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Starting a daycare requires organization and planning. Before starting the process of collecting toys for your daycare, recruiting and hiring staff or applying for grants, it’s important to know daycare center requirements. This allows you to find out if you are able to meet those requirements before putting any more time and work into this new business venture.

Reasons for the Requirements

Licensed and registered daycares must meet a minimum set of standards that can vary from state to state in the United States. These standards are set to protect the health and safety of children as well as to make sure children with special needs are properly cared for. The requirements include the ratio of children to adults (how many adult caregivers per child), food standards, staff qualifications and guidelines for learning and play.

Even if you plan to start a home-based, unlicensed daycare, it’s a good idea to know the requirements of licensed daycares so that you can provide the same level of service.

With registered and licensed daycares, the government monitors the establishment to make sure requirements are met. There are consultants and inspectors who visit centers unannounced to inspect the facilities, staff and programs to make sure all the minimum regulations are being met. This information is documented and is available for the public to see. Parents looking at these reports and daycares with consistently good reports tend to be high in demand.

To find out what the minimum standards are for your state or country, contact your country’s National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education or a comparable organization. In the United States, the number is 1-800-598-5437. The Resource Center will be able to provide you with child care licensure regulations and requirements by area.

General Requirements

In most states, the child-staff ratio is three to one for infants under a year. Fewer adults are required to supervise and care for older children so a single adult can care for up to 12 children age nine or older. If you’re planning on starting a daycare with mixed ages, the child-staff ratio needs to be based on the age of the youngest children. If you’re running a home-based daycare center and you are also caring for your own children, then you need to include your own children in the ratio.

Licensed daycares require that the primary caregiver be licensed. Other caregivers must receive a minimum of 12 hours of child development training and submit to background checks.

Daycares are required to provide children with healthy food in intervals of about two hours daily. Children must have access to clean drinking water.

Freestanding daycare centers need to be structurally sound, free of hazards, handicap-accessible and structurally sound. A home daycare must have a section in your home specifically for the center. Home-based and freestanding daycare centers need to have an indoor and outdoor play area, natural light and adequate ventilation.

If you would like to start your own daycare, one of the first things you should do before you accept any children is create a daycare contract or daycare agreement. This type of contract is important because it protects you and your business and also lets parents know what’s expected of them.

The contract doesn’t need to be long. Ideally, shorter is better. Anything longer than two pages could be too daunting for the parents and they may not read the entire agreement. Always have two copies; one for the parents and one for your files. If you wish, you can get the parents to initial all pages except the one that has the full signature.

What to Include

When someone thinks of a contract or agreement, images of fancy words and expensive lawyers comes to mind. The truth is that a daycare agreement doesn’t need to be anything fancy. It should include the following:

· The full name of the family of the child.

· Your full name as well as the name of your business

· How many children will be in the daycare, the hours of care required as well as all fees to be charged to the family

· When you will begin caring for the child and when care for the child will end, if applicable.

· The signature of the parents or guardians. Make a line for each parent, if applicable.

· The date the contract is signed.

· Your signature.

Rates and Payment

There’s always the chance that money can become an issue. Make sure you clearly list your rates. You need to also make it clear when the payment is required and the consequences of being late. Make sure you include a clause about no credit being issued for absent or sick days.

Don’t forget to include information about what you expect for payment when the parents pull their child(ren) from your daycare for vacations. Make it clear whether you charge a full or partial rate during vacation time. Also include information about the length of notice you require before their vacations.

Be specific about when you would like payment. Include consequences for bounced checks.

Probation and Termination

Allow yourself a probationary period. This provides you with an out if the child is extremely difficult. It also provides the parents a way to get out of the contract if, for some reason, they don’t like the care provided. Add in your contract something along the lines of “The provider, parent and child have a probationary period of ten business days. Either party may end this contract without penalty during this time.”

Parents also need to know your policy in case they wish to terminate your services. Reasons vary from moving to discipline reasons. A two-week notice is the norm and it’s not unusual to request full two weeks payment if no notice is given.

A daycare is the type of business where you’re certain to have work for as many years as people keep having babies and need someone to take care of their children. The downside to starting a daycare business is that you will have significant competition. Parents will be comparing your qualifications and what your daycare offers with others and they’ll base their decision on whomever they feel provides the best care for their child(ren).

