ChildCare - Derry,NH

When I was looking for child care I looked into KinderCare. If I remember correctly (its been longer than a year since we looked for child care) they were at the top of my list. Of course each center veries depending on locations.

Good Luck
S.

I have over 10 years in Child care Experience and I would like to put in my 2cents here. Child Care laws have changed. There is much more accountability now. The laws are Nation wide and are there to protect the children as well as the child care center. If you want to know about a particular facility then call your local Child Services organization. The licensing worker for any particular center will be able to tell you about it's previous inspections, you may be able to look at each and every monthly inspection sheet online or you can ask the Director to show you where the copies they have to display are kept.

Here are some links I found for you. My advice though is to reserch the particular facilty you are interested in. Check it out before enrolling your child anywhere. Every business is going to be run differently and when a Director changes the atmosphere will change. Only you can decide what's best for your children. Base that decision on your feelings when you enter the building, what you find when checking out their licensing reports, what their reputation says.

This is one of many links to your Department of Health and Humans Serveices in NH.
http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/BCCL/default.htm

This is a link to your NH Child Care Resource and Referrel agency. They can help you make a more informed decision about any particular facility.
http://www.nhccrr.org/families/index.cfm

Here are some good guidelines for selection quality child care.
http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/CDB/4steps.htm

Good luck in your research.

It is a franchise business, so it depends on the location. The one closest to our house was THE WORST that I have seen while I was touring centers. The staff in the infant room looked and interacted with the babies like they had just been plucked off a street corner. Very unprofessional. The toys were worn and the littlest infants just laid in their cribs staring at the ceiling. I cried to my husband when I came home, since it was the only center at that time with an opening and we agreed that I would rather quit my job than sending our daughter there.
On the other hand my sister in law has toured a Kindercare center and liked it enough to send her child there.
Generally my experience has been that of the places I have toured, the best affordable ones were run by non-profit organizations. there were a few commercial ones that I liked, but those were out of our price category.

My niece has been there for 2 1/2 years and they love it. She is learning lots. She will be three this week and has been there since 6mo old.

COMPLETELY depends on the location. In general, however, they're a franchise so they tend to have high turnover, low pay, but fairly decent facilities/corporate policies. I was in kindercare in several different states as a child, and purely from that it's low on my list. Some of my memories of it include:

- Any child who asked to go to the bathroom not during scheduled potty break times was stood on a desk, their pants pulled down and spanked in one location.

- In another location we were given paper cutouts of people to color. I got in big trouble because I used peach... the "correct" colors were white, black, brown, yellow, and red. My peach made me look brown which meant I was lazy. White meant that I was smart and that god loved me. Black meant that I would be good at sports but not much else and that god wouldn't love me as much. Yellow meant I'd be good in school but mean. ((Yes I remember this verbatim, and I was 4 (i also remember wondering why Red didn't have a definition). I held up my crayon to my skin and said "But LOOK I'm Peach!!". I was stood in the corner until my mom came to get me. I missed two snacks and an outside recess... but I don't know how long that was.

- In another location, everything was fantastic, but we got in trouble if we ate our food "out of order". We had to pick one kind of food and eat it until it gone, and only THEN could we start on another kind of food on our plate. "Trouble" meant that they took our food away and that we didn't get any more that day.

Now... all of this was in the mid 80's. There are maybe 40 locations in my city. I've heard some okay things, but in general, from talking with parents who've had their children in Kindercare and from early childhood education majors/profs at my U (who are horrified on average by the general neglect)... it's okay emergency childcare, but it hasn't changed much... so it's no somewhere you want your children spending a lot of their time. Especially the infant rooms, where in general, they're in plastic boxes -alone, not held or interacted with- for most of their time.

The "theme" regarding kindercare seems to still hold after 20 years: Typically not abusive. Not a glowing recommendation, by anyone's standards. I'm sure this isn't true for EVERY location, but it seems to be the norm.