Questions to Ask at a Daycare Tour
Questions for parents touring a daycare or childcare centre, covering staffing and turnover, sick and injury policy, sleep, food, security and the true cost. Written for the version of the tour where you get real answers rather than the walk-through the centre prefers to give.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Can you walk me through what a whole day looks like in the room my child would be in?
Why ask it
Asking about one specific room stops the answer drifting into centre-wide generalities. You are listening for a rhythm with names and times in it. If the description is the same for infants and four-year-olds, the schedule is aspirational rather than something the staff run each day.
Who would my child's main teachers be, and how long have they worked here?
Why ask it
Consistency of caregiver matters more to a young child than the building or the toys. Years of tenure in that room is the answer you want. Being introduced to a director rather than the actual teacher is a signal in itself, and worth pressing politely.
How many of your staff have left in the past year?
Why ask it
Turnover is the single most revealing number a centre can give you, and it explains most other problems: rotating faces, thin supervision, rules applied inconsistently. Hesitation or a reframe about 'growth' usually means the number is high. Ask about that room specifically, not the whole company.
How many children and adults are in that room at once, including first thing in the morning and at the end of the day?
Why ask it
Published ratios describe the middle of the day. The gaps open at 7am and after 5pm, when rooms get combined and one person may briefly cover more children than the licence allows. Naming those hours gets you a truer number than asking about ratios in general.
What happens when a teacher calls in sick?
Why ask it
This exposes whether there is a real bench or whether the centre absorbs absence by shuffling adults between rooms. Good answers name floating staff or regular substitutes the children already know. 'We manage' means your child will sometimes spend the day with a stranger.
Can I see where the children sleep, and how are they put down?
Why ask it
Seeing the room settles questions a description cannot: cot spacing, ventilation, whether infants sleep on their backs on a firm surface with nothing in the cot. Also ask who is in the room while children sleep, because supervision during naps is where lapses tend to happen.
What do the children eat, and how do you handle allergies?
Why ask it
Ask to see an actual week of menus, not a sample. On allergies you want a specific mechanism: labelled places, a posted list, staff who know without checking, and how they manage a shared table. Vague reassurance about being 'very careful' is not a system.
How much time do the children spend outside, and what happens when the weather is bad?
Why ask it
Outdoor time is the first thing cut when a room is short-staffed, so the honest answer tells you about staffing as well as play. Ask what counts as too cold or too wet, and what indoor space substitutes. A centre that goes out in light rain usually has enough adults to manage it.
When we start potty training at home, how would you handle it here?
Why ask it
Centres differ on whether they follow the family's lead or wait for a group readiness point, and a mismatch causes months of friction. Ask about accidents and who changes clothes. A rule that a child must be trained before moving rooms is worth knowing about long in advance.
Do the children watch any screens during the day?
Why ask it
Most centres say very little, so the useful follow-up is when: end of day, rainy afternoons, during staff breaks. Screens used to bridge a supervision gap tell you something different from a short group video tied to a topic. Either way you want the real pattern, not the policy sentence.
How do you handle biting, hitting and pushing at this age?
Why ask it
This tells you whether the staff treat it as developmentally normal and have a practised response, or as misbehaviour to be punished. Ask what both families hear afterwards. Confidentiality rules mean you will not be told which child bit yours, and a centre that offers the name is loose with information generally.
What does a hard day here look like, and how would I hear about it?
Why ask it
Every child has bad days, so a centre that cannot describe one is managing your impressions. You want to know whether difficult news reaches you the same day and in person, or arrives as a line in an app at 6pm. This is also the question that surfaces how the staff talk about children when things are not going well.
How will I hear about my child's day, and can you show me an example of what I would get?
Why ask it
Seeing a real daily report separates a note with substance from a checklist of nappies and naps. Ask who writes it and when, because reports written from memory at closing time are usually thin. For a preverbal child, this is most of what you will ever know about their day.
When would you send my child home sick, and when could they come back?
Why ask it
Get the thresholds in numbers: what temperature, how many hours symptom-free, what needs a doctor's note. This decides how many days of work you will miss, and a strict policy consistently enforced is better for everyone than a loose one. Ask whether they call for a single loose nappy, because policies vary widely there.
If my child gets hurt, who calls me and how soon?
Why ask it
You are looking for a stated trigger: a bump to the head means a call now, a scraped knee means a note at pickup. Written incident reports you sign are a good sign. Learning about an injury at the end of the day when it happened at 10am is the failure mode this question prevents.
Is someone with current paediatric first aid and CPR training always on site?
