Questions to Ask While Choosing a Daycare Center for Your Child

Are you ready to send your Baby, Toddler or Child to Daycare Center? Have you done your homework related to what questions you should ask regarding Safety & Precautions for your child before choosing a Daycare Center? When the time comes to send your child to a daycare center, many questions will hit your mind.

Selecting the best and right kind of daycare for your child is most important for you and for your child’s growth and development. Your child will spend the maximum time of his day in daycare therefore choosing the perfect daycare for him will give you peace of mind later.

Few Important Questions on Safety to Ask at Daycare Center

Q1 What is the condition of the washroom at Daycare Center?

It’s important to check whether the center has a different washroom for boys and girls. And do they maintain the hygiene inside the washroom? To keep the kids away from infections, it’s our responsibility to check on small to small things very carefully. Check which gender staff whether gents or ladies are taking care of kids inside the washroom.

Q2 What Safety Precautions they take for Kids inside the Daycare Center?

Check whether all the Electrical points are covered or not. Are the electrical points are kept out of reach of kids or not. How they keep and manage the doors and wire inside the classrooms. How are the staircases inside the center? Is there any chance of kids to fall etc.

Q3 What Kind of Furniture they used?

Are they are using plastic, wooden or steel furniture for kids. Why you need to check this is because while playing kids can hurt themselves. Kids normally run so fast that they can get hit by corners of furniture.

Q4 Do they have Outdoor Play Area or Not?

Some centers open the daycare on a very small land area. In which they don’t have enough space for kids to play outside. It’s important for kids to play games and do physical activities for their growth and development. Check the outdoor safety precautions center are taking care of.

Q5 Does the Daycare Center do the Background checks on all their Employees or not?

In current situation our kids safety should be our priority. It’s very important to check how many ladies & gents staff or employees they have. Normally we give emphasis on staff qualifications but their background check is also as important as their qualification.

Q6 What is their potty-training policy?

As we know that we have to clean our babies & toddlers potty at home. Then in daycare who will do the job. Are the staffs are going to use gents or ladies’ toilets? Or they have gents for boys and ladies for girls to clean the potty, as the questions as per your kid’s habits.

Regular Questions to Ask & Check at Daycare Center

Q1 Background check of Daycare Center?

Did you check the credentials of the center in which you will be sending your little one? Is the center has been in business for several years and has the necessary licenses to run the center. Check the center reviews online given by other parents; especially check the negative reviews first.

It’s important to see whether they are capable of handling and taking care of small kids. Choose the day center which has a good brand name in the industry and has other centers also (Franchise).

Q2 How far the Daycare Center is from your Home?

Try to choose the center a little bit near to your house. This will help to drop the kid at the center easily and the kid does not need to wake up early in the morning. And the best benefit is that kid does not need to be the first or last person in the transportation car provided by the center

Q3 Choose the Daycare Center location which is safe for your kid?

Why I am saying this, let me clarify you. Center location should never be on the main road, where you have heavy traffic. In this case, you will be putting your child safety at higher risk. Always look for the center that is far from the main road or other nuisance places like liquor shop & cigarette kiosk etc.

Q4 Do they have pick up and drop off service:

For working parents, this is the most important to look for. Usually, these days every daycare center and the school has pick up and drop off services. But in case, you stay very far from the center then it’s important to check whether they send their transportation there or not.

Ask them about the child safety precautions they are following for the kids in the vehicle. And from the center side is there would be a teacher or other person to travel with kids in-car for their safety. And does that person have knowledge and ability to handle kids in-car with safety measures? Check whether they keep First Aid in-car or not.

Q5 What are their Operating Hours?

Many daycare centers keep the kids from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm or 10.00 am to 6.30 pm; choose the center accordingly to your requirements. If you have not chosen the transportation services then check with them that when you have to leave your child in the morning and pick up in the evening.

Q6 On which dates center is closed (Holidays List)

Take the yearly holiday list from the center. It will help parents to make plans for holidays or for other important things. Parents should know if the center is closed for summer & winter vacations. Because for working parents it’s not at all possible to take leave from work or office and set back the kids at home.

Q7 What is the student to teacher ratio in class?

For your child good development & growth, it’s important that the teacher pay more attention to the kids in class. The student-teacher ration should not be more than 10:1, which means that one teacher on 10 students. The best ration would 8:1.

As low as the student-teacher ratio is, it will help your child to get full attention & care. Also, check how many students they take in one class. And that should not be more than 15 to 20 kids in one class.

 Q8 In case of emergency who will give First Aid/CPR to kids?

Check whether their caregivers/ pediatric have first aid training and CPR certification or not. In case of emergency how the center behaves and what procedure they follow.

Q9 What teaching style or method the daycare center adopts?

See what teaching methods they are adapting to teach kids. Are they giving more focus on physical activities or on mental ability? Do they show the education videos or rhymes on television or projector? Ask them about what kind of activities they do and how they educate the kids.

The teaching method is important to look for before finalizing the center as our kid’s growth & development will depend on that.

Q10 What will they do if the child is sick?

Ask them do they have some child doctor in the center or they have tied up with any hospital. In case the child is not well in class, what procedure they adapt. Do they call parents immediately or they wait for a while and then inform the parents. If the case of burning, bleeding or any other bad mishap what will they do and how will they handle the situation.

Q11 How they serve food to kids?

Most important is to check what hygienic style they adopt while serving the food. How many times in a day they serve snacks to kids. Is the food provider is trained or not, has the licensed or not in making food dishes for kids. How he maintains hygiene in food.

Some centers serve the food to kids on the dining table and make them wear bibs. This gives good eating habits to kids.

Q12 What is Kids Nap Time?

Ask them do the kids take two naps a day or one. Go and check the room in which the kid is sleeping. Are the beds and cover are clean or not. In how many days they clean the bed covers. Is there will be any person in the room to keep a watch on kids when they are sleeping.