Wisconsin’s first Islamic childcare center marks 10th anniversary, earns high-quality rating and continues legacy of service to refugee families

Enter Crescent Learning Center, 801 W. Layton Ave., Milwaukee, and you’ll see a Qur’an prominently displayed in the foyer. Women wearing hijabs circulate.

High ceilings, large rooms and natural light from skylights and windows, along with walls of turquoise, orange, blue, pink and green, give the center a cheery atmosphere.

“As soon as you enter, you will know this is a Muslim daycare,” said Rafat Arain, founder and director of Wisconsin’s first Islamic childcare center and the only one officially registered as Muslim childcare in Wisconsin. It serves a variety of Milwaukee refugee communities, Muslim families and others seeking quality care in a multicultural environment.

Crescent Learning Center marked its 10th year in 2021. It also recently earned a four-out-of-five-star rating from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. In an interview Thursday with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Arain shared the 25-year story of this unique childcare center, which originated as a way to serve refugees resettled in Milwaukee.
Inside Wisconsin’s first Muslim childcare center

Crescent Learning Center is in the heart of Milwaukee’s Muslim community, near the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Salam School and many Muslim-owned businesses on Milwaukee’s Southside.

The 7,500-square-foot center is licensed to provide care for up to 114 children (94 during the day and 20 in evening hours), ages 6 weeks to 14 years old, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Currently 80 children and babies are enrolled, down a bit since the pandemic began, Arain said. Also, evening hours have been shortened to 8 p.m.

Its location is attractive to Milwaukee’s ethnically diverse Muslim community, including students from the Salam School who need after-school care and refugees from a variety of ethnicities who have resettled in the area. About 80% of Crescent’s students are refugees, she said.

“Being next to Salam School is a plus, especially for refugee children who don’t know English well,” Arain said. “They can come here where we have teachers qualified as afterschool teachers who can help them with their homework.”

Its diverse staff includes Palestinians, Egyptians, Indians, Pakistanis, Moroccans, Burmese, Somalis, Rohingya and African Americans, including teachers who can support students who speak Arabic, Somali, Burmese, Urdu and French, in addition to English.

The 20-person staff is made up of a lead and assistant teacher for each of five classrooms, a driver, a cook and people in food production, a dishwasher, cleaning staff, an assistant administrator and a newsletter editor. Evening staff is different from day-time staff.

Crescent Learning Center participates in the rigorous voluntary Wisconsin Department of Children and Families’ YoungStar quality rating program, which includes monitoring and inspections that measure providers’ education and training, the learning environment and curriculum, the program’s professional and business practices, and how the program impacts children’s health and wellbeing. Crescent’s four-star rating indicates “an elevated level of care.”