Finding Childcare: How An Online Childcare Portal Can Streamline The Process

These days,when families find it difficult to make ends meet without a second income, having quality child care while both parents are at work is essential.Families’ fortunate enough to have nearby relatives available is ideal but rarely the case. Under these circumstances, parents are left with no choice but to hire in-home care or place their child with a family childcare provider in the provider’s home or in a center.

Searching for child care can be stressful

One of the scariest things for a working parent is to leave their child with someone else while they are at work. Parents want to insure that the person responsible for their child’s well-being and safety is experienced, knowledgeable, loving, preferably licensed and a good fit for their situation.Yet, finding the right child care provider can be terribly stressful,time-consuming, frustrating and downright frightening. The process often involves hours of research to find a list of candidates only to invest many more hours making call after call to inquire about availability and program details. The process is laborious and inefficient. Then, despite extensive research,parents might also be left with the nagging feeling that they may have missed something crucial.

Internet technology streamlines the process for parents

With a myriad of online directories, county referral agencies and each states’ licensing department and even craigslist to search though, wouldn’t be easier if someone else did all that exhaustive legwork? Today the Internet has a new resource for parents seeking child care. The Child Care Square offers busy parents a simplified approach by enabling them to send an email to every licensed provider in their neighborhood with a single mouse click. 

Providers can then quickly and easily respond if they have available space.

Providers must be currently licensed

Each provider in The Child Care Square’s database is currently licensed through their respective state agency and is operating well within the licensing regulation requirements. State licensing agencies maintain up-to-date provider health screenings, fingerprint clearances and annual inspections on each provider to insure that compliance with licensing regulations are being maintained.

Using online resources: Additional benefits

Of course there is much more to the story than just finding available space. There are oodles of questions to ask, reviews to read and tours to take that can leave a parent feeling bewildered as to who is the best choice. To assist in the decision making The Child Care Square also offers parents guidance in the form of a free Provider Comparison Toolkit as well as plenty of free information accessible on the website.

The Provider Comparison Toolkit includes all the most important questions to ask during both the initial phone interview as well as during the on-site program tour and a customized spreadsheet to keep track of all the information gathered.

Once a provider has been chosen, the Provider Comparison Toolkit also include tips on what to expect during the first week of care and things that can be done to make the transition to child care a smooth one.