One way you can stand apart from the competition is by the types of toys you provide and the quality of those toys. If you’re a parent of young children, you may already have an idea of what a parent might want available for their young child to play with. Here are a few other ideas and points to keep in mind when buying daycare toys.

Toy Safety

Safety will be one of the biggest concerns when it comes to selecting toys. For a daycare with small children it’s better to avoid small toys or larger toys with many smaller parts. Bigger toys with fewer parts are usually a better choice.

Whatever toys you choose, you need to make sure that they’re used as they should be. Toys are made to be used a certain way and if they’re misused, they could cause injury. Make sure you have a selection of age appropriate toys for all groups of ages in your daycare.

Toys for Development

Young children learn to identify colors and objects by what adults provide them. The proper toys can make learning fundamental skills easier, faster and more enjoyable for the child. This is why careful thought needs to be put into choosing toys for development if you’d like to start a daycare. While the standards like rocking horses and wooden blocks are still good choices, it’s a good idea to also include multi-functional learning toys.

Combining specialized toys with basic alphabet blocks and coloring books will help the children in your care develop physically and mentally.

For very young children the best toy choices are sorting toys, matching toys and musical toys. Young children are very sensory and sorting toys provide hands-on learning opportunities and can help a child learn about basic shapes and colors. Examples of sorting toys include pegs with shapes, slotted toys for different shaped objects, colored sorting mats and numbered holes.

Musical toys can teach a child about sound and to relate certain sounds with a specific event. For example, a child will learn very quickly if a toy that makes a sound when a certain button is pressed. Matching toys work a child’s brain by teaching him or her the relationship between items. The child will also learn to look for similarities. Matching games are also a good game option for older children.

There are many outstanding ideas which never get underway, or do get underway and ultimately fail, due largely to inadequate initial funding. If you are unsure of where to go or whom to speak with, relax-there are many sources of financing for your daycare business. Public funding is seldom available for daycare start-ups, yet there are a number of sources for loans and grants you can apply to such as commercial banks, government agencies, private sources and certain grant programs.

Venture capitalists are unlikely to finance daycare centers as they tend to concentrate on growth firms rather than start-up businesses-unless you happen to be lucky enough to personally know a venture capitalist!

Private Sources

Private sources will encompass your own savings account, or funds from friends or relatives. The advantage of using your own money is, obviously, you are not going to charge yourself interest, however you will be losing whatever interest you were previously garnering on the money you had stashed in savings. You also lose the use of your savings account as a cushion for any future emergencies which could crop up.

The advantages of borrowing for your daycare business from friends or family are that there is no legal limit on how much you can borrow and the terms are usually somewhat more flexible than those of commercial sources. The disadvantage is simple–should you not repay the money on time, or have a falling out with the person you borrowed from, then a family or friend relationship can be ruined, possibly for life.

Commercial Banks

All banks have a commercial division, and these divisions will offer short-term or long-term loans at the prevailing interest rates. Banks will require collateral and good credit in order to loan you money to open your daycare center. They will also calculate the level of risk your business offers; if you have a strong, well-thought-out business plan available which details your daycare finances, your chances of getting your loan are much higher.

Government Sources

Federal, state and local governmental agencies offer many types of special financing to small businesses, many of which are administered under government guidelines and funded by the government. Your loan may come directly from your state, or even through a state-chartered corporation, and are generally used for long-term needs such as equipment. Most states will require collateral, just like the banks; should you default on your loan, the state does not want to lose its investment.

You can contact the Small Business Administration (SBA) in your area-they can offer you an up-to-date list of current loan programs and their requirements, and can assist you in putting together a comprehensive business plan for your daycare as well.

Grant Programs

Grants are money provided to businesses that you never have to repay, and are generally funded by federal or state government agencies, or, in some cases, private foundations. While grants are usually reserved for non-profit organizations or research and development, there are a few exceptions. Search the Internet for local or federal grant funds which could be available for your daycare center, but don’t pay money for lists or books-they are mostly a waste of your money, and the true federal and state grant listings are free.

