How to find the right daycare services for your family

It’s always tricky to find top-quality daycare, especially if you have a limited income or are new in town. It can be even more challenging for people in rural areas, or for parents of a child with special needs. Whatever your situation, here are some tools to guide you in your efforts to find the type of care you need for your child.

A good way to begin your search is by looking online.

• Your province’s department of family and child services should have a website that lists the licensed daycares in your area as well as their contact information.
• In several jurisdictions, including Alberta and Nova Scotia, it is also possible to view the online records of regulated daycares.
• This is a good way to find out if they continue to meet licensing requirements or if they’ve breached any standards in the past.

Some local family-support networks, such as Child Care Resource and Referral in British Columbia and the Family Resource Centers in Newfoundland and Labrador, also offer support to parents seeking childcare.

Finding daycare services is much easier if you know what’s available and where. In some areas, families can wait up to one year or even more before a space opens for their child. You may have to contact a daycare directly to enroll your child or have your name added to a waiting list. However, some regions offer tools to do it online.

• As of June 2014, Quebec has a one-stop daycare centre locator, called La Place 0-5. This system consolidates all the listings of spaces available in the province’s subsidized daycare facilities. Parents can enroll their children via this centralized hub.
• The PEI Early Learning and Child Care Registry allows parents to find available spaces in regulated daycare facilities and to enroll their children.
• Ottawa has a centralized waiting list for the enrollment of children in several daycare facilities throughout the city.
• Manitoba has an online daycare registry that also serves as a centralized waiting list for facilities throughout the entire province.

Although most provinces and territories have lists for regulated daycare facilities, it can be a much different game when it comes to unregulated care.

• To find a private unregulated caregiver or centre near you, look in the classified section of your local newspaper or on community websites.
• Word of mouth remains the safest method. Ask around for information and feedback about the daycare facilities your friends’ children attend.