If you work at CalPERS HQ, you qualify for the deepest tuition discount we offer.

The deepest discount we offer, the lowest tuition we publish.

Growing Mindfully publishes three tuition tiers. The VIP Rate is the lowest of the three and is exclusive to families employed at one of the five neighbor buildings. CalPERS at 400 Q Street is one of them. The rate applies to every age band and every schedule we offer.

Why CalPERS families choose us, not the on-site option.

CalPERS has expanded its headquarters complex with on-site amenities, including a daycare facility serving preschool-age children. Many of our CalPERS families consider both. Three reasons most choose us, especially in the early years.

Infants from six weeks. We run a true infant program with a 1:3 staffing target. California's state minimum is 1:4. Infant rooms here are quiet, RIE-informed, and built around responsive caregiving. Returning from parental leave with a six-week-old is one of the hardest weeks of a state-worker parent's life. We've built the program for that week.

Mindfulness, woven through the day. Mindfulness practice begins at six weeks. Not as a curriculum bolted on top of preschool, but as the way we move through every transition, every conflict, every snack. For families whose work is high-stakes and slow-paced, the early scaffolding to notice, breathe, name, and pause matters.

Lunch visits genuinely work. A short walk from Lincoln Plaza. Some of our CalPERS parents nurse on lunch hour, then head back for a 1:30 board prep. The school was built so this is normal, not extraordinary.

We built the school so a parent can lunch with their infant
and still make a 1:30 hearing.

Three steps. Done at enrollment, not on the application.

VIP eligibility is simple to verify. We don't ask you to prove anything when you apply to the waitlist, just mention CalPERS in your application. Verification happens at enrollment, when you're signing tuition paperwork.

If your hire date is after the waitlist application but before enrollment, that's fine, we verify on the day you sign tuition paperwork, not the day you apply.

What drop-off looks like for a CalPERS parent.

You leave home with your child by 6:50. You park at Lincoln Plaza and make the short walk up toward N Street. Drop-off opens at 7:00 sharp. The handoff is unhurried by design, RIE-paced, no rushed goodbyes, and you can be at your desk for the 7:30 stand-up.

Mid-day, if you're nursing or just want to sit with your infant for ten minutes, you walk back. Pick-up runs through 6:00 PM, which gives you a real cushion for late agenda items, a board meeting that runs long, or a pension-related call from Sacramento Bee that lands at 5:15. We've held an infant past 5:45 more times than we can count, without anyone losing their cool.