The best daycare for a commuting parent isn't the one with the fanciest lobby — it's the one that doesn't add twenty minutes to your morning. Newport Ave Preschool sits at 13682 Newport Avenue, directly off the I-5 Newport Avenue exit, about five minutes from The Market Place and four from Tustin High. If your day runs on the 5 or the 55, this is the drop-off that isn't a detour.
Key takeaways
- A cross-town daycare stop typically adds ~20 minutes each way; an on-route stop adds under five.
- We open at 6:30 AM and run to 6:00 PM — built for parents who need to be on the freeway by 6:45.
- Old Town, Tustin Ranch, North Tustin, and the Irvine/Santa Ana borders all reach us in about 10 minutes or less.
- One campus covers 18 months through private kindergarten — siblings mean one stop, not two.
Why does drop-off location matter more than parents expect?
Because it repeats ~250 times a year, each way. A daycare that adds 20 minutes per direction costs a commuting household roughly 165 hours annually — four full work-weeks of driving. Choosing on-route instead of across-town is the single largest quality-of-life decision in the childcare search, and almost nobody ranks schools by it.
How fast can you actually get here?
From most of Tustin, under ten minutes on surface streets — and the campus sits before the freeway, so the stop happens on the way, not against traffic.
Heading south on the 5 toward Irvine's business corridor? Exit Newport Avenue, drop off, and you're back on the on-ramp in under ten minutes total. Parents in Irvine and Santa Ana routinely find us faster than options in their own zip code. preschool near Irvine
What makes a drop-off actually fast?
Three things, all boring and all decisive: on-site parking (we have a dedicated lot — no street-parking circling), a secure single-entry check-in that takes under two minutes, and hours with margin. We open 6:30 AM and close 6:00 PM, so an early meeting or a late 5 backup doesn't trigger penalty fees.
Hot breakfast is served to early arrivals, cooked on-site and included in tuition (from $175/week) — so a 6:40 drop-off doesn't require a drive-through stop first. what tuition includes
Frequently asked questions
Where exactly are you relative to the I-5?
13682 Newport Avenue, Tustin — a few hundred yards from the I-5 Newport Avenue exit, on the Market Place side. Free on-site parking; drop-off typically takes under five minutes door to door.
What are your hours for early commuters?
Monday–Friday, 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Breakfast is included for early arrivals, and there's no early-hours surcharge — the schedule is the schedule.
Do you serve families outside Tustin?
Constantly — Irvine, Santa Ana, Orange, and North Tustin families use us precisely because we sit on their commute. About a third of our families live outside Tustin proper. preschool near Santa Ana
Can siblings of different ages do one drop-off?
Yes — we run programs from 18 months through private kindergarten on one campus, so a toddler and a TK-age sibling are one stop, one check-in, one goodbye.
Test the route yourself: call (714) 730-3424 and book a 7 AM tour — drive it exactly as you would on a workday.