UCLA’s Early Care and Education centers reversed a decision to discontinue meals, diapers and formula for children, administrators announced to parents Sunday.

The reinstatement of UCLA ECE’s services came after Tashon McKeithan, ECE’s executive director, announced April 16 that ECE would eliminate its food service program and stop providing diapers and formula starting July 1 to cut costs amid UCLA’s budget deficit. The ECE centers provide child care for UCLA community members, including faculty, staff and students.

The cuts to ECE’s programs sparked concern among parents, leading them and their children to protest outside Chancellor Julio Frenk’s residence Tuesday morning. The protesters – who held signs reading, “Little Bruins need snacks” – called on UCLA to provide more funding for ECE.

[Related: UCLA child care centers cut food for children, raise tuition amid budget deficit]

UCLA ECE reinstated the services after receiving feedback from parents through messages and meetings, said Georgia Ann Lazo, the associate dean of University Partnership Schools, and McKeithan in a Sunday email to families.

“We are committed to sustaining direct supports to children while continuing to assess and manage ECE resources responsibly,” Lazo and McKeithan said in the email.

McKeithan said in the April 16 email that the childcare centers will also raise tuition by 4% for the 2026-27 academic year and pause hiring for vacant positions. Lazo said in a Monday emailed statement that UCLA ECE did not have updates regarding its decision to raise tuition and pause hiring.

Multiple UCLA departments have faced budget cuts because of a university-wide deficit, which was projected to be $220 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, said Reem Hanna-Harwell, UCLA’s interim chief financial officer, in a March 26 email announcement.

Hanna-Harwell announced the estimate more than a month after Stephen Agostini, UCLA’s former CFO, told the Daily Bruin that the university had a $425 million annual budget deficit, which he attributed to university administrators’ financial mismanagement. Hanna-Harwell said in her email that Agostini’s estimate was misleading, as it included spending requests that the university had not yet approved.

Frenk announced in a Feb. 17 campuswide email that Agostini was out as CFO four days after The Bruin published his allegations.

[Related: Interim CFO says UCLA’s budget deficit is markedly lower than previous estimates]

UCLA ECE closed the Fernald Center – one of its two on-campus locations – on Sept. 1. Budget issues led to the center’s closure, said Tina Christie, the dean of the School of Education and Information Studies, and Lazo in a March 2025 email obtained by the Daily Bruin.

After ECE announced the Fernald Center would close, a teacher at the center alleged that three employees at the Krieger Center, now UCLA’s only on-campus childcare center, had been dismissed in early 2025 for child abuse. A UCLA spokesperson at the time confirmed to The Bruin that the employees were no longer employed by ECE but declined to comment further on the matter.

Auyon Siddiq, an ECE parent, said while he was satisfied with administrators’ decision to restore ECE’s meal and formula programs, he is concerned about the long-term stability of the childcare centers’ financial situation.

The childcare centers also received backlash from families after Christopher Rodriguez, a teacher at ECE, was arrested for child sexual abuse in 2024 and sentenced in June to seven years in jail.

Rodriguez, who filed to appeal his conviction, was later released on bond, but did not show up to a scheduled court appearance. Families alleged that UCLA ECE did not update them on Rodriguez’s failure to appear in court.

[Related: ECE parents say UCLA isn’t updating them on ex-teacher convicted of sexual abuse]

Siddiq, an associate professor in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, added that he believes ECE administrators have not been transparent enough with parents – both about Rodriguez and the budget situation.

“It really does not inspire a lot of confidence in how they make decisions, how they consult to make decisions,” he said. “It’s a black box to us. We don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.”

UCLA ECE is open to fostering open dialogue with parents, Lazo and McKeithan said in the Sunday email.

“We heard clearly that these supports are central to many families’ daily routines and peace of mind,” they said in the email.