Questions to ask on a daycare tour

Ask about the people first, then how they treat parents, then the day, then money. Who's in the room, and how long they've been there, tells you more than the toys. Ask the teachers, not just the director.

1. How long have you worked here? Ask the teacher in your child's room, then the director.
2. Who covers lunch breaks and sick days: a regular floater the children know, or whoever is free?
3. When do you combine rooms, and who's in the room at 5:15?
4. Is every adult in the building background-checked before their first day, including whoever cleans?

1. If I call or message during the day, how soon will I hear back?
2. If I have a concern, who do I tell, and how will I hear what you did about it?
3. How will I find out about a bump, a bite or a fall?
4. Have you ever asked a child to leave? What did you try first?

1. Talk me through a Tuesday, hour by hour.
2. When are letters and numbers taught, and in how big a group?
3. How much time do the children spend outside, and what keeps them in?
4. Is there a television or tablet in the room?
5. What happens at rest time if my child doesn't sleep?
6. What comes home each day?

1. How does my child get signed out, and what stops the wrong adult from taking them?
2. What sends a child home sick, and what doesn't?
3. May I see your most recent inspection report?

1. What's the total for a year, including registration, supplies, activity fees and summer?
2. When did prices last go up, and by how much? When is the next increase?
3. What happens on a school snow day or a two-hour delay?

• How adults speak to children when the tour isn't the point. Down at their height, and by name?
• Whether the children are absorbed or drifting. A busy, happy room has its own kind of noise.
• What's on the walls. Children's own work at children's height is a good sign.
• Whether the staff look at each other. People who like working together run a calmer room.
• What it smells like. A clean place smells like nothing.

One last thing. Ask to walk into a room, not past a window, and ask whether you could sit in the corner for your child's first few mornings. A program confident in an ordinary Tuesday says yes to both. We will.

Rules change. The Maryland State Department of Education's Office of Child Care has the current ones.