How to choose a daycare, a checklist before you tour

A good daycare search starts before the first tour, not during it. Check the licence, write down what actually matters to your family, and decide what you are looking for in the room before you are standing in it and a friendly educator is showing you around.

This is a general checklist, useful for any centre you are considering, including ours. For what our own tour looks like once you book one, see what happens on a daycare tour. For the regulation behind group sizes, ratios and inspections, see our guide to licensed child care in BC.

Start with the licence, before you call anyone

A licence is a legal permission issued by a health authority, not a badge a centre buys. In Metro Vancouver, Fraser Health licenses and inspects child care under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act, and it publishes a public list of every licensed facility in its area, split into Fraser North, Fraser South and Fraser East. Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Burnaby and New Westminster all sit in the Fraser North list.

Licensed facilities are monitored and regularly inspected by their regional health authority, and licensees have to meet requirements for health and safety, staffing qualifications, record keeping, space and equipment, staff-to-child ratios and programming. A licence-not-required provider is different: it is not registered or licensed, is not monitored or inspected, and does not have to meet those same standards. Under British Columbia's rules, someone caring for three or more children who are not related to them needs a licence. A registered but licence-not-required provider is limited to only two children who are not related to them, or one sibling group.

Neither option is automatically wrong for every family. Licence-not-required care is legal, and some families choose it deliberately. The problem shows up only when a facility calls itself licensed and is not, so ask the operator directly and expect a straight, checkable answer. For the full breakdown of ratios, group sizes, staff qualifications and what an inspection actually covers, our licensed child care in BC guide walks through each rule with the regulation cited beside it.

Check the educators, not just the centre

A centre's name does not tell you who is actually in the room with your child. In British Columbia, anyone working as an early childhood educator or ECE assistant in a licensed facility has to be certified through the province's ECE Registry. That registry runs a public lookup called My ECE Registry, where a parent can validate a certificate online using an educator's first name, last name, or registration number.

Most parents never use this tool, and most never think to ask. Asking which educators hold an ECE certificate, how long they have worked with children, and how the centre covers a sick day tells you more about day-to-day care than the building does. A centre with a stable team that has worked together for years answers this question easily. A centre that changes hands often may not.

Write your own checklist before you tour

A tour moves fast, and a worried parent forgets questions once the visit starts. Writing a short list first, in your own words, fixes that. A workable checklist covers:

1. Licence and staffing. Is the centre licensed, and by which health authority. How many educators are with your child's age group, and how many children are in that group. What happens when an educator is sick.
2. The daily rhythm. What a normal day looks like, hour by hour, not just the headline activities. When children eat, nap, and go outside, and what happens on a day the schedule slips.
3. Food and health. Whether the centre provides food or families do, whether it is nut-free or has any other allergy policy, and what happens if your child needs medication during the day.
4. Communication. How you will hear about your child's day: a note, a call, a conversation at pick-up. How quickly someone would reach you if your child needed you.
5. Settling in. Whether a shorter first visit is possible before the official start date, and how the centre handles a child who is upset at drop-off.

None of this needs to be formal. A note on your phone with these five points works better than a printed form, because you actually reread it while you are standing in the room.

What to look for once you are in the building

The list above tells a centre what to say. The room tells you whether it is true.

Watch how an educator speaks to a child during the visit, not just to you. Notice the tone, whether the educator gets down to the child's level, and whether children look at ease around the adults in the room rather than wary of them. A centre can describe warmth. A room either has it or does not, and thirty minutes is usually enough to tell.

Look at the space from a child's height. What is within reach on a low shelf, what is locked away, where the nap mats are stored, where the bathroom is relative to the play area. Ask to see whatever you have not been shown. A centre that walks you through every room without hesitation is behaving normally. A centre that steers you away from part of the building, or answers a direct question with a vague one, is telling you something worth noticing.

Ask what a hard day looks like, not only a good one. Every centre has a bad Tuesday: two educators out sick, a child having a rough morning, weather that cancels outdoor time. How a centre answers that question, plainly or defensively, says more than any brochure.

Reading reviews without over-trusting them

Online reviews are worth reading, and worth treating as one input among several rather than the deciding one. A small centre may have only a handful of reviews, so a single unhappy family can weigh heavily on an average that does not reflect a typical week. A review also cannot tell you whether a centre is licensed, what its group sizes are, or what its inspection history shows.

Pair a review with something checkable: the public licence list, the inspection record, and your own visit. Fraser Health itself makes routine inspection reports and summaries of substantiated complaint investigations available online, and it advises parents not to judge a facility on the reports alone. Its own guidance is to also contact the facility, observe the program in operation, and speak with the licensing officer if you want a second source. That is a reasonable model for weighing any single piece of information, including a review you found online.

