Our Enrollment Policy

GCDC requires membership for all families before your scheduled tour. To become a member and establish your membership date, families must submit a completed membership form along with the non-refundable fee.   

While anyone can become a member, only the parents, legal guardians or grandparents (hereinafter “Parents”) of a child(ren) are eligible to have their child(ren) placed on the GCDC enrollment list.

Membership fees are not applicable towards registration, deposit or tuition. Membership fees must be paid on an annual basis while any child(ren) are on the waiting list or are enrolled at GCDC. Failure to pay annual membership fee will result in a cancellation of membership at GCDC. Members who allow their membership to lapse will have their membership date modified to reflect that date membership was re-established.

GCDC is not open to the public, but the following groups of individuals are allowed to enroll:

  • Siblings of currently enrolled children have priority
  • Children of GSFC Civil Servants
  • Children of GSFC Contractors
  • Grandchildren of GSFC Civil Servants
  • NOAA Contractors, Civil Servants from other Federal Agencies and The University of Maryland College Park

Because spaces are often contingent upon the withdrawal of a currently enrolled family, the availability of space for new enrollees is often unknown until GCDC receives a family’s withdrawal notice. We require two weeks’ notice for all withdrawals.

Children will not be offered a space unless they are age-eligible to enroll. When space becomes available, GCDC will offer the space to the next age-eligible child using our waitlist priority system. Families who are offered a space have two business days to either accept or decline the space. Parents may reject an offer two times with no penalty. After the second declination, GCDC will move the child’s name to the end of the priority list for which the family is eligible. Upon accepting a space, Parents must pay the non-refundable registration fees and deposit. The deposit is two weeks of tuition for the classroom in which the child is enrolling. Families must pay these fees within two business days of acceptance. Tuition deposits will be  applied to the first 2 weeks of enrollment.  

Regular tuition payments must begin by the established start date. It is GCDC’s policy that a start date cannot be more than two weeks after acceptance of the space. Families cannot change the start date.  ​