Choosing a Preschool or Daycare

Choosing a preschool or a daycare for your child is a difficult choice, especially for full time working parents. You want your child to be healthy, safe, happy, and receive appropriate education for there age and skill level. Here are some easy guidelines to help you when choosing a place for your child to attend:

1) Ask questions
Ask a lot of questions. Ask questions about everything that concerns you. In ten years of working in preschools and after teaching hundreds of students I can count on one hand the number of times a parent asked me about my experience or education. This was always greatly surprising to me, especially when I would have a child that spent more waking hours with me than with their parents. I once had a parent tell me that she didn't want to ask me those kinds of questions for fear of insulting me. Do not be afraid of that. These are professional people and if you are going to trust them with your child then you have a right to
know pertinent information such as education and experience.

2) Staff
One sign of a good school is long term employees. If the teachers are happy then the children are happy. If teachers have been there a long time then they feel comfortable with the treatment of the children and how the school is run. At the same time, it is important to know that there is a high turnover rate in the field of education, and this is very apparent in commercially run schools specifically.

When you take your tour through the school pay attention to the number of children in the classrooms and how the teachers seem to be handling it. Of course there will always be stressful moments in a classroom, but the teachers should seem calm and patient at all times. If the room you visit feels disorderly, out of control, or you feel sensory overload, then keep in mind that your child will feel that way as well. Use your best judgment. If the teachers seem happy, some of them have been there for a few years, and the classroom seems well managed, then you have probably found a decently run school.

3) Curriculum
If your child is going to be enrolled full time then it is in your best interest to find a school/day care with a curriculum. Children should be learning throughout the day with structured activities and non-structured child led play learning. Both of these things should occur daily. Ask to see lesson plans, examples of student's work and activities, and make sure you know what your child will be learning. A daily schedule should also be available for you. Look at it carefully and read between the lines. Circle time can mean many things, what occurs in that classrooms circle? What kinds of choices, if any, are the children given as to what lessons they do? Is it teacher directed learning (where the teacher tells the student it is time for a certain activity and that activity is done) or is it student led (where the child chooses to read, or do numbers, or other activity he is interested in) and is that the method you agree with for your child.

Even at the young infant stage learning should be an everyday part of the classroom. Infants should have plenty of revolving sensory activities, songs, and reading. One year old's should begin colors, shapes, music, reading, art. Two year old's should be continuing shapes, colors, art, and music, and start learning letters, numbers, and problem solving. Two and a half to three year old's continue the same as the two year old's but with increased structure and time spent on each activity. By pre-k letters and numbers should be an important piece of daily learning and printing should be practiced. This is a very basic example of the minimum that should be occurring in the child's curriculum. Your child is actually capable of much more, but that varies greatly by the child.

4) Menu
Having a healthy and variety filled menu is also a good thing to look for. Children who receive a healthy, fresh, and variety filled diet have a much better disposition, absorb more when learning, and are much less likely to have attention, aggression, or emotional problems. Look for a menu that has a variety of meals and snacks. Ask about how often substitutions in the menu are made and where and when that gets posted. Some schools, on order to save money, will make daily substitutions on things such as crackers served daily for snack or canned fruits and vegetables instead of fresh ones. Also find out what their policy is on children eating the options they are giving. If there is macaroni and cheese, apples, and carrots, is a child allowed to have three helpings of the macaroni when they have not touched the other items? Legally, no school can force your child to eat, nor can they withhold food from your child, but they can do a lot to promote healthy eating habits. Rules such as no seconds on macaroni until a carrot has been eaten, and simple things like that help to encourage your child to eat healthy, try more things, and still be well fed and happy. It also puts some of the power in the child's hands, which all children need.

5) Security
Security of the school is something that you should definitely find all the details about. Find the exits, emergency and otherwise, ask about which doors are locked and when, view the perimeter and look at fencing and borders. All schools should have strict policy about checking the ID of all unknown people who come to the school for any reason, and should keep good records. When you enroll your child, you should be asked to fill out a form giving only the people you specify the right to pick your child up from school. If you have a pick up schedule, such as Mom on Mondays and Wednesdays, but Grandma on other days, put that on the form. Then if Uncle Mike stops by to pick up, the school should be calling you immediately and not allow the child to leave until you have specifically given consent. Next time Uncle Mike shows up, the same thing should occur unless he has been added to your written pick up form.

Many schools, especially larger ones, have code lock systems. No one without the code can get in. They also should have a policy of not opening the door to anyone without first seeing their ID and substantiating their reason for being at the school.

6) Complaint/Compliance History
All schools that are licensed and/or registered (and every preschool or daycare should be) are checked regularly by licensing personnel and any time there is a complaint made or a provider is found non compliant a public record is made. You should check into the compliance/complaint history for the school you are interested in. In Oregon, the place to check complaint history is http://www.emp.state.or.us/ccd-complaints/
An individual inquiring about the compliance history of a child care center may call the facility’s licensing specialist directly or may call the Division’s Central Office to obtain the name and phone number for the facility's licensing specialist.
 
Please note: Complaint history alone does not give the complete background of a facility. For a more thorough summary, the Child Care Division encourages individuals to call and also request the compliance history of a child care facility.

What is the difference between complaint history and compliance history?

Complaint history provides information on complaints made on a facility that has violated regulations governing licensed child care. The purpose of regulations is to protect the health, safety, and well-being of children in child care facilities.

Compliance history provides additional information related to a child care facility's license. Examples of additional information are:

• How long the facility has been licensed and personnel changes
• Types of training the provider has on record with the Division
• Any special conditions or exceptions on the facility's current license
• Observed noncompliance noted during visits other than a complaint visit
• Other actions such as fines, revocations, and denials

7) Facility
Look around at the general cleanliness of the school. Do the rooms smell nice, or rather smell like children, or do they smell like dirty diapers, rotting food, etc? Are the floors clean, especially in the infant rooms where little ones are face to face with the floor? Ask to see the kitchen, does it seem restaurant clean, no mold, staff wearing appropriate clothing/hairnets/gloves, things like that? Children are messy, so toys strewn about and crayons on the floor is to be expected, but the bathrooms, kitchen, lobby area, should be very clean and classroom counters should be well kept.

8) Use Your Instincts
If you leave the facility feeling welcomed, comfortable with the level of care you have witnessed, then listen to yourself. If for any reason, even if you think it may be silly, you do not feel completely comfortable with a provider or facility, then don't do it. You have parental instincts for a reason, so follow them.

If you need more assistance in finding or choosing a facility for your child contact My Family and Me. We can visit the school and do thorough background checks to help make sure your needs will be met.