As a working woman, you may be concerned about your child and would need to look out for a daycare. Daycare can prove to be a boon to parents but only if they meet the desired requirements. Although requirements vary from family to family, by and large the basic prerequisites of a safe daycare for any child remain almost the same.
So if you want to be rest assured that your child is in safe hands it is important that you do a thorough research before finalizing on a daycare. Certain factors that would like to consider in your daycare selection process are:
Location and timings
- Consider the location, fees and the transportation that would be required. Enquire if they provide transportation and add the expenses to your accounting.
- Confirm the working days and timings and be informed about any additional hours on certain occasions are permitted. Confirm the additional fees as well.
- Be informed about the rules and regulations of pick and drop timings, about children being dropped by van from another school and similar other things.
Registration
- Check for the license or registration of the daycare, the standards that they need to meet to maintain their license, the number of children, the area and schools from which the other children come.
- Enquire about the staff, qualified teachers and trained caretakers and compare it with the number of children.
- Check whether they have tie-ups with qualified and trained medical professional for regular health check-ups and with hospitals in case of emergencies.
- In case they provide food, check if they have a registered nutritionist on their panel.
Hygiene
- Personally visit the daycare centre and see the environment. See if there is enough space for outdoor and indoor play, separate rooms for nap time, separate play area, study area for older kids, and other requirements.
- Look for hygiene standards and enquire about their infection control procedures. A healthy daycare needs to have clean washrooms, separate areas for baby toileting, diaper change area, cleaning of rooms with disinfectants, etc.
- Enquire about the policies regarding children having illnesses, whether they are not allowed in the daycare or that they have a separate room for sick children.
Toy safety
- Check if the toys and pay gyms are cleaned using sterilizers and are washed if required. Soft toys need to be clean as they can spread allergies and infections. Check for other toys being age appropriate, well-maintained as broken toys need to be removed.
- Enquire about the educational activities, playtime and daily schedule maintained for the children.
