CENTER BASED CARE

Day care centers and nursery schools, both sometimes referred to as preschools, provide child care in a group setting. There are planned educational activities and children may be grouped by age or placed in mixed age groupings. Day care centers are licensed to provide care for infants, toddlers, and/or preschoolers, and they are usually open all day. Nursery schools, on the other hand, provide care for children primarily from two-years-nine-months-old to five-years-old. They tend to be open for just three or four hours each day and may follow the school-year calendar, closing in the summer.

When looking for a day care center, the initial step is to define your needs. You should think about how old your child will be upon entering a center, how many hours per day and how many days per week your child will need care, where a good location for the center would be and how much you can afford to pay. Names of centers do not reveal a lot about their programs. The way to find out about a center's approach to education and its philosophy is by asking questions.

When you are ready to find a list of centers, you can look online at the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) website, www.eec.state.ma.us/, or you can use the resources of a resource and referral office, such as the Office of Family Resources. Once you have obtained a list of the centers that potentially offer the type of program in which you are interested, you are ready to find out more information about each one. This will help you to narrow down your list to those centers which best match the needs of you and your child, including your educational philosophies and values.

The Office of Family Resources can assist you in your search for child care by referring you to center-based care in the area of your choice. Please complete the Referral Service Statement and return it to our office if you would like to receive this service and information about this form of care.