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Day Care Centers and Preschools

Day care centers

Day Care Centers and Preschools Day care centers, as well as preschools, typically are institutional settings similar to elementary schools. Often, children are grouped in classroom-type arrangements according to age, with one or more teachers or aides. Each class usually will follow a lesson plan similar to those used in grade schools. These school-like surroundings are one of the main differences from family day care.

Day Care Centers
Day care centers provide supervision to children in a larger group environment during set hours. A typical center might remain open from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, although there are any number of variations on opening hours for different facilities. Some programs provide care into the evening, overnight, or on weekends.

Another major advantage to choosing a day care center is that centers are able to remain open if one of the employees is ill. In a family day care setting, discussed in Family Day Care, there may only be one caregiver, forcing the need to make other arrangements if the caregiver is sick. Absent a facility-wide outbreak of an illness, a day care center can be relied upon to remain open on all of its regular business days.

Day care centers also are seen by some as safer than family day care or in-home situations, mainly because of the number of people present in the facility. With a greater number of staff, not to mention all of the parents coming and going throughout the day, it is less likely that a situation of abuse or neglect toward any child would occur without anyone noticing.

Disadvantages
On the flip side, there are several disadvantages with day care centers, mainly related to the number of staff members and the number of children. The biggest problem has to do with children-to-staff ratios. Higher numbers of children per staff member generally correlates with lower quality of care. Unfortunately, in many cases, day care center staff is underpaid, leading to unfilled positions and high turnover. This results in higher children-to-staff ratios than are desirable, and possibly to less stability in the care that the children receive.

The sheer number of children in day care centers is also seen as a disadvantage by many parents. If there are four, five, or even more rooms, even if there are fewer than ten children per room, there are far more children present than there would be in a family day care setting. More children means more germs, and of course, a greater chance that your child will come home with a nasty cold, strep throat, or worse.

Another potential sticking point for families is the philosophy of the individual program. Sometimes, day care centers tend to be play-based rather than educationally focused. This is seen as a deficiency by some parents, who prefer that their children are provided with scholastic experiences when in childcare situations. At the same time, there are plenty of day care centers that provide an actual curriculum for enrolled children. Check for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation, which is discussed in Evaluating Out-of-Home Childcare. If the facility is accredited, it has a curriculum that meets NAEYC standards.

Locating Day Care Centers
Probably the best starting place in a search for a day care center is through your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency (CCRR). CCRRs are organizations that assist working parents in finding quality childcare. They also help train new day care providers so there are more childcare openings available for children of working parents. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) is the nationwide network of local CCRRs and can provide a great deal of useful information for parents with questions pertaining to their childcare search. (Appendix B provides a list of all local CCRRs operating in the country at the time of writing.)

Typically, a CCRR will charge a small fee for a list of local day care centers and family day care homes. For that fee, you will be able to utilize the CCRR's services for a certain time period, such as six months. This is useful in case you try a day care situation, and it ends up not working out. You can receive an updated listing in order to locate a new provider. For lower-income families, the fee may be either waived or prorated on a sliding scale according to household income. A CCRR can tell you which programs are accredited, the age ranges of children that each program accepts, and the operating hours of each.

Referrals and costReferrals from Friends, Family, and Coworkers
Of course, no referral agency can take the place of a recommendation from someone you trust. Talk to friends, relatives, or people you know from church or work and ask them about their search for childcare. They will give you much more than a name or address. If you know a family currently using the same type of childcare arrangement that you are considering, talk to them about their experiences. For example, if it is family day care, ask if they would recommend the provider. See if there is any­thing they would change about this provider or arrangement. It may even turn out that their childcare provider would suit your family's needs, in which case, you may have to look no further. Even if that caregiver would not work for you, your friends might be able to talk to the provider about other caregivers who might be suitable for your family. Repeat this process with anyone else you can think of who might be able to connect you with the right childcare setting. This type of networking is a great way to find childcare leads.

