General Information:

Check the following with your State Child Care Regulatory Agency (you may also want to ask the facility to see if you get honest answers and to let them know you are an informed parent)

Is the facility required to be licensed by the State:   (circle one) YES       NO 

If YES, is the License Current: (circle one) YES      NO

When is the next Licensing Review? ___________

Are there any open complaints: (circle one) YES      NO

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Are there any current violations: (circle one) YES      NO

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Note 1: There are advantages to large chains vs. small individual businesses.   With a large chain, if a problem occurs and you cannot resolve it through the local staff you have a second level of management you can request resolution from.   However, many chains are really franchises and only have the ability to remove their name from the facility rather than directly make management changes.  If the facility is a small business, they cannot afford to lose a large number of customers. If it is run by an employee, rather than the owner you may be able to force change by speaking with the owner.  See: Fixing Problems at your child's care facility

Note 2: The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) offers a voluntary accreditation program. This program is a check of the facility for quality of care and for developmentally appropriate care giving. Most State regulations are geared primarily to checking on health and safety issues.

The NAEYC web site has a searchable database which will locate the nearest child care center, with current accreditation.  NAEYC follows-up on any complaints regarding accredited facilities. Accreditation reviews occur every three years.  NAEYC has recently added an accreditation program for in-home (family) care providers.

Note 3: It is important to you to understand the total number of children and staff. The higher the overall ratio (Total Number Children/Total Number Staff) the less able the facility will be to adjust when a staff member is out sick or suddenly leaves.   If the staff size is limited the more likely the facility is to be outside of ratio guidelines. 

If staff turnover is high, (i.e. if most staff have been at the center less than 1 year) then they probably do not treat their staff well. If a facility does not treat it's staff, who can express themselves well, they are not likely to treat children who cannot 'tell' very well.  One exception  is a facility that has replaced it's director in order to address problems.   In this instance there will likely be a large turnover - either through terminations by the director or employees leaving rather than changing their work habits.  However, be very careful that the new director is improving the standard of care.  In some instances you may encounter large turnover with a new director because the staff will not accept the lower standards.

Studies by, The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and other groups devoted the health, safety & welfare of children have found the three most important factors in quality of child care are education of staff, number of staff to children in care and children having consistent care givers.