Business Plan or Business Proposal

No matter where you apply for financial assistance, you definitely need a good business plan or proposal which includes your purpose, or the reasons you want to start a daycare center, your goals as far as what type center you are proposing and why it is necessary, and the procedure you will use to start your daycare business. You will need a comprehensive budget, which clearly shows how much it will cost to both start and to operate your business, and an evaluation page which details how you will determine if your business is fully meeting your original objectives.

Review your business plan or proposal carefully; if your proposal is turned down, politely ask why so you can adjust your proposal or business plan accordingly. Once you have secured your financing, you will then need to develop a sound financial management plan for operation. This may include an expense management software solution in order to keep your daycare business in the green. Finding money for your proposed daycare may take some work-but the end results are well-worth the time and energy you put into funding.

Once your financing is solidly in place, and you have met all the licensing requirements in your state, city and county, you must plan the actual program that will be put into place the day the first child steps foot into your new daycare business. There are many issues to consider when planning your program, and one of the best ways to fully develop your program, is to ask yourself what you would like to see in a daycare center for your own child. Once you start getting phone calls from parents regarding your daycare center, you will need to meet with each parent or set of parents to discuss enrolling their children. When you meet with the parents you will need policies in place that will address:

· Payment-amount, when payment is due, what happens in case of past due payment, etc.

· Illness-both the children’s and yours

· Vacations and holidays

· Field trips

· Your hours, and what happens if the child remains at the center beyond normal hours

· Who is authorized to pick up the child or children

· Activities you will be providing for the children

· Meals you will provide for the children

· Extra clothes required, or other requirements for parents to provide

It’s a good idea to have a child care contract in place which thoroughly explains the policies and procedures of your center and to have the parents who are enrolling their children sign the contract-this way if any problems arise the parents know up-front what your policies are.

Structuring Your Program

While many daycare centers have no real program, rather just let the children play all day, planning is essential to increase the learning opportunities of the children and to avoid boredom. The actual key to your professional success will rest on the strength of day-to-day program you put into place at your new daycare center. When children are bored, not only are they missing out on crucial developmental opportunities, but they are much more likely to act up and exhibit difficult behavior. Everybody will be happier if you have a variety of interesting activities that both the children and you can look forward to each day.

Scheduling

While some daycare centers follow a daily schedule in which the children do basically the same activities at the same time each day, other providers are more spontaneous, responding to the moods of the children. While both systems of scheduling have their advantages, you will probably end up with a mixture of the two. Because children are spontaneous and often have their best moments with little warning, you will, of necessity have to learn to be somewhat flexible. On the other hand, children respond well to a certain amount of structure, and tend to like knowing that each day at ten o’clock they will have puppet time.

Curriculum

Many states will require you to offer structured educational curriculum to the children as a condition for licensure or registration-even if they do not, it’s a good idea to develop an educational program for your new daycare center. Parents will be much more likely to give your center a second look if you have an educational program in place which nurtures the growth and development of their children. You might take a look at the Montessori Method, which encourages a child’s intellectual, social, emotional and physical development.

Meals

You will need to let parents know the times as well as the type of meal and snacks you will be providing for their children. You could post a weekly schedule of daily menus, or inform them of any special considerations in your menus, such as not serving sweets, etc. Parents may request special nutritional considerations for their children, such as no sugar or milk products, vegetarianism, or special food allergies. If you are unable to accommodate such requests, the parents may need to be responsible for supplying any special foods. If you are licensed or registered, you may be eligible for reimbursement for your child care food expenses. You can go online to check on Child Care Food Program (CCFP) or contact your local licensing entity for questions.

Parental Involvement

To the extent possible, you will want to get the children’s parents involved as much as possible. Try to get parents to come along on planned field trips, and arrange conferences with parents to discuss their children’s progress. Children always feel happier and more secure when all the adults surrounding them are totally involved in their educational and recreational activities and their general well-being.

Though it may sound overwhelming, planning your daycare program is a smart move to future success. Before long all the planning will fall into place and become second nature to you, and your business will run smoothly.

Before you move ahead in your quest to open your own daycare business, you should find out about the licensing requirements in your state, and in your city or county. There are many regulatory agencies who will have more to say and do with your future business than you would possibly wish, therefore you must be up to speed on the requirements to avoid future problems or issues. While the majority of the licensing requirements may come from your state, your city or county may also have additional requirements such as health regulations, safety codes, fire inspections and zoning laws.