Why ask it
Certificates on a wall can be years out of date, and 'most of our staff' can still leave a room uncovered during breaks. Ask whether that is true at every hour you would use, including early morning. Also ask who carries an epinephrine autoinjector or inhaler if a child needs one.
How do you check who is picking up a child?
Why ask it
Ask to watch the door at pickup rather than take a description of it. You want named authorised adults, photo checks for anyone unfamiliar, and a clear procedure if someone arrives who is not on the list. A propped-open door during the busiest twenty minutes of the day tells you more than the policy does.
Can I come in unannounced during the day?
Why ask it
A yes, with no caveat beyond a quiet hour for naps, is one of the strongest signals a centre can give. Restrictions framed as protecting routine deserve a second look. If parents are only welcome at set times, you are only ever seeing the centre when it expects visitors.
Are your licensing inspection reports available, and has anything been cited recently?
Why ask it
Every licensed centre is inspected and most jurisdictions publish the findings, so this is verifiable. What matters is not a spotless record but whether they will discuss a past citation and what they changed. Reluctance to hand over something already public is the answer.
If my child needed extra support, such as speech therapy or an individual plan, how would that work here?
Why ask it
Ask this even if nothing is flagged now, because needs emerge between two and four. You want to know whether outside therapists can come on site, whether staff join meetings, and whether the centre has done it before. Centres that quietly ask families to leave when needs appear tend to answer this in generalities.
What's the full cost, including deposits, late pickup fees and the weeks you're closed?
Why ask it
Headline weekly rates hide registration fees, supply fees, holiday closures you still pay for, and per-minute late charges. Ask for the annual total in writing. Also ask whether you pay for days your child is sick or on holiday, which for most centres you do.
How much notice do you need if we leave, and how have your rates changed over the last few years?
Why ask it
Notice periods of a month or more are common and become expensive if plans change. Rate history tells you what to budget for next year, and a centre that raises fees mid-year without much warning usually says so in a vague way here. Ask when increases are announced.
Getting a real look at a daycare
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When you visit changes what you see
Avoid the mid-morning showcase
Most tours are booked between nine and eleven, when the centre is fully staffed and the day is at its calmest. Ask for a slot late in the afternoon or right at closing instead. That is when rooms combine, staff have been on their feet for eight hours, and children are tired, which is a fairer picture of the place you would actually be using.
Go twice if you can
A second short visit on a different day, ideally unannounced, is worth more than a longer first tour. You are checking whether what you saw was a normal day. If a second visit is discouraged, treat that as information.
Bring your child to one visit, not the first
Watching how a teacher greets an unfamiliar child, whether they crouch to their level and speak to them rather than about them, tells you a great deal in thirty seconds. Do this after you have already decided the centre is plausible, so you are not putting a toddler through five tours.
What to watch while you are being told things
- Look at the adults' faces and where they are. Are they on the floor with children, or standing together at the edge of the room talking to each other?
- Listen to the sound level. Purposeful noise is fine. A room that is either silent or unrelieved crying is worth asking about.
- Watch one crying child from start to finish and see how long it takes for someone to reach them.
- Check the nappy change area and the sink, and whether you see anyone wash their hands between children.
- Look for children's own work on the walls rather than identical crafts or commercial posters.
- Notice whether staff use children's names, and whether children go to them easily.
- Check the outdoor space for shade, and whether the gate latches behind you.
Checking answers after you leave
- 1Look up the licence and inspection history with your state or local regulator. Most publish reports online, including citations and how they were resolved.
- 2Ask for the parent handbook and read the sections on fees, notice, illness and termination before you pay a deposit.
- 3Ask for two current families you can call, and ask them what they wish they had known before starting.
- 4Write down your three answers per centre the same day. After four tours the buildings blur and you will only remember which one had the nicest lobby.
- 5Get the waitlist position and cost in writing, since deposits to hold a place are often nonrefundable.
Things that should give you pause
- Reluctance to name the actual teachers who would be in the room, or to let you meet them.
- Any restriction on parents visiting during the day beyond a quiet nap window.
- Turnover discussed as though the question were rude.
- Answers about ratios that never include the opening and closing hours.
- A tour route that skips the sleep room or the nappy change area.
- Pressure to pay a deposit before you have read the handbook.
Once you have chosen
- Ask for a short settling-in period: an hour together, then a couple of half days, before a full one.
- Tell them the specifics that make your child's day easier, such as how they fall asleep or the word they use for a comfort object.
- Agree how you will hear about anything concerning, and check after two weeks whether that is actually happening.
- Expect the first month to include more illness than usual. It is normal and not a sign you chose badly.