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Northern California Babies
Daycare Question
Hi, I don't normally post here, but I think you may be able to help me out.
I live in the SF bay area and my company is setting up a near-site daycare that will have the same holidays plus one as the company. It'll be open 630-630 for the off shifts, will take babies as young as 6 weeks and we'd get a 10% subsidy. It will cost $1580/month before the subsidy for 6wks - 24mos.
This all sounds awesome to me, but I have no idea how to tell if the price is high, average or low or how to go about figuring that out. I don't want to call different places, since we're not even planning on TTC until later this year (H and I like to be overly prepared). Is there a website that lists different daycares and/or their websites and prices?
Thank you,
Team Basement Cat
Knitting&Kitties
Knitting&Kitties
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Daycare Question
I work for a company that has a corporate daycare center. Actually there are two. You have to be an employee of this company to be enrolled in it but really they outsourced the service to another company. The daycare is just on site.
So what you should do is ask who the company that is going to run it is and research them. Some companies are better than others. The price that you quoted for a daycare center for 5 days a week is pretty much the same as where I work.... which is why I can't afford full-time for two kids.
But is it worth it? It depends. Mine has a state of the art facility with music, art and language teachers. They have much smaller class sizes and the screening/security is top of the line. Not only is the staff background checked but so are the parents and the people that the parents assign to pick up the kids. If someone has a criminal background pertaining to the safety of children, they are not allowed anywhere near the facility. I also get to have video surveillance of the classroom so I can look in on my kids without going over and interrupting their day. This is important to me because a past provider, I caught them falling out of ratio of supervision on more than one occasion so it extra important to me to be able to know that my kids are safe at all times. They also have a washer/dryer in room so if my kids make a mess, I don't have to lug half their wardrobe too and from school each day. For the 12 month and older, they also provide food.
Some of these points should be a jumping off point for you to ask questions of your employer of what they plan to offer with their daycare center to determine if you are getting a good deal for the money.
You are smart to get on the waiting list early. Ours had a year waiting list! You can always change your mind later if you are on the list but don't want your child to attend. It is super important to meet the people running the place and the teachers. A daycare facility is only as good as the people running it.