Enrollment

Each Joyful Noise center maintains its own waiting list and schedules tours on specific days of the week. Please contact the director of the center you are interested in for information about waiting lists and to schedule tours.

Downtown – Email Ashley Lawrence
Eastside – Email Patty Strobel
MetroKids – Email Courtney Zeggert
CityKids – Email Valerie Morlan

For full contact information for each center, please visit OUR CENTERS.

Application process

Take a tour: Contact the center director for an appointment. You will be given an opportunity to see the facility, ask questions and put your name on the waiting list.

Waiting List: There is a considerable wait to get into each center. Families are advised to take a tour and get on the waiting list at their earliest convenience. Each center is sponsored by a local municipality as a means of serving the needs of their employees. We prioritize their respective employees on our waiting list followed by the general public. There is a $40 waiting list fee. As openings occur, you will be contacted and offered a space.

Foster Families: In response to children in crisis in need of a temporary, safe and healthy home, we have prioritized sponsoring agency’s employees who are, or want to become, foster parent’s on our waiting lists at every center.

Tuition Assistance

Joyful Noise centers qualify to receive financial resources for low-income families through the State of Oregon and provide our own assistance as well. Depending on your family’s income, you could be eligible for 1, 2 or 3 of these programs and receive a great deal of tuition relief cumulatively.

Employer Related Day Care (ERDC) is a State program that helps eligible low-income parents pay for child care so they can work. If the parent is eligible for assistance, DHS will pay a portion of their child care bill directly to the family’s chosen provider through the Direct Pay Unit (DPU) in Salem. www.oregon.gov/DHS/Assistance/Child-Care/Pages/Parents.aspx

The Community Childcare Initiative (CCI). CCI is funded by the Portland Children’s Levy and is an opportunity for qualifying child care facilities to receive financial resources for low-income families and create a stable income base by promoting continuity of care for families at 200% of poverty or below. For an application and general information, go to www.CCRR-MC.org. Click on “Families” then “Paying for Child Care.” Families need to apply for ERDC assistance first. If a family has applied for ERDC and have been denied for being over income, but they fall into the 186-200% bracket of income then they pay 15% of their income for child care and the grant pays the difference.

Joyful Noise Tuition Assistance Programs: Joyful Noise Child Development Centers have two assistance programs available at each of its four centers: an Emergency Tuition Assistance Program and the Long Term Tuition Assistance Program. The purpose of these programs is to help families keep their children enrolled in our program during times of financial hardship. The long term program is available to help qualified applicants defray up to 30% of tuition costs. You do not need to have applied for ERDC or CCI monies to receive help from us, but you can use this money in conjunction with the other funds if you qualify.

Emergency Tuition Assistance Program (ETAP)
The ETAP is designed to provide short-term tuition assistance to families who experience emergencies. For the purposes of ETAP, “emergencies” are generally defined as events that cause a financial hardship for a short time period and result in an inability to pay your child’s tuition.

Long-term Tuition Assistance Program (LTAP)
The LTAP serves a dual purpose: to supplement state assistance for families that qualify; and to assist families whose income does not qualify for state assistance but who earn less than 100% of median income for the Portland area. Eligibility is determined utilizing both gross household income and household size.

Holidays and Vacation

The centers close for the following holidays and in-service dates in 20232:

• New Years Day
• Martin Luther King Day
• Presidents’ Day
• Memorial Day
• Juneteenth
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Indigenous People’s Day 
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving and the following Friday
• Winter Break: December 25th — January 1st

In-service – The Thursday and Friday before Labor Day weekend.
August 31st and September 1st, 2023. No credit is given for the holidays listed or for vacation time taken by the enrolled child’s family.