Choosing the best daycare facility for your family requires some diligent research, but many people don’t know what that exactly looks like when they are searching for their first daycare center.
Here is how you can go about doing the research you need to do to choose the best daycare facility for your family!
How to Choose the Best Daycare Facility for Your Family
Learn the Daycare Basics
Do some research online to learn more about some of the daycare basics, things like:
- Would you prefer a childcare center or an in-home daycare?
- What are your state’s requirements for childcare licensing?
- What kind of educational programs or curriculums are often utilized by childcare centers?
- What should you expect in a daily routine at a childcare center?
Learning more about these basics can help you recognize a high-quality childcare center when you find it.
Find Childcare Programs in Your Area
You can easily find the childcare centers in your area with a quick online search, and this can help you narrow down the centers to contact. Comparing multiple locations will help you get a well-rounded idea of what your area has to offer as well as enough locations to compare to each other.
You can review their websites to see what kind of programs and activities they offer. You can also read parent reviews about each center, review their tuition costs, and get a feel for their size and childcare philosophy.
Take Tours at Multiple Daycare Centers
Now that you have done all of your preliminary research, it’s time to call the childcare centers you’ve narrowed down to and set up a time to take a tour.
Prepare a list of questions to ask the daycare directors during the tours. Here are some questions you could use to help pad your list:
- Are you taking more children my age at this time?
- Are you licensed, registered, certified, or legally exempt?
- What does your center’s daily routine look like?
- Do you have health inspection reports that I can see?
You’ll undoubtedly come up with other questions during your tours as well.
Touring each center will help you compare the commonalities and unique aspects of each childcare center so you can choose the best daycare center for your family.
Compare Your Findings and Make Your Decision
You’ve done all of the preliminary research and toured your local daycare centers, and now it’s time to make your decision!
This research process will help you have confidence in the daycare center that you choose for your child.