Anyone running a daycare is no stranger to the flurry of tasks needed to continue serving the families that come to rely on you. Unfortunately, even with the sheer number of responsibilities, a daycare must strive for greatness to survive the test of time. What makes a good daycare, then?

In this article, we’ll walk through the 9 characteristics to emulate to establish your center as reliable, effective, and steadfast. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of the digital solutions you can implement to create the best version of your center. 

9 characteristics of a good daycare you should emulate

Are you interested in learning more about how to run a successful daycare center? You may want to check out our comprehensive guide. Nevertheless, here are the 10 qualities we recommend you prioritize.

A caring, welcoming environment

A daycare center’s atmosphere is the primary force behind a parent or guardian’s first impression of your facility. As such, it must feel welcoming, comfortable, and attentive.

Welcoming often means focusing on accessibility. Keep your spaces open, and dedicate certain areas to activities like reading, crafts, snacks, naps, etc. Organize the environment in a way that the little ones can easily follow no matter their ability—especially if you’re serving differently-abled youth. To help kids who need a little extra stimulation, offer fidget toys and flexible seating like bean bags or balance balls. Soft lighting and quiet spaces can help kids who may feel overstimulated.

The more the kids see themselves in the center, the more invited and empowered they’ll feel. Put up artwork created during craft time on the walls. Teach them the importance of respecting their surroundings by placing objects back in their homes and cleaning up after themselves—this instills a sense of care for the space in them.

Finally, a daycare is only as welcoming as your staff makes it. Ensure your caregivers have friendly ways to greet and interact with families and train them on how to handle stressful situations with compassion and positivity. 

Efficient administrative processes

A good daycare is a well-run daycare, so you must make the background processes behind running your center as seamless as possible. The list of daycare administrative tasks is a long one—luckily, Playground matches it! 

With Playground’s all-in-one platform, you’ll have more time and resources to devote to improving your center. By digitizing paperwork, parents may submit and e-sign documents so you never have to worry about lost paperwork. Taking attendance, managing food programs, and communicating with parents can all be done using Playground. 

Efficiency can both ease your mind and build your credibility among families. Especially for single-parent, low-income households or families who otherwise have a ton on their plate, it can give them a sense of relief that your services can be accessed and communicated in one place. 

Intuitive paperless billing

While the quality of your daycare is paramount, a good daycare also means a lucrative one. Managing payments isn’t the most fun part of running your business, but it’s essential to keep it afloat. Help make billing as simple for parents as possible to encourage them to stay on top of their costs, lowering the likelihood of delinquent payments.  

Going paperless with Playground’s billing can make several tasks easier and more intuitive for both the provider and parent. The software automates billing and clearly displays the balances charged to families, including amounts already paid and payments in the process. There are also options for flexible payment plans, and you can easily edit charges and payment plans as needed.

Interesting, goal-oriented activities

Activity plans and curriculums should be shaped around the goals of the daycare as a whole while being engaging to the kids. However, this also depends on the age range of the kids. For example, an early childhood curriculum would want to focus on social-emotional learning, movement, communication, and reading. 

You can gauge different levels of small motor skills as kids engage in daily activities, like when wearing gloves, zipping up coats, or using spoons and forks. Artwork can also be a great way for kids to practice small-motor movements. Let them use different mediums to draw, color, or paint. For gross-motor skills, like walking and jumping, include activities that allow for the movement of larger muscle groups, like outside play or even song and dance. 

Observe their development in these activities and find ways to build on their skills and interests. You can track their developing skills with Plaground’s assessment tool, too. It comes with pre-loaded state standards and the ability to create custom milestones. Playground conjures child development reports automatically, and they’re easy to share with families!

Proper ratio and capacity compliance

As a business person, you may feel driven to support as many parents as possible; however, you need to consider your quality of care. A daycare must not overextend itself due to compliance regulations but also the well-being of everyone involved.

A high staff-student ratio, meaning the number of adults per kid, allows kids more attention and supervision with less workload. When learning, one-on-one interactions and small groups can be most helpful in ensuring kids’ personal, emotional, and educational needs are met, which can be difficult to manage without following capacity compliance. Kids will feel more cared for and are less likely to become overstimulated.

It’s important for your employees, too. A stressed caregiver can lead to less positive interactions, quicker burnout, and lower quality of care. With a higher staff-child ratio, you support your staff’s needs so they can return dedicated and attentive each day. 

If your daycare offers drop-in services and is worried about capacity issues, you should use Playground’s automated drop-in care features. The platform will put the process entirely on autopilot, opening and closing spots as they become available and occupied. Thus, you alleviate the pressure of taking on more than you can handle while providing more services for families in a pinch.

Clear, consistent policies

Strong, clear policies and rules help create a structured environment, wherein your staff knows exactly how the center should operate. You should address work hours, breaks, protocols for parent involvement, policies around disciplinary action, and so on. Rules give your staff a leg to fall back on, but they also ensure consistent quality of care. Policies should be enforced without bias, as this communicates the significance of the rules in place.

Don’t be afraid to communicate with your staff about the policies, gather their feedback, and even update the policy as needed. A strong daycare is supported by a professional and unified staff. Unsure where to begin? Use Playground’s Staff Handbook Policies to help you implement policies and rules in your own daycare center. 

High standards for health and safety

As you well know, it’s vital that a daycare prioritize health and safety, but how do you create a space that makes them its principal value?

First, organization. Create clear spaces for disinfecting hard surfaces, mopping and sweeping floors, and deep cleaning furniture. Keep a sanitary station with readily available tissues, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and a first-aid kit. Keep toys from outside play in one spot so you know which ones need cleaning first. 

Also, create daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning routines with staff. For example, taking out trash can be a daily task while an air purifier’s filters should be changed every month. You can also instill cleaning habits in the child’s daily routine by setting aside time for clean-up. Ensure kids wash their hands before eating as well as after bathroom trips and coming indoors. Assign tasks like wiping down tables after snack time on a rolling basis.

As for safety, you’ve already got your policies set, which should include protocols for handling situations where a child’s safety is at risk: allergic reactions, fire hazards, stranger danger, etc.

Frequent communication with parents

Parents appreciate live updates whenever possible. Their child may be having a tough day, had an accident, or maybe reached a milestone. A good daycare is proactive about parent communication, updating them on important information related to their child. 

All the communication necessary to keep parents in the loop takes time, so work faster with Playground’s communication feature. Playground lets you schedule announcements to individual parents or groups as texts, emails, and in-app messages. You can even send images and videos updating parents on their child’s milestones and newest skills. 

Great reviews from local parents

When parents are looking for daycares, you can bet that they’ll turn to other parents first, and wisely so. Referral and word-of-mouth from parents are some of the best marketing a daycare can have. 

If you want the inside scoop of what parents think of your services, just ask! Surveys and feedback forms can get you honest reviews, and you can publish strong reviews to promote your center on your socials or SEO-optimized website.

If you choose to market through social media, you’ve already taken the first step to widening your online presence. For every photo or video you upload, parents may leave comments or questions, making you more accessible to those discovering your services and showing parents you’re dedicated to communicating with them.

Playground can help your daycare achieve greatness

Efficient administration, strong staff, and a welcoming environment can help you build the identity you want for your daycare center. If you strive for a lasting daycare center, you want it to thrive. A strong first step towards achieving this goal is to make administrative tasks as seamless as possible.  

Playground was made for child care owners and directors who want to streamline billing, enrollment, attendance, paperwork, communication, and other tasks needed to run a successful daycare center. Try a free demo to learn more.