Questions to Ask on a Daycare Tour
Questions to ask while walking around a daycare, covering staffing and turnover, the daily routine in your child's room, illness and allergies, how you would hear about an incident, and the full cost. Written for a first visit, before you join a waiting list.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Who would be in my child's room every day, and how long have they worked here?
Why ask it
The centre director is not the person who will hold your child. Ask for the actual staff by name and length of service, and meet them if they are in the building, because a long-serving room lead is the strongest single indicator of quality.
What is your ratio in this room, and what happens when someone calls in sick?
Why ask it
The advertised ratio is the best case. What matters is the cover arrangement: a floating staff member who knows the children is very different from an agency worker meeting them for the first time, or from two rooms being combined.
How many staff have left in the past year?
Why ask it
High turnover is the problem that undermines everything else, because young children settle with people rather than with premises. A director who answers with a number is more trustworthy than one who talks about being like a family.
What training does the room staff have in first aid, CPR, and safe sleep?
Why ask it
Ask who currently holds the certificates rather than whether training is provided. For rooms with babies, safe sleep practice is the specific thing to ask about, and you should be able to see it in the room while you stand there.
May I see your most recent inspection report, and were there any findings?
Why ask it
Licensed settings are inspected and the reports are usually public. Willingness to hand it over matters as much as the contents, and any findings are worth asking about directly: what happened and what changed afterwards.
Can you walk me through a full day in this room, hour by hour?
Why ask it
Ask for the real timings, including drop-off, meals, outside time, nap and pickup. Vague answers about a flexible child-led day sometimes mean genuine responsiveness and sometimes mean no plan, and the follow-up questions tell you which.
How much time do children spend outside, and what happens in bad weather?
Why ask it
Outdoor time is one of the first things to disappear when a setting is short-staffed. A specific answer about waterproofs and a covered area suggests it happens most days; if the answer is weather permitting, ask how last week went.
What do children eat here, and who prepares it?
Why ask it
Ask to see this week's menu rather than a sample one. Food cooked on site, food delivered, and food brought from home are three different arrangements with different costs and different flexibility.
How do you handle allergies, and is food ever shared between children or rooms?
Why ask it
You are listening for a specific system: labelled plates, a posted list, staff who can name the affected children, separate seating where needed. Reassurance without a described procedure is the answer to worry about.
What is your policy on sick children, and when would you call me to collect?
Why ask it
Exclusion thresholds vary widely and directly affect how many days of work you will lose. Ask for the temperature or symptoms that trigger a call, and how long a child must stay away afterwards.
How do you respond to biting, hitting, and tantrums?
Why ask it
Every toddler room deals with this weekly, so a vague answer means either inexperience or reluctance. Look for a described sequence and for whether both children's families are told, which is where centres differ most.
What would you do if my child cried for an hour after I left?
Why ask it
Settling is the part of daycare parents find hardest, and the answer reveals the room's whole approach. Being held and distracted, being put down to cry it out, and being phoned about are very different, and you should know which to expect.
How do naps work here, and what happens if my child does not sleep?
Why ask it
Fixed nap windows work badly for children on a different rhythm, and the accommodation offered varies enormously. Ask where non-sleepers go and what they do, because in some rooms the answer is that they lie still for two hours.
How do you handle nappies, toilet training, and accidents?
Why ask it
Ask about the practicalities: changing frequency, whether you supply nappies, and whether they will follow your approach to training or require their own. Settings that insist a child is trained before moving rooms should say so now.
How will I hear about my child's day, and how would you tell me about an incident?
Why ask it
Distinguish routine updates from incident reporting, because they are separate systems. What you want to hear is that a bump or a bite is reported the same day, in writing, whether or not you ask.
Who is allowed to collect my child, and how do you check?
Why ask it
You are looking for a written authorised list and a habit of checking identification for anyone unfamiliar. A centre that would release a child to someone who sounds plausible is a centre with no system.
What are your procedures for fire, evacuation, and lockdown, and where would children be taken?
Why ask it
Ask when the last drill was and how the youngest children are moved, since babies cannot walk out. A named offsite meeting point and a recent drill date indicate the plan exists in practice rather than on paper.
How do parents raise a concern here, and what has changed because of one?
Why ask it
The second half is the real question. Any centre can describe an open door policy; a specific example of something they altered after a complaint is evidence that the door leads somewhere.
What is the full cost, including deposit, holidays, closures, and late pickup?
Why ask it
Ask what you pay for weeks your child is absent and for days the centre is closed, since these are the charges families are most often surprised by. Get the late collection fee and the notice period for changing days in writing.
What is the waiting list like for this room, and what would you need from me to hold a place?
Why ask it
Ask about the deposit, whether it is refundable, and how far ahead places are allocated. This is also where you find out whether the room you just saw would even be the room your child starts in.
How to read a daycare visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Timing the visit
Go once in the middle of the day and once at pickup
A mid-morning visit shows you a settled room. Late afternoon shows you a tired room with fewer staff on shift, which is closer to the harder half of the day. If you can only make one visit, choose the later one.
Ask to see the room your child would actually be in
Tours often start with the newest or best-equipped space. Ask specifically to stand in the room for your child's age group, and to see the room they would move up into next year.
Spend part of the visit not talking
Put the questions down for two or three minutes and watch instead. How staff speak to a child who is upset, and whether anyone is on the floor at child height, tells you more than any policy document.
Bring your child if you can
Watching who greets your child, and whether anyone speaks to them directly rather than about them, is a useful test. It also gives you a first sense of how they respond to the noise level of the room.
What to notice while you are there
- Count the adults and children yourself in the room you are shown, rather than relying on the stated ratio.
- Look at whether staff are interacting with children or supervising them from the edge of the room.
- Check what is at child height: accessible toys and displayed artwork at eye level suggest the room is arranged for the children rather than for visitors.
- Notice the noise. A busy hum is normal; sustained crying with nobody attending to it, or unusual quiet, are both worth asking about.
- Look at the nappy changing area and the handwashing arrangements, which are the two places where routine hygiene either happens or does not.
- Ask whether you may drop in unannounced once your child is enrolled. The answer to that question tells you a great deal on its own.
Common mistakes
Judging the building instead of the people
New equipment and fresh paint are easy to see and easy to fund. Staff who have worked in the same room for years, and who know each child's habits, are what actually determines your child's day.
Accepting policy language without an example
Every setting has a positive behaviour policy and an open door policy. Ask what happened the last time a child bit another child, or the last time a parent complained, and see whether a concrete answer follows.
Leaving costs until the paperwork stage
Deposits, charges for closure weeks, and notice periods for reducing days are all easier to ask about on a tour than to renegotiate later. Get the fee schedule as a document before you commit to a list.
Not checking the licence and the reports yourself
Ask for the licence number and look up the record independently rather than relying on what you are handed. If a past finding exists, raise it calmly and listen to whether the answer describes a change or a dismissal.