Amiro, 3, squeals when his mom picks him up from day care, running to her, showing off acorns he found on the playground and a painting he worked on that day.

His mom Lorena Salinas is a pre-nursing student at Palo Alto College. She doesn’t have to go far to pick her son up after class — he’s on campus too.

This August, PAC opened up three Head Start classrooms at the Ray Ellis Family Center after losing a federal grant for campus-based child care services.

Head Start is a federally funded program that provides free early childhood education for low-income families and children with special needs. It’s also how PAC was able to keep offering early childhood services on campus.

Salinas, 27, enrolled at PAC during the spring, using a drop-in service the college offered to student parents

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