Questions to Ask About Daycare
Questions for parents choosing a daycare, for a visit or a call with a director: ratios and who covers breaks, staff turnover, what the last inspection found, the rules on illness and pickup, what happens after an incident, whether a place is free and the hours fit your working day, and what the fees actually come to over a year. They are worded for daycare centers with several rooms and a staff rota, though nearly all of them work for a home daycare too.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
What's the ratio and group size in my child's room, and who covers breaks and sick days?
Why ask it
Licensed ratios are a minimum rather than a plan, and they slip at exactly the times that matter: staff breaks, lunch, opening, and the last hour. Ask whether cover is a person assigned to that room or somebody pulled from elsewhere. Group size matters as much as the ratio.
Who will be in the room every day, and how long have they worked here?
Why ask it
Consistency of caregiver is one of the few things you can verify. Ask for names and tenure. A room whose two regular staff have each been there over a year is a different place from one where agency cover is a normal Tuesday.
What has your staff turnover been over the past year?
Why ask it
Turnover tells you more than any curriculum document. Ask for a number, not an impression. A director who cannot say, or who describes last year as unusual for the second year running, has answered a different question than the one you asked.
Can I see your most recent licensing inspection report and any citations?
Why ask it
These are public records in most places and a center should be able to hand you a copy. A spotless history matters less than whether the citations were substantive and what changed afterwards. Reluctance to produce the report is itself the finding.
Once my child is enrolled, can I drop in unannounced, and are there times you'd rather I didn't?
Why ask it
Open access during operating hours is a strong signal, and any restriction should come with a reason. Some limits are sensible, nap being the obvious one. A policy that keeps parents out of the room entirely deserves a direct follow-up about why.
Can you walk me through a full day, hour by hour, for a child this age?
Why ask it
Ask for the timetable rather than the philosophy. You are listening for how long children sit, how often they get outside, when food appears, and how much of the day is waiting or screens. Vagueness here usually means the day is improvised daily.
How much time do they spend outside, and what happens when it's raining or cold?
Why ask it
Outdoor time is the first thing cut when staffing is short, so the bad-weather answer tells you whether it happens reliably. Ask who supervises, what children are expected to wear, and whether the yard is shared with much older children.
What do you do with a child who won't nap?
Why ask it
Practice ranges from quiet activities to requiring a child to lie still for two hours. Ask what a non-sleeper actually does during that window, because a toddler kept on a mat with nothing to do is a common daily misery that never comes up on a tour.
What's on the menu this week, and how do you handle allergies and a fussy eater?
Why ask it
Ask for the actual menu rather than a description of healthy food. On allergies you want the mechanism: labeled seating, who checks trays, where the epinephrine is and who may use it. Assurance that they are very careful is not a procedure.
What do you do when a child bites or hits, and what would you never do?
Why ask it
Listen for a named approach and for the explicit prohibitions: no shouting, no isolation, no food withheld, no physical restraint outside specified safety situations. Then ask what gets written down after a serious incident and whether both families are told.
What exactly happens if my child is injured, and when would I be called?
Why ask it
There should be an incident form, a written threshold for phoning parents, and a rule for when a child goes to a hospital. Ask to see a blank form. If the answer is that staff use their judgment, ask whose judgment and what is recorded.
Who here holds current pediatric first aid and CPR certification, and is one of them always on site?
Why ask it
Certification lapses quietly. Ask how many current holders there are, whether one is present at open and at close as well as mid-day, and where the certificates are displayed. This is a yes or no question, and hesitation on it means something.
How is medication handled, and who is allowed to give it?
Why ask it
Medication is a common source of error: storage, dosing, a second person checking, written authorization. Ask whether over-the-counter items need a doctor's note, who may administer, and how each dose is logged and shown to you at pickup.
What are the sick rules: what sends a child home, and how long must they stay away?
