10 Tips For Finding Great Child Care

Looking for tips for finding great child care? When I searched for daycare and preschool for my daughters, I spent days searching online, calling, and visiting child care providers.  I visited 16 daycare centers before choosing the one that felt right for us. In this post, I’ll share 10 practical tips that helped me (and that hopefully can help you!) find safe, affordable, high-quality child care.

1. Start your child care search early.

Begin your daycare search as early as a year in advance, especially if you live in a densely populated city like Washington D.C. or San Francisco. This is even more important if you will be looking for infant care. It’s usually more difficult to find space for an infant than for a 3- or 4-year-old because of the teacher-to-child ratio: for infants, you must have 1 teacher for 2-4 infants (depending on the State) but for 4-year-olds, it can be around 8-10. 

2. Create an email account for your daycare search.

If you plan on visiting lots of child care centers or posting an ad online, you will most likely get tons of emails from child care providers. To ensure you don’t get your personal email inundated, create a separate email account just for your child care search.

3. Research schools before you visit them.

Save time by researching providers before you tour. Use CareLuLu to find child care options that fit your specific needs whether it is cost, hours, ages, or services offered. This will save you time by not visiting daycares that are out of your budget, for instance. CareLuLu allows you to compare providers in your area and unlike other care finding sites, it also offers tuition rates so you won’t need to call or visit just for that!

4. Request to see a child care license

Check the child care State license or County permit and make sure it hasn’t expired. This is really critical and will ensure that minimum standards are met in terms of safety, teachers’ education, and staff background checks.

5. Spend time talking to the director during your visit

Pay attention to how engaged and helpful the director seems. I’ve spoken to lots of directors as a parent in search of child care, and some have shown a lot more interest in being accommodating and in working with me. Your discussion during the tour is usually quite telling of how helpful and flexible the director will be once your child is actually enrolled.

6. Upper management is just as important as the teachers.

Directors have a great impact over the morale and atmosphere of the entire school. Happy teachers generally means happy kids, so if possible, see how well the management and the teachers seem to get along. A frequent change of directors is a bad sign.

7. Ask about teacher and caregiver turnover rates.

Teachers that work at the same center for a long time provide stability, which is much needed for children to develop a strong relationship with their caregivers. You should ask specifically about the tenure of the teacher(s) that would care for your child.

8. If tuition is important, say so (and ask for a special deal!)

If tuition is critical in your decision making, point it out to the school and say that you’re considering other daycare options in the area. They may be more willing to give you a reduced rate. Also, be sure to ask for discounts and special deals. If you don’t ask, you don’t get! This is surprising to most parents but saving $100-$200 per month can be as simple as asking if they can waive the registration fee (a lot of them do.)

One extra tip: don’t forget to check in-home daycares, as they often have more affordable tuition rates than centers.

9. Ask for a free Discovery Day before enrolling.

Although not all child care providers advertise it or even offer it, some schools do allow you to bring your child for a few hours or even a day to test out the school. This lets you see how your child feels about the center before making a final commitment.

10. Ask the school for at least three parent references.

Don’t skip this step! Parent references can give you honest feedback that administrators may not. Don’t be shy and do call those parents to get their feedback on the school. Stay away from child care providers that are reluctant to give you references.

I hope this helps! What about you, what are your own tips for finding that perfect child care? Please share them with others!

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CareLuLu is the easiest way for parents to find great child care and preschool programs. On CareLuLu, parents can find detailed information on 200,000 licensed daycares (hours, cost, photos, verified reviews) and contact providers instantly. Best of all, it’s free! Founded in 2013, CareLuLu’s mission is to improve access to safe, affordable, high-quality child care and early education.

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