Please call the Front Desk at 510-437-2743
Base Alameda USCG CDC is open Monday through Friday from 0600 to 1700.
Closures include all Federal Holidays:
- New Year's Day
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Presidents' Day
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Columbus Day
- Veterans' Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
The CDC closes at noon or 4pm on certain days of the year…contact the front desk for more information.
We strongly believe in the value of learning through play. For young children, meaningful and long-lasting learning requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work. This is best accomplished through purposeful play. All of our programs follow the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practices and use The Creative Curriculum® by Teaching Strategies, Inc. to ensure appropriate content and assessments for Infant, Toddler, Jr. Preschool and Preschool children.
The CDC offers five full-time programs for children aged six weeks through 5 years of age. They are as follows:
- Infant Program: The Infant Program accommodates a maximum of 8 infants ranging in age from six weeks to approximately 15 months.
- Pre-Toddler Program: The Pre-Toddler Program accommodates a maximum of 10 children ranging in age from roughly 12 months to 24 months.
- Toddler Program: The Toddler Program accommodates a maximum of 14 children ranging in age from roughly 24 months to 3 years.
- Jr. Preschool Program: The Jr. Preschool Program accommodates a maximum of 12 children ranging in age from roughly 2.5 years to 4 years or when ready for preschool.
- Preschool Program: The Preschool Program accommodates a maximum of 24 children ranging in age from 3.5 years through 5 years.
The Base Alameda USCG Child Development Center provides high quality educational and recreational programs for children. Teams of caring, knowledgeable teachers plan developmentally-appropriate curriculum that responds to the unique needs, abilities, and interests of children. Our early childhood educators are trained to foster a sense of independence, trust, inclusion, community and responsibility within each child through understanding and respectful interactions. Our center supports the ideas, cultures, and values of our families. We advocate for children, families, and other child professionals within our programs and surrounding communities.
Children learn about their world through interpersonal relationships, exposure to diverse experiences and exploration in creative play. The CDC strives to promote optimum social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development as well as their creativity, independence and self-esteem in a safe, loving positive and nurturing environment with the following goals in mind:
- Promote social competence and positive relationships with others
- Build physical development and skills
- Foster emotional well-being and a sense of trust and respect for self and others
- Encourage children to think, reason, question and experiment
- Develop initiative, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
- Advance creative expression, representation, and appreciation for the arts
- Promote language and literacy development
- Develop self-discipline and the ability to seek out and complete self-selected tasks
Here at Base Alameda USCG Child Development Center, we model our curricula based on the Creative Curriculum approach, drawing from a Play-Based and Emergent philosophy while utilizing Teaching Strategies Gold®. Our professionally trained teaching staff generate weekly lesson plans that are developmentally appropriate to meet the needs and interest of your children.
What is play-based learning?
Children are naturally motivated to play. A play-based program builds on this motivation, using play as a context for learning. In this context, children can explore, experiment, discover and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways.
A play-based approach involves both child-initiated and teacher-supported learning. The teacher encourages children's learning and inquiry through interactions that aim to stretch their thinking to higher levels.
For example, while children are playing with blocks, a teacher can pose questions that encourage problem solving, prediction and hypothesizing. The teacher can also bring the child's awareness towards mathematics, science and literacy concepts, allowing them to engage with such concepts through hands-on learning. (Kimberton Waldorf School, 2018)
Rooted in the work of noted early childhood theorists like Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky, emergent curriculum is defined as a process where teachers plan activities and projects based on the specific group of children they are working with, taking into account their skills, needs, and interests. In an emergent curriculum program, what happens in side by side classrooms will look different because of the varying skills, interests, and needs of the children within those classrooms. A teacher takes into account all that he/she knows about individuals and the particular group of children he/she teaches and plans accordingly.
A successful emergent curriculum approach means that teachers thoughtfully plan the environment, offering many visible choices, based on the children's skills and needs. Teachers conduct observations and plan based on their observations of children. (Bright Horizons Family Solutions, 2019)
All 9 US Coast Guard Child Development Centers utilize Gold® as an all-in-one tool to provide the best educational and developmentally appropriate experiences for your children.
Teaching Strategies® partners with early childhood educators by providing innovative, effective resources that empower and inspire them as they teach and care for our youngest learners during the critical, formative years from birth through third grade. We are committed to advancing the field of early childhood education through high-quality, integrated resources; responsive, ongoing support; and research-based, research-proven solutions that enable every early childhood educator to open doors to lifelong learning. (Teaching Strategies®, 2019)
The 38 research-based objectives are at the heart of everything we do and they define the path teachers take with the children in their classroom. They enable teachers to see children's development and learning along a progression across the whole of the early childhood years.
The objectives cover 10 areas of development and learning, including broad developmental areas, content areas, and English language acquisition. Many objectives also include dimensions that guide teachers' thinking about various aspects of that objective and help clarify what it addresses.
