Warning signs of a substandard daycare

As a working parent you will almost certainly have to rely on hired caregivers to look after your child during the day. You have probably done your homework with respect to the daycare choices you have, visited the centers and in-home providers you were considering, and also checked their license status. But despite the best intentions of a parent, daycare centers change and sometimes not for the better. So whether you already have a child in daycare or are just now beginning to look for daycare for your children, be vigilant and keep your eyes open.

Here are some warning signs of a substandard daycare:

Licensing issues
While interviewing a daycare provider, you ask to see the license and the caregiver cannot find it or has temporarily mislaid it. Be very suspicious! Given that a daycare has to go through many steps to become licensed, and such an effort is considered an achievement in the industry, it is odd for someone to have gone through the trouble and then be unable to produce it upon request. Perhaps the provider was less than truthful when you asked about licenses, or maybe the license was revoked, suspended, or simply expired – whatever the case may be, you might want to continue looking. 

It is a good idea to check up on your daycare’s license every so often. You can do this yourself by calling the Department of Social Services. Perhaps you might want to check on this every six months or so. If during one of your calls you are suddenly told that the license expired and was not renewed, or that it has been revoked, you know there is trouble and you will want to take your child out of that daycare setting immediately.

Check out customer service
Run the daycare center’s name through the Better Business Bureau website. If it comes back with a substandard rating, you know that even though the facility might be stellar, their customer service is not, and you do not want to do business with someone who cannot communicate with parents adequately.

Bad rumours and gossip
While talking to your friends, neighbors or grocery clerk about childcare options, you hear some things about a daycare center that you were considering that are less than good. Granted, you do not want to be a gossip and therefore should not carry any tales around, but on the other hand you do need to keep in mind that another parent who had a firsthand experience with a daycare will most likely not lie to you and make the daycare sound terrible if it is really terrific. You can still go and check it out, but keep your eyes and ears open for the defects your friend mentioned.

Cigarette smoke
When entering the daycare setting you smell cigarette smoke. Whether it is a daycare center or an in-home childcare situation, there should be no smells of cigarette smoke anywhere near the area where children are. If you also see cigarette butts or ashtrays, you know it is time to leave.

Interaction with staff - or lack of it
When making a surprise visit to the daycare – and yes, you should make them every so often - the children appear “warehoused” and put away in swings, cribs, and other self-contained areas. You cannot see any interaction with caregivers. Worse yet, the caregivers might be associating with one another instead of interacting with the children. This is a definite red flag. Granted, during naptime the children should be down but if you arrived at any time after or before naptime, there is no good reason for this sort of behavior.

No rules or policies
If the daycare center has no clear-cut rules and policies in place, you might want to continue looking. Odds are the person providing the care is either just getting started or is not too worried about coming across like a professional.

Lack of cleanliness
Is the facility clean, safe, and well maintained?  If you notice trash piled up, dirty dishes, dirt in the corners, dirty diapers or nappies and animal faeces in the yard, give the center a wide berth. If the place is dark and uninviting, your child will not enjoy her stay at this facility. Additionally, if it is stifling hot or freezing cold, the children may be susceptible to more illnesses. This does not sound like a great idea and you should probably keep looking.

Unhappy or unwell kids
Do the children seem happy, smiling and well? Some centers seem to encourage illness, whether because they are not too clean or because they do not have strict rules for keeping unwell children at home and away from other healthy kids!

Young and inexperienced staff
What age are the staff? If all the staff are obviously very young and inexperienced, you might want to keep looking. Obviously all good daycare centers take on and train up young members of staff, but you must have experienced staff to supervise and be there for emergencies, so do not rely on a place where all the care providers have less experience than you do! Pay attention to the atmosphere and interaction between staff too. Ideally you want your daycare provider to be a caring employer, because unhappy staff do not give their best to the job.