Asking the right questions when surveying your options can help you narrow your search, said Olivia DeLong, senior health editor at BabyCenter, an online resource for parents. “Most welcome packets don’t include every little detail you’d want to know,” said DeLong, who recently went through the process of finding a day-care facility for her 3-year-old daughter.
We asked child care and child development experts what questions parents should ask when scoping out day-care centers for their children. Here’s what they said:
What is your ratio of teachers to children?
A number of states set adult-to-child ratio requirements for day-care centers. But regardless of where families live, DeLong recommended that parents defer to the ratio recommendations provided by ChildCare.gov when exploring day-care center programs. The website’s ratio recommendations vary based on a child’s age. For example, it says an adult should not care for more than three or four infants (children younger than 1-year-old); the recommended ratio for toddlers ages 2 to 3 is one adult for every four to six children. “Knowing how many children there are for every teacher at the day-care center can help you gauge how attentive they will be to your child’s needs and learning,” said DeLong.
How do you address behavioral problems?
Newsflash: Children throw temper tantrums. But day-care centers may take different approaches when youngsters throw a fit, said Samina Hadi-Tabassum, a clinical professor and the director of the child development program at the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in Chicago that focuses on early childhood development. Punishment is a bad approach, Hadi-Tabassum said.
“Caregivers shouldn’t put children in ‘time out’ when they behave poorly,” said Linda Haar, board president at C3 Creating Change for Children, a nonprofit in San Diego that advocates for improving the quality of early-childhood education. According to Haar, punishment doesn’t help children learn better behaviors. “Day-care providers should be teaching children what they can do differently the next time that they get frustrated or upset,” she said.
What do you do to keep the property secure?
“Asking a potential day-care center about their security protocols can give you a good idea of how seriously they take child safety,” said DeLong. What is the center’s sign-in and sign-out procedure for drop-offs and pickups? Are there security cameras indoors and outdoors? Does the building lock doors and windows during the day? Has the center ever had a security breach and, if so, how did the staff address it?
How many caregivers are certified to administer CPR and first aid?
CPR and first aid certification requirements for child-care providers vary from state to state. Child-care centers in Alabama must have at least two adult staff members with CPR and first aid certifications on the premises at all hours of operation. You can view the certification requirements in your state online at the National Database of Child Care Licensing Regulations.
What is your sick-child policy?
“Operators can vary in terms of how conservative they are when it comes to allowing sick children to attend day-care,” Haar said. Many — but not all — day-care centers require children to be fever-free for 24 hours, without ibuprofen or a similar medication, before they can return.
Furthermore, Tina Ulanowski, a certified child life specialist and the child life manager at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Medical Center in Temple, Tex., recommends that parents ask how the staff handles children who become sick during the day. “If a child becomes ill, they should be isolating them from the other children until the parents pick them up,” Ulanowski said.
How — and how often — does your staff communicate with parents?
“Daily conversations are a must, even if it’s just staff greeting parents when they drop their child off,” said Haar.
Have an infant? “You want a daily report card of how many diaper changes your baby had, how much milk they drank, and how long they napped,” Ulanowski suggested.
Communication is a two-way street. This is where parent conferences come into play, Haar said: “There should be one at the beginning of the year so that the staff can learn what goals the parent has for the child, and then a midyear or end-of-year conference where parents receive a full report of their child’s development.”
What additional fees, if any, are there?
To find a day-care center that fits their budget, Haar said parents must ask whether there are fees in addition to the tuition. “A lot of facilities will have a registration fee,” she says. Some will also tack on a “materials fee” for supplies such as paint, crayons and sand art. “I’ve seen material fees of up to $250 per year,” said Haar.
Also, find out whether the center has a fee for late pickup. “That’s not a bad fee necessarily,” Haar said. “Staff need to go home at the end of the day. But parents should be aware of how much they’re going to be charged if they pick up their kid late.”
And fair warning: “A lot of day-care centers raise their rates to stay competitive with how much they pay their employees,” Ulanowski said. If your rate isn’t locked in, find out whether there are caps on how much the center can increase your tuition and fees each year.
How much screen time do children get?
The American Academy of Pediatrics says children should develop healthy screen time habits early on. That means limiting their use of tablets, TV and other devices. Recommendations depend on a child’s age: Kids between the ages of 2 and 5 should not watch more than one hour of noneducational programming per weekday, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Some states even set restrictions on screen time use at child-care centers.
What types of hands-on activities do you offer?
Hadi-Tabassum, of the Erikson Institute, likes when day-care centers offer children what she calls “discovery-based learning,” where they experience a variety of hands-on activities. “How often do children get to play with water? How often do they get to play with musical instruments? How often do they get to paint? Those are all examples of discovery-based learning,” Hadi-Tabassum said.
How long have most of your staff been with the center?
A good day-care center is not a revolving door for employees. “A staff with high turnover that’s constantly changing can be difficult on your little one,” DeLong said. “If staff have been at the center for a long time, it’s probably a good sign that the working and learning environment is positive.”
That being said, “turnover is an industry-wide problem for child-care centers right now,” says DeLong, “so you’ll have to weigh the answer to this question as just one piece of the bigger picture while you choose the right child-care option for your family.”