Another source of referrals, especially if you work for an employer of a large number of people, is your company's human resources personnel. HR departments exist in part to provide employees with solutions to problems that keep them from realizing their full potential with the company. While they may or may not have a formal day care referral pro­gram, chances are they will at least be able to give you useful suggestions about finding qualified caregivers in the area.

Costs of Day Care Centers
The expense of day care centers varies according to geographic region, services provided to children, and ratio of staff to children. It is reason­able to expect full-time care to cost anywhere from $250 to $1,000 per month in a center. Costs are more likely to be less in a small town than in a large urban area. Generally, centers charge more for infants than they do for toddlers, and more for toddlers than for school-age children.

The following are some examples of monthly costs found in a random sampling of day care facilities.

Oklahoma (rural area) $420/month for infants;
$300/month for preschoolers

New England (small urban area) $780/month for infants;
$620/month for preschoolers Northwest (urban area) $1030/month for infants;
$790/month for preschoolers

The sample expenses listed are only an illustration of what you might find where you live. Keep in mind that for an exclusive childcare facility, with a very low ratio of children to staff, the sky may be the limit when it comes to tuition. On the other hand, a church-based day care program for children of parishioners, for example, may cost much less than the norm.

PreschoolsPreschools
Preschools are usually educationally-based programs with developed lesson plans and teachers specializing in early childhood education. Preschools are more likely to be limited in their operating hours. Although some preschools remain open from early morning until evening, they are much more likely to be either half-day programs, or at the most, run approximately the same hours as a regular full school day.

Some states provide free preschool for certain qualified children from low-income families. Two states—Georgia and Oklahoma—offer free pre­school to all children residing in the state.

If you are looking for an academic program with full-time day care hours, however, your choices are more likely to be limited. This is true particularly if you are not in a large, urban area. In addition, be prepared to pay a premium for a program with an emphasis on education over play. Oftentimes, these types of schools will offer extras, such as music or foreign language classes, which may or may not be included in the basic tuition.

Whether an academic or a play-based preschool is preferable for children is something of a hot topic these days. As families feel more and more pres­sure to ensure that their children succeed in school, some parents want an academic childcare environment in order to give their children an advantage over their peers in later years. It is important, however, not to overlook the growing body of evidence that emotional intelligence is a more accurate indicator of life success than cognitive intellect or book smarts.

Emotional intelligence refers to social and personal abilities that a per­son has, which help him or her get along with others, make good decisions, and achieve satisfaction with his or her circumstances and environment. As a result of this relatively new way of looking at child development, some people believe that a play-based environment, with emphasis on social and emotional growth, is the best way to prepare young children for success in school.

At this point in time, the play and academic factions will probably have to simply agree to disagree as to which is better. It may be best to look for a balance between the two. A well-rounded full-time program will include plenty of time for play, as well as opportunities for learning.

Montessori Programs
One type of educational program that often operates full time similarly to day care centers is the Montessori school. Montessori refers to the philosophy of the program, which was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori in the early part of the last century. A very general summary of the Montessori method is that children are placed in an environment in which they take the initiative for their own learning. Teachers are present as guides in the learning process, rather than as the main focus of the room. Teachers allow children to pursue the concepts that interest them, rather than standing at the front of the room and directing what the children are learning. Large group learning is not a significant part of the pro­gram; children work individually more often than not. A great emphasis is placed on the use of concrete objects in learning. Some critics believe that this is at the expense of more abstract concepts. All academic subjects are integrated in the learning process. Rather than a math lesson, followed by geography, then science, for instance, the Montessori method encourages the child to incorporate many disciplines into a single pursuit.

Some parents do not favor Montessori education. One reason is—in the program's pure form—pretend play is not encouraged. Also, some parents are not comfortable with the teachers taking such a hands-off stance with regard to the children's learning. They prefer to have a teacher be the educator rather than the guide, with the children instructed in a more traditional manner.

One thing to be noted is that the Montessori method is not patented and the Montessori name is not trademarked. This means that any pro­gram can call itself a Montessori school, whether or not it adheres to the original principles. As a result, you should take a good look at the actual operations of a Montessori school you are considering to see if you agree with the particular methods the program is using.