What to ask/look for at daycare centers?

[momma_boo]

We are "in the market" for a new daycare. The girls have been going to a wonderful home daycare provider who is going to retire after the summer so now we need to find a daycare for them.

We've already been to one so far to check it out. We asked the standard questions about various policies, background checks, security procedures.

What are some other things that I should ask/look for?

One thing that I realized after our tour was that instead of just looking at the classrooms, I should have taken a close look at their toys, books, etc to see the condition of them. I also thought I should ask about their cleaning procedures for the classrooms, toys, etc.

What else am I not thinking of?

Ugh. This is not fun. I'll have to do some searching for ideas on breakfast and lunch since I'll have to start packing them as well. One of the benefits of the home provider was that she cooked 3 meals a day for the kids every day. I was so spoiled.

[juliasmom05]

Here are a few. Although these may have been included in your standard questions about various policies.

-What is the typical day like (what sorts of activities do they do?, outdoor time?, play gym time?, is it child-directed?, teacher directed?
-what types of learning opportunites are provided?
-what happens if child is sick?
-teacher turnover rate
-what types of communication exists between parents and teachers. Are there daily logs, etc, teacher/parent conferences?
-Can parents come and visit at any time?
-how do they discipline?
-If they provide snacks, what are they?
-What opportunites are there for parent involvement?
-How do they handle toilet training? (not sure if that is an issue for you)

Good luck.

Marci

[Jen841]

Our daycare DOES serve meals and snacks (Kindercare.)

These may be things you alreay have asked, but they come to the front of my mind...

I would ask about siblings, when and if they will be mixed. If my kids are having a bad day a visit with their brother helps and the teachers will make it happen.

Ask about "school" programs... my son does preschool at the daycare and will most likely do Kindergarten too (one of the few full day programs.) Also ask about "extras" i.e. My Gym, Karate, ComputerTots,... that come to the center that you can choose to participate in or not.

Vacation time- ours allows for 2 weeks 1/2 rate per year.

School closures- we have an in-service day year year (Columbus Day.)

Babysitting policy- My friend signed something that she can not ask teachers to babysit, for me the teachers are my best source of sitters b/c they know my kids.

Summer Programs- here "camp" is a big deal, find out what is summer vs rest of the year program

Typical times to move classrooms (age vs time of year in waves.)

What does the daycare provide vs you (our school NOW provides Formula (Nestle Goodstart) and wipes

Sleeping arrangements... you may need to buy a cot mat (JcPenny's has them)

We are on our 3rd center in 4 years (moves). I LOVE where we are. They just became Kindercare (vs. Children's World) so we'll see what changes happen. So far so good.

[mommy111]

Food and snacks (biggie for me)
Facilities (what is the gym like, outdoor garden, toddler pool etc)
Student/teacher ratio (again, biggie here)
Does your state do some kind of grading/ranking and where does your daycare fall on the system
What is the student's typical day
What happens at naptime...is there a designated naptime? If not, and children are put to sleep at different times, is there a separate nap room
Teacher certification
Meet your kiddies' teachers and watch how they interact with the other students. see if you like what you see. our daycare is fabulous and everyone there loves it, but its not touchy feely at all, and, quite frankly, I want DD hugged and held and kissed so I don't love it. For parents who don't like that, its an ideal environment. For me, I feel its cold.
HTH

[Bean606]

Some of the things we looked for were as follows:

Policies on taking the children out in good weather (we wanted DS to get some fresh air on nice days, and our day care takes them out to the park in big strollers every day if the temperature is above a certain degree - I think it is 65)

Caretaker to child ratio (it should be 4:1 or less), and how many shift changes are there? There is a very low ratio at our day care center, but there are different people in the morning than in the afternoon. I didn't know that when we signed up, and although it isn't enough to remove him from the day care, I am not crazy about that arrangement.

Policy on visits from parents - we are allowed to show up at any time and do, but I recall one day care center saying they preferred if we didn't visit during certain times when the other children might be napping. We wanted full access all the time!

What kinds of enrichment activities do they do? Dancing, music, art, etc.?

What are their policies on biting, hitting, etc. At our day care, they work with the parents, but after three incidents of biting, they reserve the right to kick the child out. We haven't had any incidents with DS's class, so I don't know how I feel about it -- I guess it would depend if my child is the biter or the bitee!

What are their policies if you are late to pick up? Ours reserves the right to kick you out if you are late more than three times a semester. They also charge exorbitant fees for late pick up.

Good luck!

[smzapalac]

When we were looking, the most important things to us were:
- Safety/security; locked doors, emergency procedures, student/parent I.D.s, security cameras (web cams to view the classrooms), etc.
- Student/Teacher ratio
- Teacher turnover rate
- No violations
- Accredited school
- Teacher background checks made available to parents
- How often classrooms and items in the classrooms are cleaned
- How they work with my child potty training
- Discipline procedures for all students
- Summer programs available
- Foreign language and music/arts taught
- What schools the kids typically went to after they left the program

We also monitored a class and brought our DD in to each school we looked at. Ultimately we choose a class that she really liked and that met all of our criteria.

Good luck to you. It is such a big decision. I hope it goes well for you and your child.