Tips & Links
Tips On Choosing Child Care
Selecting the Best Care for Your Child
Finding child care that truly meets your family's needs is critical for your ability to be a working parent. It is one of the most important and difficult decisions working parents face.
Since locating high quality child care takes time, try to begin your search well in advance of when you will need care. Some programs have long waiting lists, so you may need to pre-enroll your child in more than one program. By beginning your search early, you'll allow yourself time to make a final decision that works for your family.
Selecting the right kind of care for your child is a very personal decision. You should feel confident that your child's physical, social, emotional, and intellectual needs are understood and met by the program you select. Don't hesitate to ask questions and express any concerns you may have about a program.
Gather as much information about the program as you can by clearly expressing your needs and expectations, arranging visits to observe program activities at different times of the day, asking the provider for the names and phone numbers of enrolled parents, and calling those parents.
Few child care programs will provide everything you may desire and most parents will need to make some trade-offs in choosing child care. Ideally, the child care you choose should offer three basic benefits to you and your child: a safe and healthy place for children; caring people who have experience with the needs of children and working parents; and a convenient, stable, and affordable arrangement with operating hours that match your work schedule.
There are three basic kinds of child care arrangements: in-home care, family day care, and center care. In in-home care, a child is cared for at your residence or that of a relative, friend, or another family. Family day care providers, with the assistance of one aide, may care for up to 12 children in their homes. Child care centers and pre-schools provide care in a facility used primarily for child care.
Here are some common choices by age-group:
Infants: under age 18 months, are primarily cared for in individual in-home arrangements, parent cooperatives, small family day care homes, and infant care centers.
Toddlers: ages 18 to 33 months, are usually cared for in the same settings as infants, though they require more space and a differently equipped environment. Part-time working parents may also become involved in organized play groups.
Pre-Schoolers: ages 2 years 9 months to 5 years, most often attend family day care homes, child care centers, pre-schools, or parent cooperative nursery schools; parents may also combine one of these programs with the services of an in-home care provider. (Many programs will only accept children after they are toilet-trained.) This cannot legally be required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but many centers still demand it.
School-Age Children: ages 5 to 12+ years, most often attend before and after-school child care centers, family day care homes, or recreation programs (on or off the school site) during the school year and recreation programs and day camps in the summer.
Beginning Your Search
There are a number of ways to locate child care providers. One is to ask your friends, neighbors, and co-workers about their child care arrangements. Many communities have parent newspapers that have extensive advertising by child care providers. An example is Parents' Press, which serves the East Bay, San Francisco, and Marin County. These monthly newspapers are distributed free at children's stores and public libraries.
State-sponsored and free resource and referral agencies, such as BANANAS (510) 658-0381 in Oakland, provide listings of licensed child care providers, after-school programs, and recreational programs in the communities they serve. They also provide listings of other services such as sick child care, respite child care, bilingual services, crisis counseling services, support groups for parents (including singles, teens, couples, grandparents, and those with special-needs children), health and safety workshops for parents and child care providers, and reference libraries.
Although resource and referral agencies can give you names of potential providers and services that are available in your community, they generally do not visit all child care centers or family day care homes and cannot recommend particular programs or otherwise rate quality - this judgment rests with you. The only child care programs that require licensing are group programs such as family day care or center-based day care.
Once you have identified several possible programs use the telephone to eliminate services which don't fit your needs and requirements. The timing of your phone call is important. If you call during the lunch hour when care givers are feeding the children, or at the end of the day when parents are arriving to pick them up, the person who answers the phone may not have the time to adequately address your questions. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon hours are often the best times to call child care centers. Family day care providers can also be reached in the evening.
Visit any program you are seriously considering for your child. When visiting, observe carefully to see how your child might fit into this setting. Although it may be fine to take an infant on these initial visits, wait until you've limited your choices to one or two programs before taking a toddler or pre-schooler along, to avoid confusing them needlessly. Programs may have established visiting procedures for parents and children.
The First Phone Call - What to Ask
- Introduce yourself and indicate who referred you to the program. Ask if there is an opening for your child. If not, ask if there is a waiting list and how long the wait may be.
- State your needs clearly and describe your child's age and specific needs. Be realistic about the hours of care that you require (include your travel time to and from work).
- Determine the size of the group, the ages of the children, and the adult-to-child ratio. This is important, because infants and toddlers will receive more attention if the group is small. Pre-school and school-age children often thrive in larger groups with more opportunities for social interaction.
- Ask specific questions and discuss concerns which may help you to screen out situations that won't work for you.
- Ask about fees and contract arrangements.
- Ask about provider's holiday/vacation schedule.
- If you are seriously considering a program, schedule a time during operating hours to visit and speak with the provider or staff in more depth.
Day Care Referral Links
