Nearby Childcare Options

The Center for Early Childhood Education
The Center for Early Childhood Education, located on Fort Hill, operates on campus and provides preferential admission to the children of Smith College employees.

Internet Sites

The Department of Early Education and After School Programs allows you to enter a zip code and view a listing of providers who are licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

From Google: Type in “day care” and the town you are interested in, for example, Northampton, Massachusetts (day care Northampton MA). Clicking on the “local results for day care near Northampton, MA”  heading will produce a listing and map of the facilities. You can enter additional surrounding towns to get a wider representation of providers. For example, see these Google results.

Other Options

Each of the other colleges in the Five College Consortium has affiliated daycare facilities. In each instance preferential admission is provided to children of the parent’s respective college. However, openings may be available to children of parents employed by the other participating colleges on a priority higher than the general public. The contact information for each facility is as follows:

University of Massachusetts

University Child Care Office—413-545-1566

Mount Holyoke

Stonybrook Children’s Center—413-533-9819

Hampshire College

Hampshire College Children’s Center—413-559-5706

Amherst College

The Woodside Children’s Center—413-253-2604

Resources for Evaluating Quality Child Care

• Zero to Three
• Healthy Children (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Lifescope information for New Parents (Sign in to e4Health)