Google’s day-care centers closing in favor of expanded parental benefits

For the past several years, four Google Children’s Centers have operated in the San Francisco Bay Area. These Google-run day-care centers will be closing next year, but the company is expanding its parental benefits so that more employees, especially those around the world, can partake.

At the moment, 300 parents in the Bay Area use this particular benefit, which was introduced in 2008 when Google had 20,000 employees. Annual entry is determined by a lottery system and those selected pay a tuition with only some subsidy from the company. This school year, which ends August 2024, will be the last one for these Google facilities.

The company is helping those existing families find new day-care centers, while those working at the four Google Children’s Centers will receive an exit package that includes outplacement services.

Google says it will “reinvest” those resources into expanded parental benefits that more employees, currently 182,000, can use. For starters, the company’s emergency backup care benefit — where parents can find a caregiver at a Google-subsidized rate on short notice — is being updated so parents can use providers in their own personal network for 10 out of 20 days. This particular perk is available to all full-time, part-time, and fixed-term staff.  

• Related: Google building more employee ‘Wellness Centers’ for on-campus healthcare

The company is also increasing global fertility benefits starting next year. This joins how Google offers 24 weeks of paid maternity leave, 18 weeks of baby bonding, and 8 weeks of carer’s leave.

“We’ve made the difficult choice to close our Google-operated childcare centers at the end of this school year (August 2024) which offered about 300 enrollment spots to parents who paid tuition in the Bay Area. We’re grateful for the hard work of our staff and educators, who have done a wonderful job supporting Google parents and families. We’ll provide faculty with assistance and resources and a generous package – including outplacement services to help them find their next job.

For parents, we are providing expert support to help them find alternative childcare, as well as additional subsidized days of backup child care on top of our existing benefit.

This allows us to reinvest in enhancing our parental leave experience globally, which already includes 24 weeks of paid parental leave, 18 weeks of baby bonding, 8 weeks of carer’s leave, and 20 significantly subsidized days of backup child care per year.” 

-Ryan Lamont, Google spokesperson

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