L.A. loses 450 child care spots
Hollywood’s downturn and UCLA’s exit from the market leave parents facing $4,000 monthly costs for infant care in a shrinking market.
By Jessica Abebe ·
Los Angeles faces a severe shortage of licensed child care for young children. The gap has widened as two major institutions on the city’s Westside shut down their early childhood programs this year.
The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation Children’s Center will close in November. Operators cited the entertainment industry’s financial slump and the shift of four-year-olds to free transitional kindergarten programs as primary drivers. The center, which served industry workers for over 30 years, will lose its current enrollment of 49 children. Bright Horizons, the for-profit chain operating the site, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund stated that corporate subsidies for the center exceeded $300,000 in 2026.
UCLA announced in late 2025 that it would close its two early childhood centers in June 2026. The university said it needed to concentrate resources on higher education goals, noting that serving staff and student children was no longer sustainable. UCLA also ended its lease with the University Preschool Nursery School on campus. The university reported a $7.5 million deficit for the centers. Despite letters from Mayor Karen Bass and Assemblymember Sade Elhawary urging the university to reconsider, officials told parents the decision is final.
These closures eliminate more than 450 licensed spots for young children, according to California records. More than 100 of those slots were designated for infants. Los Angeles County currently has enough licensed capacity to serve only 4% of children under age 2. A UC Berkeley report found that the city lost more than 12,000 spaces for three- and four-year-olds between 2014 and 2024. Nearly 500 licensed providers in the county disappeared between 2021 and 2023.
Families are now paying steep prices for the remaining openings. Jillian Griffith, whose four-year-old attends the Goldwyn center, pays $3,233 per month for her 21-month-old. Krystal Kendall, a UCLA manager, pays $3,300 per month. A nearby Bright Horizons location charges $4,000 per month for a one-year-old. The average cost of full-time child care in the county is about 17% of the median household income. Families earning more than $116,000 annually for a household of four generally do not qualify for state subsidies.
The loss of these centers disrupts established routines for hundreds of families. Lindsay Flinn, a senior production executive, described the Goldwyn closure as a dark signal for the local industry. Roei Eisenberg, whose two-year-old attends the center, said his son’s friends are the first people he mentions. Parents were directed to alternative sites or offered sessions with a child care navigator, though some described the guidance as limited in practical value.
Donna Sneeringer, president of the Child Care Resource Center, called the market a failure of economics. She stated that the cost of providing service exceeds what consumers can afford without public intervention. Ann Markowitz, an assistant professor of education at UCLA, noted that child care is often the first budget item cut when funds tighten. The federal government has not passed new legislation to lower these costs.
