Starting the Daycare Search

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any good tips for starting the daycare search? IE- aside from this forum, are there any repositories of lists/reviews curated by parents?

[Anonymous]

Look for ones that are either near your home or your workplace, then go from there.

[Anonymous]

Local facebook groups, carelulu.com.

[Anonymous]

If you are in Maryland, you can search on https://www.checkccmd.org/ to find providers by zip code and see their licensing inspection history. Also, the Maryland Family Network has an online search tool called LOCATE Child Care Now where you can search for providers on a map, it also has data on costs if the provider has given them ( https://www.marylandfamilynetwork.org/for-parents/locate-child-care ).

I recommend
(a) deciding your budget for child care and whether you want in-home, center or would consider either
(b) make a list of all applicable providers (using the tools listed above) that offer the hours you want and are located reasonably close to you, what kind of accreditation or state rating they have and if they have a lot of licensing violations (most will have at least one or two)
(c) tour them, see how engaged/happy the teachers look, ask for parent references and ask about turnover (bearing in mind most centers have a fair amount of turnover these days)