Page 24 - Choosing a Child Care Center

LETY CARVAJAL, M.ED.

selecting a high-quality child care program that is
right for you and your family. I understand that this
can be a truly overwhelming process, especially for
new parents, and sometimes all parents need is a
little help navigating through the selection process
before they can confidently enroll their child into a
program.
Throughout my career, unfortunately, I have
heard too many stories of parents becoming too
overwhelmed with the process of selecting a program
that they just opted to enroll in the first center that
they contacted and soon after had a laundry list of
issues with the center, whether they were due to
unclear or undocumented policies, low standards for
health and safety, untrained staff members, or simply
just blatant disrespect for their concerns. With so
many possible questions and concerns to address
when selecting a center, it is easy to lose sight of some
of them or to not realize the pivotal importance of
gaining clarity on certain ones.
What questions and concerns should you be
making sure to address during the enrollment pro-
cess? How do you know what red flags to look for?
The truth is, as a concerned parent that wants what is
best for their child and family, there really is an
endless amount of them that you could come up with.
However, from my experience in the industry and
working with families, I have been able to gain an

12