a foundation for future growth.
The Child and Family Center also provides real-world experience for CSULB Child and Family Studies students, serving as a training site and lab for our students while educating your children. This ensures that Child and Family Center children have more personal attention than at the typical child care facility, and it means that the children are exposed to a wide array of modern experiences and techniques.
Child and Family Center Renovation and Expansion Nears Completion
The Child and Family Center has been under construction since August, 2023, utilizing a grant from the State of California to double the size of the Center. With our renovation come many program enhancements when we reopen in Spring 2026:
- Expanded admission, will be accepting infants (3 months to 23 months old) for the first time
- Access for CSULB student-parents for the first time
- Doubling the number of classrooms, adding three classrooms in a facility remodeled to the highest licensing and accreditation standards
- Expanded and upgraded playgrounds
- A new lunch program in collaboration with Campus Dining Services offering morning and afternoon snacks
- New leadership from Center Director Dr. Alicia Minor, former CSULB Child and Family Practicum student and former Director of the UCLA Early Care and Education Center
- A revamped education model that has increased support and staffing to provide the best educational experience.
Pre-Registration Is Now Open!
If you are interested in enrolling your child at The Child and Family Center, click the link here to express your interest by submitting a pre-registration form. A confirmation email will be sent to confirm your submission. Don't delay! Pre-Registration closes on February 16, 2026 at 9am.
Pre-Registration FAQ
Anyone who submits a Pre-Registration form will get priority access to filing an application when the Center is ready to open. The application forms, which will be available once we announce our re-opening date in the Spring, will be open to those who pre-register for seven calendar days before the applications are open to the CSULB community and public at large.
The Pre-Registration form will be available online. Once completed, you will receive confirmation and be added to an email distribution list that will provide updates as to when Center applications will be accepted. Once the opening date and application dates are announced, those who pre-registered will receive notification about a priority access period to applying for the Child and Family Center. During this period, only those who pre-registered will be able to apply. However, the application process will operate as normal; those who apply first and pay the application fee (see the Tuition page for more details) will receive priority. If you pre-registered but don't apply during the Priority Access period, you can still apply like normal.
No, but it does provide you early-access to apply before the larger community.
There is no fee to Pre-Register in order to receive Priority Access to applications. However, when the application period opens (priority or normal), there is a non-refundable fee to apply for admission to the Child and Family Center.
See the Applications page for more detail, but yes, there are priorities for admission. CSULB students receive priority admission for half of the available infant, toddler, and preschool spots, followed by Staff/Faculty and finally members of the Long Beach (or nearby) community. For the remaining available spots, Students/Staff/Faculty receive equal priority, with Long Beach (or nearby) community members receiving secondary priority.
The Pre-Registration process will not guarantee a waitlist. However, when the Child and Family Center begins taking applications (priority or regular), once all the classroom spots are full, a waitlist will be generated. Future admission will then be determined by that waitlist and or admission priorities. See the Applications page for more detail. Please note, this is different than how the Child and Family Center operated in the past. There is no longer an annual application period or annual lottery. Applications will be accepted year-round.
Programs
Infants
The Child and Family Center will be serving infants for the first time when we open our newly renovated Center, with brand new spaces designed for infant care.
Toddlers
We continue our top-notch Toddler Program in both newly constructed and freshly renovated rooms, redesigned and expanded to suit the needs of toddler-aged children.
Pre-School
We'll prepare your pre-schoolers for elementary school in freshly renovated rooms, redesigned and expanded to maximize educational opportunities for our pre-school participants.