Why ask it
Ask for thresholds, a temperature, named symptoms, hours before return, because vague rules produce an argument on the morning you cannot miss work. Ask also how quickly you must collect a child who becomes ill during the day.
How does pickup work, and what stops the wrong adult taking my child?
Why ask it
This is the security question that matters most. Ask about the authorized list, what identification is checked, what happens when someone unlisted arrives, and how custody arrangements are handled. A sign-in sheet on its own is not a system.
What's the plan for a fire, a lockdown, or a power failure, and when did you last practice it?
Why ask it
Ask for the date of the last drill rather than the existence of a plan. Where do children go, how are infants carried out, who holds the roll, how are parents notified. A plan nobody has rehearsed in a year is a document, not a procedure.
How will you tell me about the day, and how do I reach the actual room if I'm worried?
Why ask it
An app summary and a conversation with the person who was with your child are not the same thing. Ask how to reach the room, how long a call back takes, and who to contact when the concern is about a member of staff.
What do the first two weeks look like, and how do you handle a child who cries at drop-off?
Why ask it
Settling in is where good centers show their skill. Listen for a staged plan, one named person for your child to attach to, and honesty that some crying is normal. Be wary of promises of no tears and of blanket advice to leave immediately every time.
What's the full cost: deposit, registration, supplies, late fees, and notice before a price rise?
Why ask it
Get every charge in writing, including how many paid closure days you fund and what you pay when your child is away for a fortnight, which is usually the full fee. Ask how much notice precedes an increase, since a month is common and a year is not.
Which days are you closed, and what happens if you can't staff a room?
Why ask it
Closures become your problem to solve, so get the calendar before signing. Ask specifically what warning you get when a room cannot open, whether the day is credited, and how often it happened last year. That last number is the useful one.
Is there a place for my child from the date I need, and if not, how does the waitlist work?
Why ask it
Ask where you sit on the list, whether siblings and staff children go ahead of you, and whether the fee to hold a spot comes back if no place appears. A start date given as probably spring is not a place yet.
What hours are you open, and does my working day fit inside them once the commute is added?
Why ask it
Count from the minute you can leave work, not from the closing time on the website. Ask whether an earlier drop-off or a later pickup exists as an extra and what it costs per day.
Can I book part-time days, and how easy is it to swap or add a day later on?
Why ask it
Some centers sell only full weeks and others fix your days for a whole term. Raise it now if your work pattern might change, because the days most parents want are the first to fill.
How many rooms and children does the center have, and how are the ages grouped?
Why ask it
A center with eight rooms and one with two are different days for a small child. Ask whether rooms are combined at opening and closing, which can put toddlers in with much older children at the hours when the fewest adults are around.
Who owns the center, and how often is the director in the building?
Why ask it
A chain, a nonprofit and an owner who works on site each answer to somebody different, and it helps to know who decides on fees and staffing. Find out who is in charge on the days the director is out.
What would make you ask a family to leave, and has it happened?
Why ask it
Nobody volunteers this. Answers usually involve unpaid fees, repeated late collection, or behavior they cannot support. What you are really learning is whether they raise problems early or end a placement with a week's notice and no warning.
How do you decide what the children do all day?
Why ask it
Ask to see a real timetable and then ask what fills the gaps. Both a rigid schedule of adult-led activities and an entirely unplanned day tend to show up as difficult behaviour by mid-afternoon.
What training do your staff have beyond the legal minimum?
Why ask it
First aid currency, child development qualifications, safeguarding, and who pays for it. A setting that funds training tends to keep staff, which is the thing you actually want.
What would I hear you say to a two-year-old who is throwing food?
Why ask it
Asking for the actual words gets past the vocabulary of positive redirection and into practice. If the answer includes removing the child from the group, ask where the child goes and for how long.
Who has keys or door codes, and how do people get in during the day?
Why ask it
Look for a controlled entrance that does not rely on whoever is nearest opening it. Ask how codes are changed when a staff member leaves.
