This post was updated Oct. 4 at 11:37 p.m.

UCLA’s childcare centers are projected to incur a year-end budget deficit of $9.1 million ahead of their June 2027 closure, according to financial statements reviewed by the Daily Bruin.

UCLA’s Early Care and Education centers, which primarily serve the children of UCLA faculty and students, will close in June 2027 because of budget issues, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt announced in an August email to parents.

[Related: UCLA childcare program, which faced 2024 sex abuse case, to close amid budget deficit]

The university initially projected that ECE’s accumulated deficit would be $8.6 million by June 2027, but the figure was adjusted to include food service costs, a UCLA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

ECE planned to stop offering food, formula and diapers for children to cut costs amid a budget deficit, Executive Director Tashon McKeithan announced in an April email to parents. However, ECE reversed the decision five days after dozens of parents protested outside Chancellor Julio Frenk’s residence.

[Related: UCLA Early Care and Education admin announce reinstated food, formula programs]

Auyon Siddiq, an ECE parent, said he would prefer that ECE cut its food service programs if doing so would ensure the survival of UCLA’s childcare programs.

“A lot of the parents are pretty realistic,” Siddiq said. “We know that if there’s any chance of keeping the daycares open, it’ll probably come back in the leaner form.”

ECE’s projected operating expenses for the 2026-27 academic year are about $10.2 million, according to the documents. Parent tuition accounts for more than $6.2 million in revenue, and remaining costs are paid by the university, state funding and student fees, the documents said.

The childcare centers’ financial difficulties come as UCLA experiences broader budgetary woes. UCLA had a year-end budget deficit of $58 million for the 2025-26 academic year, down from its initial projections of $220 million, Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a September campuswide email.

[Related: Frenk says UCLA’s year-end budget deficit is significantly smaller than expected]

The $58 million figure only applies to UCLA’s central account – which includes state funding, tuition and facilities and administrative costs for research – and does not cover the deficit across all campus departments, Frenk added in the email. UCLA Media Relations did not respond to questions about why Frenk’s estimate was more than $160 million lower than an estimate made in March.

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

Siddiq said ECE is a cheaper alternative than other childcare options for working parents, such as hiring a nanny. As a UCLA affiliate, ECE tuition costs about $3,300 for infants and $3,000 for toddlers.

He added that the university should see childcare as an investment, rather than an expense.

“The fundamental disagreement I would have with the administration is the idea of looking at a childcare center as something that necessarily should break even in the same way that a business would,” Siddiq said.

He added that UCLA should follow the footsteps of other universities, such as UC Santa Cruz, which has committed $17.5 million since 2024 to expand its childcare capacity, according to a UCLA Faculty Association report.

Russell Sontay, the Bruin Parenting Scholars co-chair, said he is worried that other private childcare programs will not accept state subsidies. The California Departments of Education and Social Services provide tuition subsidies for low-income families at ECE based on their family size and yearly income.

Sontay, a fourth-year Chicana, Chicano and Central American studies student, added that his child was denied enrollment at ECE this year after UCLA announced the centers’ closure.

Undergraduate Students Association Council President Jayha Buhs Jackson said she believes the university should invest more funding in UCLA childcare services, which she said could make a larger impact on students in comparison to other departments, such as UCLA Athletics.

“Because they’re not getting transparent on what those cuts are and how they’re coming to those decisions, and not practicing shared governance, I don’t know if I could say I’m happy about it,” Buhs Jackson said.

ECE’s operating costs represent a small portion of the university’s budget, Sontay said.

Sontay and Buhs Jackson said UCLA should work to find alternative funding sources.

“It has to be an investment,” Sontay said. “Don’t even think of it as ‘How can we make money off of it?’ How can we take these childcare centers and treat them as part of our mission for equity?”