Important questions to ask potential daycares?

Question

What are some important questions to ask potential daycares when making your decision? Here are a few I've thought of:
1. What is your breast milk policy/ procedure?
2. What vaccines are required of children at your center?
3. What training does your staff get?
4. Are staff vaccinated for pertussis?
5. What is your infant: staff ratio?
6. What are your hours?
7. When are parents called/ notified of any concerns?
8. Do you offer monthly contracts?
9. What is your policy on cry it out?
10. What is your discipline policy?
11. What daily updates/ reports do parents get?
12. What is a typical day like for infants? (Any activities? Reading, music, outside time, etc.)
13. Can parents call the classroom for updates or to speak directly with the teacher?
14. Do you have family events or ways for parents to be involved? 
15. Does your center have a religious affiliation?

What else??

Answer

How often do they do background checks on their employees...just the one time or on going.

Answer

I have found that it is really important to know the classroom ratios. In the state of AZ, the infant ratio is 5 to 1. That means 5 babies under the age of 1 to 1 adult. That is insane to me. The place we are taking our little one to has a 2 to 1 ratio.

Answer

How do they handle children who bite? Good daycares will ask the parents to withdraw the biting kid until the problem is corrected.

Answer

Hi,

Great list. I've been thinking of a few myself:

- what's your social media policy? (Some day cares just post pictures of kids on their Facebook pages, in one day care contract I even read that once you signed a contract with them, they had the right to use your children's images for ads, without having to ask for our consent first!) I want to be asked first of someone may/may not publish a picture of my kid. Most of those Facebook pages are open to the public.

- what's the extr your rate (in case you are late for the pick up)

- what kind of meals/ snacks do they serve to the kids?

- do the kids play in horizontal (same age) or vertical (different ages or usually 0-4) groups?

- do you need to pay per hour/ day/ month? What's the cancellation policy?

- how do the sleeping facilities look like? (I'm in Holland and a lot of day cares here put kids to sleep outside, even when it's freezing or snowing outside. I don't want that for my kid, it might work for Scandinavian kids but if sleeping in the cold was so good for you then why don't we all sleep outside when it's freezing?

- do they have reports from (governmental) authorities staring their score after inspections?

- what methodology do they apply at their day care?

- do you need to bring your own formula, diapers and etc or is it provided by the day care? If provided, which brand? If you don't agree with the brand, can you use a different one (at an extra cost for ex.)?

This is all I can add, I think you already covered a lot!

C

Answer

I've never done daycare but I would make sure that you and other people you ok (family/friends) can drop in and see your kid at any time unannounced. My friend has her son in daycare and they seem to have something like that cause her sis will randomly go see him. If a place wasn't comfortable with that I wouldn't be comfortable with it cause that would make me feel like they have something to hide. The big reason I'd rather be a sahm then try to work and have someone else watch my kids (daycare or single person) is the fear of something happening to them (abuse of any kind).

Answer

I work in a daycare and most of your list should be covered in any tour of a facility. You should also be able to contact your department of human services to receive a book of licensing requirements for daycare facilities in your area.

Over all you have some great questions!

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Just fyi if you're in the us they can not disqualify a child who's claiming vac exemptions.

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I would also ask about their sick policy. Starting daycare or nursery exposes your child to a wealth of colds/viruses, etc. It's good to know what they expect of you (and the other parents!) if your child vomits or has a fever. You may be required to arrange ASAP pick-up and/or keep your child at home for 24-48 hrs depending. Worth knowing beforehand!

Answer

Ask about safety and people coming in. Also ask about curriculum and how they work on your child's development. You want to pick somewhere your child will be at first a while so curriculum and potty training are good questions to go ahead and ask about now.

Answer

I work at a daycare with infants and toddlers actually.  One question to ask is how often toys and cribs etc get cleaned and with what.  Germs spread like crazy at daycare.  As far as breast feeding goes, we allow mom's to come in at any part of the day and feed their little one.  We even have a little quiet room for it.  One thing to make sure of is that the daycare doesn't allow the teachers to microwave the breast milk.  We use a crocpot.  Microwaves kill some of the healthy elements of the breast milk the baby needs.  
Hope this helps a  bit 😊

Important questions to ask potential daycares?

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