Comparing Daycare Centres

[bananapancakes]

I have started touring centres for L for the fall. I want to make a chart to help me compare them. So far I have: proximity to our house, price, food, teacher qualifications, room/building, hours of operation, number of kids in class.

What else do you look at when choosing a centre? I realize it's mostly a "go with your gut" thing but H likes to see things in black and white.

[Deleted]

If there's any way to ask about teacher turnover, I think that can be pretty telling.
Outdoor time.

[anna7602]

Outdoor time is huge for me.

[bananapancakes]

Aug 13, 2015 12:26:54 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

I feel like all of the centres we've toured have been essentially the same. Because the government mandates things like outdoor time and ratios, and turnover can happen frequently, they all blend together. I guess cost and menus have varied between centres, but not by much.

Yes, I'm finding that too. They mostly have the same schedule.

[Purple]

I also checked the state violations website.

[jinkies]

I wanted one that would bus to/from our elementary school (our district has 1/2 day K, and I wanted to be able to use the daycare for the other half when my kid started school).

I also wanted them to provide the food.

My kids are part time in daycare, so flexibility in which days they attend week to week as needed was a big one for me as well.

Beyond that, it was really gut feeling. The place we chose has very low turnover, but I didn't really know that at the time. I just lucked out.

OH. Also, we were able to negotiate a discount at the place we ultimately chose, which is what really tipped the scales in its favor. A lot of the "finalists" on our list were very similar in most respects.