Red flags worth taking seriously

Most centres you visit will be perfectly ordinary, which is exactly what you want. A few patterns are worth paying attention to if you see them:

• A centre that cannot or will not confirm its licence status
• A centre that avoids a direct question about staffing on a sick day, since every centre has an answer, and a vague one usually means there is not a good plan behind it
• A centre that seems irritated by ordinary questions about ratios, food policy or how it handles a child who is struggling to settle

None of these on their own proves a problem. A pattern of them, across more than one question, is a reason to keep looking rather than talk yourself out of your own instinct.

A single odd answer is not damning. Everyone has an off day, including the person giving you a tour. What matters is whether the centre can give you a plain, specific answer when you ask the same kind of question a second time.

Size is a trade-off, not a verdict

Parents often ask whether a bigger or smaller centre is better, and the honest answer is that it depends on what your family values. A larger centre usually has more staff on site, which can mean easier coverage when someone is off sick, and more children in your child's age group to build friendships with. A smaller centre usually means fewer transitions between rooms, fewer new faces to adjust to, and closer, more consistent contact with a small group of educators.

Neither is the correct choice for every child. Some families want the resources and larger peer group a bigger centre offers. Others want a small, steady group where the same two or three adults know their child well. That is a real difference worth thinking through honestly rather than assuming one size is always the safer bet.

Timing: when to start, and how many to see

Start looking earlier than feels necessary, especially for infant care in a popular area, where spots can fill months ahead. Starting early does not obligate you to anything. It buys time to see a few centres without the pressure of an approaching start date, and it gives you room to ask each one directly about its current availability rather than guessing. Infant daycare spots in the Tri-Cities goes through why infant care specifically fills earliest and when families in this area typically start.

Most families find that touring three or four centres is enough to know what a normal room feels like and to compare real differences rather than vague impressions. Touring only one gives you nothing to measure it against. Touring ten tends to blur together without changing the outcome, since the things that matter most, the licence, the staffing, the feel of the room, usually become clear well before the tenth visit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the first thing I should check before I even book a tour?

Whether the centre is licensed. A licensed facility is inspected by a health authority and has to meet rules on staffing, group size, space and records. Check the public list for your area before you call, so you already know the basics and can spend the tour on questions a document cannot answer.

How to choose a daycare checklist, what should be on it?

Licence status, group size and staffing for your child's age, what a normal day looks like hour by hour, the food and allergy policy, how the centre handles a child who is upset at drop-off, and how you will hear about your child's day. Write your own list before you tour so nerves do not make you forget a question that matters to your family.

What to look for in a daycare during the actual visit?

Watch how an educator talks to a child, not just to you. Look at the room at the height a toddler sees it: what is within reach, what is locked away, where a child would nap or use the washroom. Ask to see the space you have not been shown yet, since a centre that hesitates is telling you something.

How do I know if a daycare is licensed?

Ask the operator directly, and check the health authority's own public list for your region. In Metro Vancouver's Fraser Health area that list gives the licensed capacity and every care type a facility may run. A centre that cannot or will not confirm its licence status is a reason to keep looking.

Should I trust online reviews when choosing a daycare?

Read them, but treat them as one input rather than the deciding one. A review reflects one family's experience on one day, and a small centre may only have a handful. A licence check, an inspection history and your own visit tell you more than a star rating does.

What questions should I ask about staff qualifications?

Ask which educators are ECE certified, how many years they have worked with children, and what happens when someone calls in sick. British Columbia's ECE Registry certifies educators to work in a licensed facility, and a parent can check a certificate online rather than taking a resume on trust.

How many centres should I tour before deciding?

Enough to know what a normal room feels like, usually three or four. Touring only one centre gives you no comparison. Touring ten wears a family out and rarely changes the answer, since most of what matters shows up in the first few visits.

What are common red flags when touring a daycare?

A centre that will not let you see every room, cannot explain how it staffs sick days, has no answer about its licence, or seems irritated by ordinary questions. A single odd moment is not proof of anything, but a pattern of evasive answers is worth taking seriously.

Is a bigger daycare better than a smaller one?

A larger centre often has more staff on hand when someone is off sick and more children the same age. A smaller centre usually means fewer transitions and closer contact with fewer educators. Each size fits a different family's priorities, so the right choice depends on what your child needs.

How far in advance should I start visiting daycares?

As early as you reasonably can, since spots in a popular area can fill months ahead, especially for children under three. Starting early does not commit you to anything. It gives you time to see a few centres without pressure and to ask the centre directly about its current availability.

Before you visit

Check the licence first, write your short list, then go and see the room for yourself. That order works whether you are considering us or another centre in Port Coquitlam.

We are at 1103 Confederation Drive, in the Citadel neighbourhood. You can read about our programs and the centre itself before you come, and see what our own tour looks like once you are ready to book one. We are glad to answer every question on your list in person, so get in touch and bring your child along.