Staff to child ratios are established by COMDTINST M1754.15 4-4 and are as follows:
- Infants 1:4
- Pre-Toddlers 1:5
- Toddlers 1:7
- Jr. Preschool 1:7 if all children enrolled are 3 or older, the ration is 1:12
- Preschool 1:12
Part-time and hourly drop-in care is provided on a case-by-case basis, when ratio allows and is only available for ages 3-5. All registration forms must be completed and current immunizations must be on file to qualify. Reservations must be made in advance and are granted on a first come, first served basis, in accordance with eligibility priorities. Fee schedules are available at the CDC.
Children with special needs are eligible for CDC enrollment. Initially, a Child Health Form (CG-5484A) must completed by the child's physician and submitted to the CDC. A Special Needs Resource Team (SNRT) then determines if CDC enrollment is appropriate for the child and how to best meet the child's needs. If the SNRT determines a different environment would better suit the child, the CDC and Family Resource Specialist will make a referral.
The CDC accepts children without regard to sex, race, culture, religion, or national origin. Children shall be accepted according to the following priorities, as determined by the status of the parent(s):
- CG active duty personnel, CG civilian employees (paid from either appropriated or non-appropriated funds), and Public Health Services (PHS) Officers who are on active duty orders to the CG;
- Active duty members and civilian employees of the Armed Forces (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force);
- Federal employees;
- Contractors and community members.
Within priorities (a) and (b), eligible active duty and civilian employees will be accepted equally upon the date of their application and the following criteria:
- Single parents whether active duty, civilian or PHS Officers on active duty orders to the CG.
- Dual active duty and or married civilian employees (working outside the home) or PHS Officers on active orders to the CG.
- Active duty, civilian, and PHS Officers on active duty orders to the CG with a spouse actively seeking employment.
- Active duty, civilian, or PHS Officers on active duty orders to the CG with a spouse attending full time school (enrolled a minimum of 6 credit hours for spring and fall semesters and/or 6 credit hours of summer).
Within priorities (c) and (d), applications will be accepted based upon priority and the date of application. Priority (d) applications may be offered services so long as their children do not exceed 50% of available space and eligible federal recipients have priority over them.
Children will be admitted to the CDC according to the above criteria, though admissions may at times be restricted because of internal transitions, class sizes, and wait lists.
For the complete memorandum on the Base Alameda USCG CDC Immediate Care Wait List policy, the fee scale and wait times, call the front desk at 510-437-2743. There is a $25 non-refundable wait list fee to join the Immediate Care Wait List.
* All rooms have a wait list.
When a sponsor requests childcare, but space at Base Alameda USCG CDC is not immediately needed, he or she may be placed on the Projected Care Waiting List. Examples of projected care needs include but are not limited to:
- Unborn children (must be expecting)
- Adoption pending
- Custody pending
- Out-of-area residents
For the complete memorandum on the Base Alameda USCG Projected Care Wait List, the fee scale and wait times, call the front desk at 510-437-2743.
* All rooms have a wait list.
Tuition is based on a sliding fee scale according to Total Family Income (TFI). TFI includes all gross earned income, including wages, salaries, tips, long-term disability benefits, voluntary salary deferral, housing allowances, subsistence allowance, in-kind quarters and subsistence received, and anything else of value, even if not taxable, that was received for providing services. Housing allowance and subsistence allowance means the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) received by military personnel (with respect to grade and status) and the value of meals and lodging furnished in-kind to military personnel residing on military bases.
Parents must provide their last two LES' and or/pay stubs at the time of registration to verify TFI. Once annual income is determined, the CDC sliding scale is used to determine tuition costs. If parents do not wish to provide income information, they will be charged the highest tuition category. Call the front desk for a copy of the sliding fee scale.
Subject to tuition payment are base closures and training days. Tuition credits are not granted for any absences, including sick days, vacation, emergency closing or staff training.
Parents must provide the CDC with a written, two-week notice prior to withdrawing their child from the program. Failure to give notice will result in a balance due of two weeks tuition. The MWR collection process will be used to collect delinquent fees owed the CDC.
All children enrolled at the CDC will participate without charge in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The CDC receives partial reimbursement for all meals served so it is imperative that parents complete all appropriate CACFP forms upon registration and renew them annually.
All children present during food service times will be served. No child will go longer than three hours without a meal or snack being offered. Children arriving after mealtimes will not be served.
- Breakfast 0800 to 0830
- Lunch 1100 to 1130
- Snack 1400 to 1430
Menus are carefully planned to exceed USDA standards and provide tasty, nutritious meals and snacks. They are posted weekly at the CDC and emailed to the parents.
Kimberton Waldorf School. (2018). The benefits of play-based education. Retrieved from: https://kimberton.org/play-based-education/
Bright Horizons Family Solutions. (2019). What is emergent curriculum & how it works. Retrieved from https://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/emergent-curriculum-early-education-approach
Teaching Strategies®. (2019). Our approach mission. Retrieved from: https://teachingstrategies.com/our-approach/mission/