Selecting Daycare and Preschool - TeachersAndFamilies

Daycare and Preschool:
Selection Guidelines for Parents
By Rebecca L. Mandal, PhD
Hammond (LA) Developmental Center
& Lorie Falk, PsyD, Bethesda , MD

Introduction

Which is Appropriate?

Visiting Facilities

Summary

Resources

Introduction

For many parents, staying home with the children is no longer an option. Many must maintain full-time jobs to meet their financial obligations. Single parents must usually raise their children by themselves and also work. For those parents who are unemployed it is doubly hard: They must search for suitable jobs and yet secure child care at the same time. Some parents have extended family members who can care for their children. Others must depend on federal- or state-sponsored programs, or choose religious, employer-sponsored, profit, or non-profit daycare or preschools.

Parenting Start

Rebecca Mandal, PhD, is a school psychologist with the Hammond Learning Center, Hammond, LA. Lorie Falk, PsyD, is a psychologist in private practice in Bethesda, MD. This article is provided by the National Association of School Psychologists, and reprinted from the NASP publication,
"Helping Children at Home and School II: Handouts for Families and Educators" (2004).
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