What happens when a parent raises a concern?
Why ask it
Ask for a recent example and what changed as a result. A director who can describe one has a process; one who says it seldom happens probably has no route for it at all.
What happens when my child moves up a room or gets too old for you?
Why ask it
Ask what triggers the move, how much notice you get, whether a familiar adult moves too, and where children go afterwards. Abrupt room changes explain a great many sudden regressions.
What kind of child does well here, and what kind finds it hard?
Why ask it
The most revealing question you can ask a director, because it requires her to describe limits. "Every child does well here" tells you she has not thought about it, or would rather not say.
What do you do differently from the other daycare centers near here?
Why ask it
Useful when you are down to two places that both seemed fine. Listen for something you could check on a second visit, such as a smaller group or more time outdoors, and discount anything that is only an adjective.
What do I pay when we are away, or when you are closed?
Why ask it
Most settings charge for your holidays and for theirs, which is normal but changes the real price considerably. Ask whether any weeks are credited and how much notice absence needs.
What notice do I have to give to leave, and can you end the arrangement?
Why ask it
Two-way notice, usually a month, plus the grounds on which they can ask a family to leave. Read this before you pay a deposit rather than after a disagreement.
Can I speak to two families whose children have left, not only current ones?
Why ask it
Current parents have reasons to be positive about the place their child is in every day. Families who left will tell you why, and reluctance to share any contact is itself an answer.
How to judge a daycare in two visits
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you sign anything
Visit twice, once at a bad hour
Mid-morning is when a center looks its best. Come back near the end of the day or during the pickup rush, when staffing is thinnest and everyone is tired, because that is the version your child will get on some days.
Watch the adults, not the toys
Are staff down at the children's level or standing together talking? How quickly does someone go to a child who is crying? Is anyone on a phone? Ten minutes of watching tells you more than the full tour and the brochure combined.
Look up the license yourself
Licensing agencies in most places publish inspection histories and substantiated complaints. Read yours before the visit, then raise anything you found in person and see whether the account you get matches the record.
Talk to parents at the gate
A center picks its own references. Two minutes with whoever is walking out at five, asking what they wish they had known before enrolling, is usually the more useful conversation.
When you are choosing between two daycare centers
Put the same questions on ratios, turnover, closures and fees to both, and write the answers side by side that evening. Memory favors whichever director was warmer, and the notes show where one of them gave a number and the other gave a reassurance.
What to watch for while you are there
- Whether staff greet arriving children by name.
- What happens in the first thirty seconds after a child gets upset.
- Hand-washing before food and after diaper changes, actually happening.
- Whether the outdoor space is in use or simply exists.
- How the adults speak to each other in front of the children.
- Whether infants are held for bottles or have them propped.
- The changing surface being cleaned between children.
- Where the youngest children are when the room is busiest.
Common pitfalls
Being reassured by the building
Fresh paint, tablets, and a printed curriculum are the cheapest things a center can buy. Ratios, wages, and retention cost real money, and those are what determine the care your child gets.
Accepting we treat every child like family
This is the most common non-answer in the sector. Ask for the procedure instead, and notice whether one is actually produced or whether the sentence repeats in different words.
Skipping the paperwork
The contract carries the fee increases, the notice period, the termination terms, and the liability wording. Read it before you pay a deposit rather than after your child has settled in.
Dismissing your own reaction to the room
If it feels chaotic, or unusually silent for the number of children present, write that down and come back on another day. A single visit is a sample of one, and both extremes deserve a second look.
How to run the visit
- Ask for a tour at a time you choose rather than the slot you are offered.
- Spend ten minutes in the room your child would be in, watching rather than talking.
- Ask the ratio, break cover, and turnover questions first, since everything else depends on them.
- Work through safety next: incidents, first aid, medication, pickup, emergency drills.
- Collect the fee schedule, the closure calendar, and the contract to read at home.
- Go back once unannounced before you sign.