The Best Childcare In Your Area? September 23, 2009

Being a first-time parent can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t have help from family or advice from friends who have been through what you’re going through. One of the many questions facing a parent is whether or not to utilize a daycare facility and if so, which one to choose.

If you have already enrolled a child in daycare, you have at least some experience to go by. If your friends or acquaintances have their kids in daycare, you can ask them. If you don’t have any of those resources to draw upon, then you’ll need to research daycare facilities on your own. Internet chatgroups and websites can be helpful, but the first place to start is with the government agency that regulates childcare.

Chatgroups and other internet information can be biased and inaccurate. A bad review can be caused by a trivial misunderstanding between daycare operator and parent. Perhaps a parent was having a bad day and then became offended because
the parent mistook the tone of a daycare employee. Then the parent posts something negative online. Those are unreliable reports and should be double checked.

The best place to get reliable information about the quality of daycare facilities is the Florida Department of Children and Families.  From its homepage, click on “programs” and then “childcare.” At that page, you can search all the childcare providers in your zip code by clicking on “provider search.” All you have to do is select which county you’re in, input your zip code and select which provider type you’re looking for.

Once the list of daycare providers appears, you can view their inspection records to see if they regularly live up to the quality standards required by Florida law. If a provider has been “reinspected,” it is because it has not meet the inspection requirements and were given a second chance to correct the issues.

Some facilities I investigated had violations ranging from improper record keeping to failing to have a staff person properly trained in first aid and CPR to not having the required protective mats under their swingset. If these violations are corrected, no further action is taken. However, repeat offenders are subject to administrative action. Information about providers that have been subject to administrative action is coming soon.

At the same screen where you click on “Provider Search,” you can click on “Administrative Actions, Publications, Reports” along the left hand column. Once the government starts posting information there, you’ll be able to discover the worst daycare facilities in Florida.

A great tool to utilize when you’re doing a provider search is the checkbox for “Gold Seal Accredited” childcare providers. By checking that box, the search return will only display the very best of daycare facilities in your zip code. Gold Seal Accredited programs provide a level of care that exceeds the minimum child care licensing standards established by Florida law by meeting the higher standards of the approved accrediting agencies.