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Stephen F. Austin State University will phase out its Early Childhood Laboratory over the next few years because the program has become too expensive to maintain.
Stephen F. Austin University opened the Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center, also known as the child care lab, in 1975. The program accepts children from 8 weeks to 5 years old. The center, which has five classrooms, focuses its curriculum on autonomy, integrity, openness, problem solving and academics, according to the center’s website.
The center, which is open to the public, is funded through fees paid by parents who use the center for child care, but it wasn’t enough to sustain operations. Over the last five years, the university has paid an additional $750,000 — a little over $100,000 annually — to make ends meet, according to a statement by the university. And as universities like SFA tighten their belts to cope with increasing inflation costs, they’re looking for places to trim spending.
“Everybody’s budgets are so tight as it is,” said Korbin Pate, executive director of marketing and communications for Stephen F. Austin State University. “We, the institution itself, or anyone in the state for that matter, can’t raise university tuition. We’re not able to keep up with inflation and the different things that are going on. Everybody across the state is looking at how to cut down on costs.”
The center didn’t want to raise tuition owed by parents because the cost of care is already high, Pate said. Tuition for the 2026-27 school year for full-time students ranges from $885 for the Pre-K II classroom, which teaches 4 and 5-year-olds, to $1,070 a month for infant care.
The university will phase out child care operations annually starting with the infant room in the 2027-28 academic year. From there, it will close classrooms one-by-one.
Child care centers, while critical for the Texas economy, require significant operating costs, such as insurance, food and payroll, causing many to shut down because they can’t sustain the expenses. Over the last year, the number of child care deserts — areas that lack sufficient child care facilities where there aren’t enough spots for kids in the community to go to child care — has grown, according to Children At Risk, a child care nonprofit advocacy and research group focused on children’s well-being.
SFA’s recent announcement highlights the growing difficulty in providing child care in rural Texas even for organizations with significant backing, like the University of Texas system, which SFA joined in 2023.
“If a university can’t make it, what does that mean for the rest of the child care centers in the community and across the state?” said Kim Kofron, director of early childhood education for Children at Risk.
Programs like these exist across the state and have not only provided child care for their communities, but also created a training ground for up and coming child care professionals.
It’s how Rebecca Boyett, the lead teacher in the infant room at SFA, started her career in 2014. She began as the assistant and was promoted to lead the infant room in 2016, which is where she has stayed and cared for numerous Nacogdoches infants since.
“The opportunity for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world experiences is an irreplaceable part of their education,” she said.
However, the number of early childhood education and students in related tracts who use the lab for real-world training has declined by 30% over the last five years, Pate said. The degree fields that used the lab as a proving ground have lost enrollment, or those students are seeking field experience with other organizations, he said.
“So there’s not the academic component there that you could kind of justify offsetting the deficit with tuition dollars from SFA,” Pate said.
Boyett can’t see how this closure is going to be good for the community, which already has shortages in child care facilities. The Early Childhood Lab is consistently full with a wait list for families who want their children enrolled in a high quality preschool.
“The dedication, expertise, and passion of the teachers here create an educational experience that is truly exceptional and unlike any other early childhood program in our area,” Boyett said.
She began ringing the alarm bells earlier this week and community members started a petition to keep the program going. The loss of this program, even over the course of years, will cut 72 high-quality child care seats for East Texas’ youngest residents.
Disclosure: Children at Risk has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.