1985 - 2000: Setting Trends in Child Care Services

By 1985, Day Nursery was a mature, well-established organization. Year in and year out, the centers were providing a quality child care program for hundreds of children and their working or student parents. At the same time, the organization maintained its commitments to serve ethnically diverse clients and to offer tuition subsidies in accordance with the family income for the children of low- and middle-income parents.

The organization then embarked upon a period when it continued to build capacity and, it is fair to say, became a trendsetter in the industry.

A program to provide support and training for family child care home providers began in September 1985. At the same time, Day Nursery instituted a resource and referral service, now called Child Care Answers (CCA). Parents seeking help in locating and evaluating child care can call CCA and receive information, tailored to their needs, from its database of more than 3,000 providers.

In May 1987, responsive to an opportunity to provide quality services, Day Nursery purchased the business of the Northside Family Child Development Center. Known as Day Nursery - Northside Center, Day Nursery provided child care in the same facility, leased from the owner. In 1995, Day Nursery purchased the facility and renovated it in 1996, maintaining capacity at 90 children. Due to continued problems with the building, it was closed in 2000.

Day Nursery assumed operation of a center caring for 90 children in the Minton-Capehart Federal building in May 1991. The center is now known as Day Nursery - Federal Center.