Rating Day Cares
Posted on August 7th, 2008 – 9:47 AMBy May Chen
All you frazzled parents out there searching for the right day care center, with your spreadsheets and checklists (yes, in our house we actually had a spreadsheet), help may be at hand…
There’s a pilot project to rate day cares in Minnesota. It’s limited so far - just St. Paul, north Minneapolis and Wayzata but will expand soon. The centers get one to four stars, based on things like staff training, teaching materials and parent involvement.
Licensed child care facilities have to volunteer to be rated and the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation in St. Paul is the chief backer.
Here’s the story.
What do you think? Useful? Not? What would you like to see in a rating system?
7 Responses to "Rating Day Cares"
love the idea! It was soo daunting to get a list from our county with 500 daycares in a 10 mile radius from our house - listing nothing but the name, address and telephone number! I googled every one before I called them. The more info you have going in, the better. It’d be nice to see how many “violations” they have - and what they were. When we called the county to check references we were told one potential provider had a “wooden spoon incident” that was “unfounded” - WHAT! The thing that would be nice about this is that EVERYONE has a chance to comment on the said daycare - You know that when a daycare provider gives you references, it’s only the clients they KNOW will give them a glowing review - not anyone that’s ever had an issue with them or the care their children have received!
Oh, how I wanted something like this when we were searching. Like Darcie, I was just so overwhelmed with the list I was given, it was daunting to just start calling around. I kept feeling like there was more research I should be doing, but then our daughter came a month early, and all that time I was going to spend researching went out the window.
Actually, one of the references that I called did have an issue with our daycare with one of their children. The mom said it was mostly a personality conflict between their child and one of the teachers, but I really appreciated the center’s honesty, and the mom’s perspective. It helped me realize that even with the best care available, sometimes there’s conflicts and you need to change centers, though thankfully, we haven’t needed to do that.
This sounds like a nice system. However, the only problem is that it’s voluntary. One of the directors at a daycare that I visited recently mentioned this new system to me and she isn’t crazy about it. The fact that it is voluntary means that only the best daycare centers who know they will get glowing reviews will sign up to be reviewed in the first place. So the ones that aren’t so great won’t show on there at all. It could be helpful by making you wonder why a particular daycare center that you want to see isn’t rated on the system. However, they could just come up with excuses (it was too much paperwork, etc.) to throw you off and make you feel it’s not a big deal. The director of the center that I spoke with felt that this system should be mandatory and that would be the only way it would truly work. I agree with her. Daycare centers are really important and people are using them now more than ever before. I think this is a good start, but only by making this system mandatory will this truly help parents.
You can go to MN Department of Human Services website and look up a certain Daycare. http://licensinglookup.dhs.state.mn.us/ It doesn’t give too much info other than name address, license status and number and how many kids they can have.
I live in Oklahoma now, and we have a rating system– 1 to 3 stars. I found it to be very helpful in weeding out centers for my son (they also rate in home programs). All licensed facilities are rated here. However, due to some of the requirements to be 2 or 3 star, some very good facilities and homes will never get above a 1 star rating, which unfairly singles them out and undoubtedly impacts their business.
Even if a facility is rated, a lot of checking needs to go on. 
I agree, Amy, this should be mandatory for all daycares, especially the centers. Searching for daycare without the power of references was incredibly hard. Also, living in the heart of St. Paul, I had a very difficult time finding a center (let’s not start the home vs. center debate, please) in my area without a substantial waiting list and with high quality care. This would be a great tool to help parents narrow their options.
I never like rating systems, they are always easily squewd. You are only get the glowing reviews or the upset unreasonable person critism. You have to use your own gut feeling. You can tell alot by that first phone call and go on references of friends and co workers. As unique as your child is you need to find the unique fit for your child care. Don’t rely on licensing to be your watch dog. I wish there was a child care consultant you could contact to do the leg work for you and visit all the prospects for you, but that would cost and who has extra money when you have children.
