The teacher you observed was engaging. She cared about the children and they responded to her by giving her their attention and respect. In fact, as you visited the preschool daycare setting on a couple of settings you saw these same character traits exhibited by all of the staff. Every teacher in the building, in fact, treated the children, as well as fellow coworkers, with respect. The curriculum throughout the different age levels was challenging and appropriate. By the time you enrolled your four year old daughter in the preschool program you were excited and confident about the decision.
For the first three days things went very well. By the end of the first week, however, you were concerned. Your daughter’s clothing was filthy whenever she returned from school, and she had developed quite a cough. At first, you attributed her clothing to the playground and her cough to getting used to being with so many other children. in the middle of the second week, on a day when it was too rainy to go outside for recess, you still noticed that the knees to your daughter’s tights were filthy. It was at this point that you realized you needed to ask more questions. Instead of just knowing about the teachers, you also needed to know about the cleaning; in addition to knowing about the curriculum, you needed to know about the steps that the staff took to sanitize the building.
Daycare Cleaning Is an Important Detail to Make Sure That Students Are Healthy and Safe
Infection prevention needs to be a high priority in any daycare setting that you are considering. And while well trained and compassionate teachers are key, even the best teachers cannot succeed if children are always home sick. And even though a school might say that staff members have end of the shift daycare cleaning assignments, the best kept centers do not leave the tasks to anyone but professionals. With the use of the highest quality cleaning supplies and well trained professionals, preventing infections is easier.
It may come as no surprise that the average child catches between six and 10 colds every year, but it if your child simply goes from one illness to another it might be time to check on the cleaning steps that are used in the daycare building. The mere fact that flu viruses can survive on hard surfaces for up to 48 hours is reason enough to spend time asking questions about the cleaning process, as well as the staff. In fact, daycare cleaning practices are nearly as important as the curriculum choices.