Service Snitch: Day Care / Child Care: Minding Your Money

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Day Care / Child Care: Minding Your Money

In an age where both parents work 40 hour weeks, many families require child care. Child care is a booming business, but like any business, consumer exploitation and dangerous cost-cutting are rampant in facilities nationwide. So when selecting a child care center, what are you supposed to look for and what are you supposed to look out for? How do you keep your child safe from getting sick, hurt, or worse, and how do you keep yourself safe from getting ripped off?

What It Costs

A winter 2002 study by the Census Bureau finds that the average weekly child care expenditure by families with working mothers and children under the age of five is $122. This translates to over $6,000 per year, or more than 15% of the average yearly income in the United States. However, child care costs vary widely by location and your child's age. Older children are less expensive to watch, since they do not require the constant supervision infants and young toddlers do. According to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, the average yearly cost for infant care ranges from $3,803 in Alabama to $13,480 in Massachusetts. For a four-year-old, the price ranges from $3,016 in Alabama to $8,530 in New York.

The Child Care Director Says

"We understand that choosing a child care provider is one of the most important decisions a parent will ever make. Our highest priority is your child's safety and well-being, and we always try to think from the mindset of parents first and foremost. Our prices pay for a highly trained staff of experienced child care professionals; a safe, clean facility licensed by the state; and close individual attention for every child who walks through our doors. Our staff follows strict sanitation guidelines and we do everything in our power to prevent the spread of germs among the children. We understand the needs of working parents, and we want to help. Let us take care of your children the way you would want them to be taken care of."

The Snitch Says

"Day care centers are notorious for being overpriced as well as underpaying and undermotivating their employees. You'd think the money day care centers charge would go to their hard-working staff, but most day care workers make barely over minimum wage. Some of these 'trained professionals' don't even have a college degree, and thirty states permit day cay workers without any training whatsoever.

Virtually all day care centers hold the mandatory licensing from the state, so any day care director who boasts of his or her 'state license' isn't telling you much. Also, because day care license standards are inconsistent from state to state, holding a license often means little more than they can fill in the circles of the form all the way.

Even if the places look tidy and well-kept, day care centers can be cesspools of germs and sickness. With dozens of children sharing a handful of toys, one would think the day care staff would clean them thoroughly and regularly, but some only rinse them under a faucet for a few seconds, and many don't even bother to do that much. To save time and money, plates, cups, and even baby bottles are similarly 'communal'. Why wash out a cup with detergent after every use when 99% of the time you can get away without it? Some centers even admit unimmunized children, who are much more susceptible to childhood illnesses such as chicken pox and can readily spread them even to kids who have had their shots.

Unfortunately, day care safety concerns get far more distressing than dirty toys and unwashed dishes. Since many states lack training standards, day care staff members can be quite unknowledgeable. Many day care workers are ignorant of such common child-care knowledge as how to correctly put an infant to sleep. A staggering 20% of all cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) occur in day care centers, often because the staff had no clue they were supposed to put the child on his or her back. Don’t give in to the reassurances of the director and trust your child to a day care center too hastily - make sure to do your research first."

Protecting Yourself

As with any product or service, especially one demanding a hefty investment of both money and trust, you must shop around. Not only should you look for the best care, but also the best prices. A one-room center run by GED candidates might run you a few dollars less per week, but will it be worth it? Not only is your child's health and safety at stake, but since the early years are the most critical for your child's social and intellectual development, so is his future.

Thanks to the demanding work and lousy pay, day care centers have a high turnover rate. If one of the staff files her two-week notice just as your toddler is beginning to trust her, it can have emotional and behavioral repercussions. Ask the day care center director how long his or her employees have been working there. Not only do long-tenured workers have more experience working together, but a veteran staff is a good sign the director is not stingy with salary and thus unlikely to skimp anywhere else, either. Better paid employees have better morale, too, which means better care for your child, since you wouldn't want to give him up every day to malcontents who spend their time brooding about their wages. Ask the director about the qualifications of his employees; do not settle for anything short of detailed answers about the education, training, and experience of everyone who works at the center.

Inquire about the child-care practices of the center. Specifically ask how the workers are instructed to put the infants to sleep. If they don't seem to know what you're talking about, you should continue your search elsewhere. Studies show that placing infants on their backs severely reduces the risk of sleep apnea and SIDS; if the staff doesn't know this, don't even think about handing over your child to their care. Ask how they disinfect the toys and baby bottles and how they dispose of diapers. Ask the director if all the children admitted to the center are immunized. If at all possible, before you enroll your child, visit the day care center and observe the staff at work. Be forewarned, however, that, because he or she will be in close contact with other young children for several hours a day, your child is susceptible to contagious illness at any day care center, even among kids who have all been vaccinated and even at the cleanest facility with the most conscientious staff in the country.

Because of arbitrary and varied standards, do not let a license from the state satisfy your safety concerns. Instead, check if the day care center you are investigating has sought certification from the National Association for the Education of Yong Children (NAEYC) and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). Both of these not-for-profit organizations set higher standards for their licenses than states do, and instead of changing across state lines, those standards are applicable nationwide. Unlike state licenses, accreditation from the NAEYC and NAFCC is non-compulsory, so a day care center has to make a voluntarily effort to get itself up to standard and apply for certification.

An important figure to consider when choosing a day care center for your child is the number of children in care for every staff member on duty. Some states allow for shockingly high child-to-staff ratios of up to 20-to-1. Can you trust one grown-up watching over twenty hyperactive toddlers to pay enough attention to each and every one of them? A child is much more likely to hurt himself—and, even worse, hurt himself without anyone noticing for several minutes—in such an environment. Ask the day care director how many children will be together with your own, and how many adults will be watching over them at all times.

Day care centers get away with charging such high prices because they cash in on every parent's intense concern for the welfare of their child, relying on the popular fallacy that the more expensive something is, the better it must be. Moreover, since many—if not all—parents feel guilty about leaving their frightened child in the care of a stranger, the wallets open up even easier. One common way for day care centers to make extra money is to charge late fees. Parents wouldn't put their child in day care if they weren't working, of course, and anyone who works has to keep unexpected appointments on short notice. To capitalize on this, day care centers often charge parents fees as high as $1 for every minute past their child's scheduled pick-up time. Even if you're, say, a half an hour late just once every two weeks, that's still an average of $15 a week you'll have to pay, or $780 a year. If you anticipate working late occasionally and doubt you'll always be able to arrive on time, look for a day care center that is open late, has flexible pick-up times, and offers sensible late fees.

Just Because You Were Curious

For working parents, options outside of day care are limited until your child is old enough to be responsible for himself. Perhaps the most popular alternative is to hire a nanny. Nannies are typically more expensive than day care centers, but if it's within the budget, the competing advantages are obvious: the nanny gives your child constant one-on-one supervision; the nanny works in your own house, meaning you won't have to drive as much and your child won't have to be bundled off to a scary new place; and there aren't twenty other tykes drooling over the Legos. Of course, you have to be just as conscientious in selecting a nanny as when selecting a day care center. Ultimately, when it comes to selecting day care for your children, as in all other child-related matters, caution is the key.

Posted by admin on 07/07 at 02:55 PM

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Friday, July 07, 2006

Day Care / Child Care: Minding Your Money

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