Looking at daycares and wondering what sorts of questions to ask?
If so, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we’ll go through the most important questions to ask when you’re searching for a daycare.
With two kids under the age of 5, we’ve changed daycares several times.
And we are intimately familiar with the challenge of finding a new daycare, especially during the pandemic.
If you’ve ever had to try and chose a daycare, you know what an emotional roller coaster it can be.
That’s why we’ve put together this list.
This is an ongoing post and we’ll be adding to it as we think of more questions, so be sure to bookmark it so you can refer back to it!
Now, to the questions:
Questions for “normal times“
What’s a typical day like?
Knowing what a typical day is like will help your kiddo adjust and help you know if it’s the kind of place you want your kid to be. It’ll also help you know if your child will be comfortable with the type of activities they do.
Can we see the schedule?
Can we take a tour?
Do you have an indoor program?
Do you have an outside playground?
How many times a day do the kids go outside?
What time is nap time?
What time are lunch and snacks?
Does each kid have a cubby to keep their stuff in?
Do you have an app for communicating with parents?
(Confirming) the tuition amounts?
Do you give any discounts to siblings?
When is the monthly tuition due?
What forms of payment do you accept?
Are there any additional fees?
Questions about pickup and dropoff
- What’s the earliest time that we can drop the kids off?
- What’s the latest time for pickup?
- Are there any charges for before care or aftercare?
- Do you charge any sort of fees for late arrival?
- Are you letting parents come inside during pickup and dropoff? Or…
- Do we have to meet you/someone outside?
Questions about food
- Do you provide meals?
- Do you have a sample menu?
- Do you provide snacks?
- What time is meal time/snack time?
- Do you have fridges for milk?
- How are the kid’s items labeled?
- Are there any dietary restrictions?
Question about the facility/teachers/curriculum
- Tell us about your teachers?
- Can we meet the teachers?
- What are their educational background and work experience?
- Do you have teacher bios on your website?
Questions about teachers and staff
- How many teachers do you have?
- Tell us about the teachers’ background and education?
- What types of professional development do you require your teachers to complete?
- What’s the classroom management style of the teachers?
- What’s behavioral management strategies do you use?
Questions about curriculum
- What curriculum do you follow?
- Do you have parent-teacher meetings? When do those happen?
- Do you use an off-the-shelf program to track milestones?
- Does the curriculum follow an outlined calendar throughout the year? Do you provide a copy to parents?
Covid Related Questions
- What precautions are you taking?
- Does everyone wear a mask?
- What kind of masks do you require?
- Are you limiting enrollment?
- What do you require if a student tests positive?
- What covid policies do you have?
- How are you cleaning?
- How is the building ventilated?
- Are you taking the kids outside?
- Are you letting people into the building?
Conclusion
With so much going on in the world…
And so many changes from the pandemic…
If you’re sending your kids off to daycare in 2021, you’re going to have a million questions…
So keep this list as a handy reference.
It’ll help you cover the basics, along with some key questions to ask during covid.
And drop us a comment and let us know:
What are your daycare questions for 2022?