State Requirements

While state licensing requirements will vary from state to state, most will include the following:

1. Physical Space-This requirement details the number of square feet needed per child, both indoors and outdoors, and varies depending on the children’s ages. The physical space requirements will also address lighting, heating, air-conditioning, ventilation and plumbing requirements.

If you are planning to use your own home, it may be more difficult to meet the physical space requirements than if you are renting a commercial building.

2. Health Requirements-You will need to find out about possible annual medical examinations and shots required for both staff and children, and although immunization records are not required in all states, it would be a very good thing to keep on file as a potential safeguard.

3. Staff-child ratios-Most all states have requirements regarding the minimum number of adults required for a given number of children, depending on their ages. Generally speaking, babies and younger toddlers have a lower ratio as they typically require much more care in terms of changing diapers and feeding every two to three hours. Some states will also regulate the maximum size of groups of children, and specify the minimum qualifications for your staff.

4. Food preparation and nutrition-there will likely be very strict regulations regarding the food you feed the children in your daycare. Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed-although it can look as if the rules are endless, once you read through them you will see that the majority of the rules are common-sense, and are things you already practice as far as safe food handling.

5. There will also likely be licensing requirements regarding emergency procedures, educational program requirements, record keeping, discipline, building safety, sanitation, and fire regulations. You will probably have to detail your building’s type of construction, the number of exits, fire doors, fire extinguishers and fire alarms, as well as proving your building has plumbing that is up to code and adequate ventilation in all rooms in the building.

Zoning Regulations

If you are planning to operate your daycare out of your home, check with your local government and your property owner’s or homeowner’s association to find out if the type of child care services you are planning is permitted, or if there are any restrictions in place. If you are renting, leasing or buying a commercial building, you will still need to check on possible zoning restrictions.

While not all states require strict licensing of daycare centers, most do. Some states will actually come out and inspect your future daycare site, while others are more interested in your check-once you mail it in, you are licensed! Every state has a website for daycare licensing-just type in “daycare licensing in (your state)” and the licensing requirements for your state, as well as links to other helpful sites, will be there for you to take a look at. Once you have your financing in place, and have met all the licensing requirements, you are well on your way to realizing your dream of a daycare business.

As a parent, there are many good reasons for wanting to pick the best daycare for your baby or child. But here’s yet another reason for choosing the finest: quality daycare can benefit your child’s performance in high school.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have just released the results of a study that suggests that 15 year olds who as babies and toddlers spend time in the top-echelon daycare centers do better than their peers on high school tests.

Very Large

This study was of a grand scale and took a long time to complete. The study included 1,364 children and several evaluations starting from when the children were only 2 months of age. The inception of the study took place in 1991 at a time when there was growing concern about the huge numbers of children ensconced in daycare for the long-term.

The NIH study showed that a child’s later development will be affected by how much time he spends in daycare. The research team discovered that kids who spent the most time in daycare were more likely to take risks as they grew older and were more devil-may-care about such risks when compared to their peers.

In addition, the study results suggest that kids who spend a great deal of time in the best daycare facilities are less likely to rebel or indulge in reckless behavior during their teen years. Researchers said that there was a pattern of behavior that seemed to remain constant all through the children’s lives.

Pretty Remarkable

James A. Griffin from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said, “The fact that you have this persistent association is pretty remarkable.”

Experts commented that the findings of this study prove a need for more government intervention to ensure quality control in daycare centers and to guarantee that children from every spectrum of society will be granted access to decent daycare.

Shocking

Sharon Landesman Ramey who serves as the director of Health and Education at Georgetown University Center comments, “I think it is shocking that we don’t have a much higher proportion of our children … in excellent, quality child care.”

As for the children in this study, around 90% had spent at least some time in the care of someone not their mother before they had turned 4 1/2. This figure is comparable to the national average.

Other Factors

In spite of its scale, the study does have limitations. For instance, there may be other factors at play that determine how well a child does in his test scores as a teen. The only way that the researchers believe they might finally prove the cause and effect of daycare as a future predictor of academic success would be to randomly assign kids to a various daycare providers.

Griffin says that the results of the study may even be interpreted to mean that the parents have more of an effect on a child’s high school scores than does the merit of his early daycare. To sum it all up: decent daycare can help a child’s school career but should not be given full credit for his successes.