Anonymous wrote:At a good center the teachers are professionals and they know how to have the kids engaged while attending to their needs. A tour and a look at the reviews should help you to see better how well the teachers manage the group. Its not all about 4 year degrees - its about training and experience and education.

Agreed completely. Very very few centers have teachers with long tenure because of the working conditions. And even then, your kid will move up classrooms as they age, and then they get a new teacher. So even if you get an experienced one now, you might not have that same one next year.

It is about experience, personality and temperament. Just having a degree doesn’t mean anything. I ended up choosing an in home daycare where the provider has been in business for over 10+ years. The provider’s experience ended up being what was most important for me.

But it depends on what people’s preferences are. Everyone will have different opinions on what is most important to them.

I would pay much closer attention to teacher turnover vs ratios.

At a good center the teachers are professionals and they know how to have the kids engaged while attending to their needs. A tour and a look at the reviews should help you to see better how well the teachers manage the group. Its not all about 4 year degrees - its about training and experience and education.

Anonymous wrote:No one would ever be wrangling 8 at once. That is a licensing violation. The center will have floaters or a member of management that will step in for teacher breaks.

Fascinating! I used to work in a daycare center, it was common for me or another person to be in charge of way more than 8 at once. I hope you are right and that has changed!

No one would ever be wrangling 8 at once. That is a licensing violation. The center will have floaters or a member of management that will step in for teacher breaks.

Anonymous wrote:is 1:4 for toddlers good? I know it's required by virginia, but it seems like not enough teachers to kiddos. in folks' experience, does it work okay?

Ask yourself, could I wrangle four toddlers at once? Change their diapers? Hold them when they cry? Teach them anything? Could I do it if I got a degree? Do any degree programs focus on how to wrangle four toddlers at once? What if my coworker has to go to the bathroom or goes home sick, could I wrangle eight toddlers at once? Hmmm.

Anonymous wrote:If ratios is all you care about, I recommend looking for the most expensive childcare center you can find where the commute is acceptable to you. The most expensive ones. They will likely have trouble filling up the classes because of how expensive they are. I saw a few where they have a very good ratio because people just can’t afford to pay. Although this is a gamble and the ratio can go UP because they will be trying to fill up the classes. But due to their tuition rates, they will have a hard time filling up the whole class.

+1 I’ve found this to be true. We are in a daycare that’s one of the more expensive ones in our area. Full capacity in our room is 8 infants (with 2 teachers) but right now, 6 are enrolled and 2 teachers are still needed.

If ratios is all you care about, I recommend looking for the most expensive childcare center you can find where the commute is acceptable to you. The most expensive ones. They will likely have trouble filling up the classes because of how expensive they are. I saw a few where they have a very good ratio because people just can’t afford to pay. Although this is a gamble and the ratio can go UP because they will be trying to fill up the classes. But due to their tuition rates, they will have a hard time filling up the whole class.

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP but my kids both just started at Celebree in Tysons and it’s been a very positive experience thus far. Brand new/very clean and teachers have been consistent which was why we left their previous school. I also like being able to go back and drop off and pick up from their rooms which we couldn’t do at their previous one either.

We're about to start at tysons celebree in a couple months. Any advice to prep a toddler that's been at home.

is 1:4 for toddlers good? I know it's required by virginia, but it seems like not enough teachers to kiddos. in folks' experience, does it work okay?

Ratios is one thing you can definitely ask about during a virtual tour, yes it matters and yes some daycares have more teachers than required by the state. Whether it is a chain or not does not define the ratio they use.