Parents have certain expectations from their day care provider. Some expectations can be a bit loftier than others, but there are clearly ten things that you should expect from a child care center.

1. Reports – It is not an unfair expectation to expect to receive written reports from a child care center. Reports can be on a weekly basis or a daily basis. Knowing things about how your child is adjusting to the DIY setting can easily be discovered by being provided with reports about behavior, eating, sleeping and other day to day activities.
2. Incidence Reports- Sometimes things happen at day care, and what happens at day care should not stay at day care. The child care center should have a method of making parents aware when things happen. Like a fall, or a squabble between two children. Of course reporting that Johnny and Ben struggled over the same car is not really necessary, but if Johnny struggles with every child every day that should be included in the behavior report. If Johnny struggles with another child and either child is hurt than an incident report should be prepared and delivered to the parents.
3. Respecting Your Wishes- A child care center should be partnering with the parents to help them raise their child as they see fit. If you as a parent do not wish that your child is fed animal products than that should be honored. If you prefer that your child does not have any sweets, than that also needs to be respected. Unfortunately many folks have a problem with not feeding your child things you do not want them to have, a good day care center will respect what you wish for your child and will not “sneak in ” things you do not want them to have. This goes for television watching, and other activities that is in conflict with your personal views. It is absolutely reasonable that your wishes for your child are respected.
4. Dropping by When You Want- You should be able to drop by any time of day that your child is at the child care center, without having to call ahead of time. You should be able to pick your child up when you want to. It is completely reasonable to expect that the day care center is there to assist you with your day care needs and that being able to come and go as you please is welcomed.
5. Mutual Respect- It should be a given that you and your day care center will show mutual respect in all conversations and relations. It is not unheard of to hear parents complain about a day care worker being judgmental and downright rude when their child had misbehaved at day care. Expecting that a child care center understands that sometimes children misbehave is reasonable, and also that treating the parents as the primary cause of the child misbehaving is not warranted.
6. Answering Questions- Your child care center should be able to answer your questions regarding your child. It is a reasonable expectation that the child care center that may have your child for up to ten hours a day should be able to respond to questions about your child’s behavior and day to day activities.
7. Reasonable Changes in Scheduling- You should expect that your day care center will be flexible enough to honor reasonable changes in scheduling to accommodate your needs.
8. Contact Information- You should be able to contact your child care center any time your child is there, you should expect that you will be notified immediately if there is any change to telephone numbers or emails.
9. Performing as Promised- Signing on with a day care center is just like any other contract. You should expect to get what you pay for, if there is any change to their policy or procedure than you should be notified immediately so that you can decide if this is still the right day care setting for you.