Day Care Listings

Answer 1

Detailed day care listings will help you find out three things: the quality of the school; the people who run it; and the age of the children in the day care.

The quality of the school in which you place your child is of utmost importance. Children are the future, and they should not be entrusted into untrustworthy hands. Therefore, it is important to know everything about the day care your child will be attending. You should make sure that all the teachers in the day care have at least a minimum number of credit hours in ECE (early childhood education) as required by your specific state, so check your state laws in order to see how many hours are the minimum required to work with young children ages birth through five years old. Most day cares operate for children ages birth to five, because after that, preschool begins. Preschool is a separate entity altogether. Make sure the day care is accredited with your state and with nation-wide statutes. It is important to know if the day care has had any problems in the past, including but not limited to: unsatisfied parents; issues involving alleged child abuse; and/or staffing shortage problems. These types of problems are very common at day cares and you do not want to be one of those parents who risked a child's life just because the day care was not researched properly and thoroughly enough in advance. Be smart, and use your common sense.

You want to make sure the quality of the staff in the day care is adequate. If the employed staff, on average, only has high school diplomas, do you really want to take a risk that your baby is in the hands of someone who only has a high school education? Make sure that the people who are at your day care have at least a minimum of their core required hours in ECE, or better yet, already have their Bachelor's degrees already. You do not want to entrust the care of your child to someone who is uneducated or undereducated.

Make sure the age of the children in the day care are all relatively within the same age group, and, if they are not, that children are grouped according to their age and ability level. Mixing age groups can prove fatal if the very young children get hurt by the older ones.

Make sure when you look at detailed day care listings to find out: the quality of the day care school; the quality of the individuals who run it; and the age of the children in the organization.