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Home Parenting Tips for choosing child care today
Tips for choosing child care today
Selecting a child care provider is stressful in the best of times. During a widespread, global pandemic, it can be entirely overwhelming. While not an end-all-be-all list, these tips, gleaned from interviews with experts in the community, can help parents in their decision.
Investigate a center's inspections.
Child care experts have long recommended that parents look up the results of state inspections of any center they're considering. This is even more important in the age of COVID-19, as the reports show a provider's ability to follow guidelines. Find state inspections for the last three years at myflfamilies.com/service-programs/child-care.
What's the child-to-caregiver ratio? The smaller the better. How big are the rooms? The bigger the room, the better kids can spread out and, in effect, social distance (though don't expect little ones to social distance completely). How do you handle illnesses among the kids? It used to be that sick kids in day cares were tolerated. But now CDC guidelines call for sick children to stay home. What are you doing from one day to the next? Are you wiping everything? Are employees wearing masks? What types of infectious disease precautions are you taking?
Look for cleanliness.
Keeping a child care center clean has always been important. But now it takes on new significance. Centers should clean frequently and disinfect often, following CDC guidelines.
Tour the center.
To limit exposure, many child care centers are not offering in-person tours, traditionally a key recommendation to parents seeking child care. Instead, many now offer virtual visits. Those can be helpful in your search, but Dr. Piedade Silva, a pediatrician with Lee Health, recommends that when you decide on a provider, insist on an in-person tour. "As an initial tour, I would say yes [to virtual tours], but once you say, 'OK, I'm going to bring my child there,' I now want to see the physical place. I think with masks and protection, the parents need to see the facility," she says. Depending on how open to that idea centers are, parents may have to take a leap of faith in this area.
Ask for recommendations.
"Many of our families rely very heavily on the recommendations of their friends and their family members who have had positive experiences with providers," says Susan Block, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida.
Is the center in ELC's School Readiness Program?
The School Readiness Program, administered by the Early Learning Coalition, provides child care tuition assistance for families with low and mid-range incomes. "If you know a provider is a School Readiness provider, you know that in addition to DCF oversight, they're getting supports from the Early Learning Coalition. We're working with those providers. We're helping them with professional development. We're ensuring the children are healthy and safe in those programs," Susan says.
Contact the Early Learning Coalition.
The agency offers free services that can help parents locate a center with their preferred parameters, such as proximity to home and work and whether they offer transportation to and from school. ELC-registered centers also have access to a consultant nurse.
Free guide: The Early Leaning Coalition of Southwest Florida provides a free guide to choosing quality child care, including a long list of questions to ask providers during your search. Download "A Family Guide for Selecting Quality Early Learning Programs" at elcofswfl.org/importance-of-school-readiness.
COVID-19 September 2020 Child Care
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