Where do you look for home daycare?

[Anonymous]

Besides the state or county website, where other than this site do you search for child care? Grocery store? Church? Other websites? Please share.

[Anonymous]

If you're in Virginia, start with the inspection website.

http://www.dss.state.va.us/facility/search/licensed.cgi

Look up the zipcodes that are convenient to your home and/or work (don't forget the ones that you drive through from home to work), look at the age range of the kids (i.e. do they take infants at 6 weeks? toddlers at 2 years?) Are the hours of operation workable with your work schedule? (a lot of centers close at 5:30, which can be hard if you're commuting a long way to get there.) Then start calling around to see who might have openings. Tour the houses that are possibilities. I'd recommend keeping track of the potential places, and calls and visits and your impressions of each, as they can kind of blend together. (I toured 4 centers and about 6 in-home providers.)

Also look on Craigslist. If the providers are in VA, look up their inspection record on the above site.

[Anonymous]

I first asked friends/neighbors/colleagues for names, then checked state/county websites and infanttoddler.com for additional names. I noted the providers closest to home and office, checked the violations database, and called my top contenders to see who had availability and schedule interviews. I didn't check any other online or offline anonymous recommendations - no way to vet the source.

[Anonymous]

If you are in MD, there are 2 secure ways to it.
1: LOCATE CHILD CARE , it's a branch of the Maryland Office of child care licensing and referral.

http://www.mdchildcare.org/mdcfc/for_parents/finding.html


2: www.care.com , they screen all providers and you have a complete background check, references, access to profile....