How to look for an in-home DCP?

I_love_cupcakes

A co-worker (lives in Leesburg area) is newly pregnant and is trying to wrap her head around the cost of child care.  Those of us in the office with small children use center-based DCP's but she thinks an in-home provider would fit their budget better.  She's asking me how to look for one, but I honestly have no idea.  Is there a website or something?  How far out is a reasonable timeframe to start looking, since in-home spaces don't turn over like centers' do?

CandKmomma

Tell her to start here.  Look at all the inspections and violations.  From there she can decide who she wants to call, visit....etc

https://www.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/cc.cgi

QueSrah

I would look for a county website for daycares.  Arlington manintains lists of both centers and in-homes in the county, so I expect there would be something similar in Loudoun or Fauquier.

We found our DCP two months before we needed a spot, and seem to remember others on the board finding their in-homes 4-6 weeks before they went back to work.

vtkgirl77

I found mine from a recommendation on DCUrban mom. I don't really think you can start too early. Some may not be able to hold a space for you but it's good to know the options in your area. My DCP was able to guarantee a space for my infant about 6 months in advance because she has 8 slots and she knew that certain kids would be leaving to go to preschool and that her infants at the time would move out of the infant category therefore making space for a new infant. I don't know if that makes sense but bottom line is that it's never to early to start looking.

 

Artslvr

My experience with looking for in-homes was - yes, they are cheaper than centers, and most in-home providers don't know until a few weeks/months before you need to start whether or not they have an opening. 

Here's the How I Sarched for Daycare spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Aj1JxqE0aW0JcDZMaFhsTkk5RmRVMmNWeTBrQ05aZVE&output=html

   

  

 

KelXoXo

I found mine by posting on our community's message board and asking for recommendations.  However, the others that I interviewed I all found through Craigslist, and surprisingly really liked all of them.