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The Rice Children’s Campus, also known as RCC, is the on-campus daycare of Rice University; enrollment is only available to the children of Rice University faculty, staff, and students. RCC is managed by the Houston-based Center for Early Childhood Education.

The Center utilizes a Montessori curriculum, with facilitated learning in five key areas: math, language, science, sensory development, and everyday living skills. Additionally, the Center places a special emphasis on treating others with dignity and respect. This nonsectarian pre-school allows children as young as 6 weeks old to enroll and maintains strict teacher to student ratios in their classrooms, ranging from 1 teacher per 4 infants to 1 teacher per 10 primary-age children. 

Tuition ranges from $1,400 – $1,610 per month depending on the child’s age. However, the RCC does offer a sibling discount of 15% off tuition for the oldest child. 

Parents are welcome to drop-in and visit children, and the Center emphasizes parent participation with activities such as lunch in or out with their child, classroom observation, and holiday activities. Although parents are encouraged to visit their child in-person, cameras are not placed in the classrooms for remote observation. 

To apply, parents should first fill out a waitlist application online. Then, after eligibility is confirmed with the Rice University Human Resources Department, parents will be notified of new availabilities, and asked to submit an enrollment application along with a non-refundable $75 application deposit. If accepted, parents must provide an enrollment deposit of one half month’s tuition.

Admissions Criteria

The admissions criteria for RCC are primarily based on employment of the parents – at least one parent must be Rice faculty or staff. There are no developmental milestones required for admission, but the child must be at minimum 6 weeks old.

Tuition and Fees

RCC has a scheduled tuition program, with costs for specific classes by age listed below:

• Nursery (infants) – $1610/month
• Transition (children are crawling) – $1550/month
• Toddlers (children are walking) – $1510/month
• Twos (2 years old) – $1460/month
• Pre-Primary (3 years old) – $1440/month
• Primary (3-5 years old) – $1400/month

There are no discounts or scholarships available on tuition for low-income families, nor does the school participate in federal or state child care assistance program. However, if a family has more than one child enrolled, the oldest sibling receives a 15% discount on tuition. 

While there are no additional costs beyond tuition throughout the year, monthly payment is required during the summer months regardless of attendance, as tuition is based on annual enrollment. If a child is withdrawn for the summer, fall re-enrollment cannot be guaranteed.

Waitlist

Parents are advised to apply to the waitlist as soon as they know they will have a child at RCC, and t here is no fee associated with joining the waitlist. However, once a child is offered a spot, there is a $75 application fee, as well a tuition deposit of half a month’s tuition that must be paid upon admission.

The earlier a child enters the waitlist, the better their chances of enrolling at RCC. Parents can expect to spend more time on the waitlist for older children, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, families were unlikely to be able to get a spot at the RCC after age 3. However, there are currently children who are eligible to enroll who are choosing not to, and so there are more spots available than normal.

Standard Hours

The Rice Children’s Campus (RCC) is open for care from 7 am to 6 pm CST on weekdays, but does not offer any services outside these hours if a parent were to require after-hours care. The RCC does not officially offer any half-day or part-time programs – that is, tuition is fixed regardless of frequency or length of attendance. 

Holiday Schedule

RCC follows the Rice Staff holiday schedule and is thus closed on the following days:

1. Labor Day
2. Thanksgiving
   
3. MLK Day
4. Memorial Day
5. Winter Holiday December 25th – January 1st.

RCC is a Montessori school. Thus curriculum and classrooms are designed around 5 principles: math, language, science, sensory development and everyday living skills. The Montessori approach to childhood learning also seeks to allow young children to develop natural interests and activities rather than formalized teaching methods.

Additionally, outdoor time is an important part of the RCC curriculum. Unless it’s especially cold or rainy, students will have time every day to play outside. On bad weather days, outdoor time is substituted with especially exciting indoor activity. In times of sustained bad weather, students can bring bikes and games inside to use up and down their long hallway. 

No dual language programs are offered at RCC; all instruction is in English.

The classes are divided into the following groups:

1. Nursery – infants, beginning at 6 weeks old
2. Transition – children who are crawling and standing
3. Toddlers – children who are walking 
4. Twos – 2 years old
5. Pre-Primary – 3 years old
6. Primary – 3-5 years old; this age group is broken into Primary 1, which caters to 3-4 year olds and Primary 2, which caters to 4-5 year olds. 

Children are moved up in classes based on a variety of factors, such as developmental needs, age, and space availability. 

Special Needs

The Rice Children’s Center does not offer unique programs for students with special needs.

The teacher to student ratio changes by age group: 

• Nursery 1-to-4  
• Transition 1-to-5  
• Toddlers 1-to-6  
• Twos 1-to-7  
• Pre-Primary 1-to-8  
• Primary 1-to-10

The only requirement to be hired at RCC is a high school diploma. They value the ability to internally train less experienced hires, such as their teachers who transferred to RCC from other campuses and have 20+ years of experience with the Center for Early Childhood Education. The director of RCC conducts annual staff evaluations which do not include parental input. 

Excluding the director, the staff works for hourly pay, and earns sick leave and vacation time with continued employment. After 90 days at the Center, employees accrue 3 sick days. After 1 year, they also receive a week of vacation time.

Food and Nutrition

Food at the Center is prepared on campus, although parents are welcome to visit their children for lunch with outside food. The children are served a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables, but RCC does not prioritize the use of organic produce in their meals.

Health

For general student health, children who have run a fever are required to stay home from school until they have lasted 24 hours fever free without the aid of medication. There are also incident reports when children have injuries or fall ill. There are no licensed counselors or nurses on campus; administration receives additional training to provide medication to children should they need it. For staff, sick leave is an earned benefit.

Safety

The Rice University Police Department has an officer in the parking lot of RCC during morning drop off. During the day, people can enter the front room of RCC, but doors beyond that point are locked.

Additional restrictions have been imposed because of COVID-19, such as parents no longer being allowed to enter the building.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, RCC offered a variety of opportunities for parents to visit and be involved in their child’s learning. This includes birthday visits, holiday activities, and guest reading.

RCC parents can access reports about their child through an online portal. Throughout the day, teachers enter information about the child and that report is sent to parents at the end of the day. For infants, parents can expect more frequent updates about feeding, naps, etc. Parents are also welcome to join a Facebook group where classrooms post updates.

RCC does not have an option to observe children via nanny cam.

Behavioral expectations at RCC are centered around their community guidelines which they begin to enforce with infants. These guidelines focus on teaching students to be respectful and kind. Discipline is approached through teaching self-regulation. For example, instead of “time out” students go to “calm down.”

RCC is licensed through the Texas Department of Health and Human Services. This requires they be inspected annually by the state. HHS inspections look at a variety of factors including nap time practice, nutrition, discipline, and more.

RCC is also accredited by the NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation. NAEYC grades programs on the following criteria: Relationships, Curriculum, Teaching, Assessment, Health, Teachers, Families, Community Relationships, Physical Environment, Leadership and Management. RCC met over 95% of criteria in each category. Specifically, NAEYC highlights, “promoting positive relationships among all children and adults to encourage each child’s sense of individual worth and belonging as part of a community,” “Recognizing the importance of a reciprocal relationship between families and programs,” and “ implementing a curriculum that is consistent with its goals for children and promotes learning and development in each of the following areas: social, emotional, physical, language and cognitive.”

Finally, RCC is also accredited by the American Montessori Society.

As mandated by the state to maintain licensing, teachers are required to participate in a minimum amount of additional training hours as well as attending conferences. Before the covid-19 pandemic, teachers couldn’t do more than half of your training hours online.