Finding child care can be a difficult and confusing process with many questions to be asked. What is the difference between a child care center and a group child care home? How can I tell if the care will be quality? Are there any standards or licensing in place to ensure basic requirements are met?
The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) sets standards for most care in a provider's home and care in a center. The following information is taken from a brochure published by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) and is meant to help answer some of your questions about child care in the state of Illinois. For more information, you can visit the Illinois Department of Human Services Child Care website.
NACCRRA has created an easy-to-use booklet, Is This the Right Place for My Child?: 38 Research-Based Indicators of High-Quality Child Care (22.7 MB) available in PDF (What is PDF?). The booklet contains a checklist of 38 questions that you can ask to evaluate child care programs. Unlike most guidelines for selecting child care, this booklet explains why each question is important and how it relates to the quality of care. All of the questions are based on research about what is important to your child's health, safety, and development.
Choose one of the links on the left to learn more about selecting child care.