Angela Toy, center, holds her 2-month-old son, Andrew, as she waits in a line that snaked around the new Tutor Time child-care center. Registration opened on Saturday morning.

DAVID SANDERS / Arizona Daily Star

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Shaleta Robinson was up at 3:30 a.m. Saturday so she could be among the first in line to register her 2-year-old son for a space at the Tucson area's splashy new Tutor Time child-care facility.

She wasn't alone. By 6:30 a.m., there were about 60 families, armed with Starbucks coffee, folding chairs and reading materials, in a line that snaked around the side of the sprawling 20,000-square-foot complex at West River Road and North La Cholla Boulevard, on the Northwest Side.

And they kept coming. By opening, there were about 100.

Robinson, a 33-year-old audiologist, said there are few choices in child care near her home in the far Northwest Side's Dove Mountain development — especially for quality care with a strong educational component. She's willing to make the 25-minute daily drive based in part on a recommendation from a friend who was familiar with the Phoenix Tutor Time locations.

"I had heard that they're really at the top of their game," said Robinson, who said she was looking for stability and experience in the teaching staff, combined with safety and academics.

"The expectations for children are very high," she said. "Even going into kindergarten, it's very different from the kindergarten we attended. Kids need structure early."

With 419 slots for kids ages 6 weeks to 12 years, the new center is among the largest in the Tucson area.

Center Director Jacki Gabrey said the center had 800 inquiries before it opened. Gabrey estimated that 40 percent of her teachers have at least a bachelor's degree — the state requires only a high school diploma. The center has a curriculum specialist on staff to work directly with the 45 teachers.

"People are excited because of the whole package we provide — an amazing curriculum delivered by highly qualified staff in a state-of-the-art facility."

Gabrey would not disclose specific prices but said costs at Tutor Time are competitive with those of other child-care centers in the area. Tutor Time will be open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The center certainly has a "wow" factor.

There's a media room for preschool children, where they can do mock newscasts or record themselves performing skits or plays, and then watch on one of five flat-screen televisions mounted on the wall.

There's a science room for experiments, as well as a New York village, with little rooms set aside for a market, a police station and a deli, where teachers will have pupils do role-playing to boost their social skills.

A 5,000-gallon saltwater fish tank is the centerpiece of the rotunda, and there are built-in fish tanks elsewhere.

Children start on computers when they're 2 1/2 years old.

Outside, there's a putting green and misters to cool the tykes off on hot days. There's no gravel to be found — just rubberized foam, stamped concrete and turf.

Those amenities aren't what drew 51-year-old Craig Burns, an airline consultant, to join Robinson in the early morning waiting line to make sure he could secure a space for Genna, a sleepy 3-year-old curled into his lap.

"The quality of care is the biggest part of it, so we did a lot of research to make sure it's well-thought-of and well-managed," he said.

Burns said academics are important, but he's hoping that Genna will develop other skills as well. "She's an only child, and it's going to be very important for her to have that social interaction with other children."

Even so, what does it say that parents are willing to wait in line in the early dawn to obtain a space? Despite roughly 400 day-care centers and 400 home providers in Pima County, there remains a need for high-quality child care, said Leah Eckley, director of Child Care Resource and Referral.

She said some areas are worse off than others. The East Side doesn't have enough providers to meet the demand. It's the same with the Northwest Side, with its high numbers of young families. And the Southeast Side has been notoriously short on choices, Eckley said.

A recent survey undertaken in the Vail area showed that 75 percent of those surveyed said they experienced a delay in getting their children into child care, with one respondent saying she was told the wait could be a year.

Eckley said the opening of the new facility is a positive.

"There is a need for more variety. When you have more options, you can shop around, and ultimately that builds up quality," she said.

Also eager to check out the facility was Gaye Lynn Fisher, a senior educator with Hands on Quality, a collaborative effort that helps child-care centers improve quality by obtaining national accreditation.

As a former preschool director, Fisher suggests that good questions for parents to ask would be about indicators of quality, from teacher education level to staff ratios, the daily curriculum and how open the facility is to visits from parents.

"I always encourage parents to come at different times of the day," Fisher said. "Catch them before lunch, when the kids are cranky, or after naps, when the kids are half asleep, or when it's crazy at drop-off. I would just encourage parents to become more educated themselves."