Something Isn’t Quite Right Here With My Child Care Provider — Warning Signs of a Bad Daycare Center
Friday, July 01, 2011
by Sharon Zaleski
I just finished reading this horrific story about a daycare center in Georgia. Marlo’s Magnificant Early Learning Center in Jonesboro failed to check that all children were accounted for after a field trip and somehow left a 2-year old girl in a sweltering hot van. The child died because of the day care center’s neglect. How could this possibly happen? Well, unfortunately it did due to this daycare having clearly improper operating standards across the board.
Daycare centers can run from excellent to just plain bad. Choosing quality child care is one of the most important, and difficult, decisions you’ll ever have to make — and it should be a carefully thought out and researched process. It can be easy to detect a bad child care facility, but there are some specific criteria that can help warn you of a bad daycare center when you’re checking one out or if you have your infant or toddler already enrolled. Keep in mind too that good daycare centers can go downhill, so you must be diligent, maintain a set of standards and check it out on a regular basis.
Here are some warning signs of a bad daycare center:
- Negative reputation
- Unqualified staff
- Unsafe and dirty facility
- No emergency plan
- No set rules
- No daily schedule
- Expired License
Have you ever had a problem with a daycare for your infant or toddler? How did you handle it?
To help you better judge quality when you’re considering which child care program is right for your child, the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies has created a free easy-to-use booklet, Is This the Right Place for My Child?: 38 Research-Based Indicators of High-Quality Child Care. Click here to download it.
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daycare centers,
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child care facility