The University of Minnesota announced Tuesday that it will expand its child care options after it was evaluated by a 20-member, campus-wide advisory committee.

As part of the expansion, the Shirley G. Moore Lab School and the Child Development Center will be combined into one academically-rooted program, according to an email statement from President Eric Kaler sent to the University community.

“It will use existing CDC curriculum, while providing greater flexibility for families through both full-day and part-day options,” Kaler said in the statement. 

The new integrated school will be able to care for more students than the existing sites. In the future, the University hopes to offer sites on or near the East and West Bank campuses, as well as in St. Paul, according to the statement.

The Provost’s Child Care Advisory Committee, which influenced the proposed changes to the child care center, used “peer benchmarking, historical context and data, and campus community feedback to inform its work,” the statement said. 

The University announced plans to close the Child Development Center in January, a decision that was met with backlash from students, faculty and the local community. The University then announced that it would postpone the closure in February.