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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Conducting Parent Interviews is Essential for Child Care Providers

As a child care provider you will spend your day caring for other people’s children. This may sound ideal, since you get to send them home to their parents at the end of each day. However, many new providers are so eager to bring in new families that they don’t take the time to do proper interviews before signing on new clients. This can lead to a multitude of problems down the road that can be avoided with a sit down interview prior to contract signing and a trial period with each new family.
It may surprise you to find out that many parents searching for care for their children don’t request an interview before placing their children in care. There are a few reasons why this may happen. First, in some areas child care services are very scarce and parents are willing to take almost anything that comes along so that they can work and provide for their family. They assume that if other people are bringing their children to the provider for care then the provider must be fine. Secondly, parents are sometimes in a huge hurry to find child care for their children because they are starting a new job or because other child care arrangements are no longer available. So again, they take the first opening they find. Third, parents may know other families that bring their children to that particular facility and are happy there, so they assume that their children will be happy there as well. This is a case of a family choosing a provider based solely on reputation. Throughout my nine years of being a child care provider, I had several instances in which parents called up and were ready to bring their children without ever visiting my home or meeting me! Since this does happen, it is the responsibility of the provider to insist on an interview before agreeing to provide care for a family.
Why is an interview so important? There are several reasons. First, you don’t know this family and they don’t know you. The parents may sound wonderful on the phone, but you may meet them and find out that your phone impression was way off base. As the old adage says, first impressions mean a lot. You need to physically SEE these people before you agree to care for their children. Remember, you may spend the majority of your day with their children, but you will have to deal with the parents at least twice a day as well. Also, you absolutely must meet the children before you agree to care for them. Surprisingly, you can often get an accurate read on a child’s behavior and temperament in that first interview. Some children may arrive and be shy and quiet, but after a few minutes they will start to interact with other children and you should be able to get a good read on their behavior. It is true that some personalities clash, and you need to make sure that you can get along with the children you care for. One word of caution: even if you do know a family from the community, you still should meet with them formally as a child care provider before agreeing to care for their children. You never know what you may learn about a family in an interview. The second reason that an interview is necessary is to show your facility to the family. You need to make sure that they are ok with the way you have your facility set up before they bring their children to you. Third, you need to conduct an interview to review your contract and other required forms with the family. Your contract is your guide book on how your facility is run. You should sit down and discuss each contract item with the parents and also discuss each other required document so that there are no surprises. Legally, it is extremely important that you fully explain each document to make sure that parents understand what they are signing. Just like any other signed document, your child care contract and supporting paperwork are legally binding documents once they are signed. An interview can help to ensure that this is a good child care match for everyone.
So, how do you conduct an interview? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or formal. I used to think that interviews with new families should be done after daycare hours. If that is the only time it will work, fine. However, I now feel that it is best to have the interviews during the day when you have other children present, whether your own or someone else’s. Choose a time of your work day when the children will be occupied and not need too much of your attention. Avoid meal or snack times, craft times, and nap time. You want a time when the new children can play and interact with the other children and you can observe while talking to the parents. I also recommend that you ask both parents to attend the interview if both parents will be involved in drop off and pick up. That way there are no surprises. I usually start the interview with a tour of the facility- the entire facility. That means that even if there are areas of your home that will never be used for child care, you still should show these areas to the parents. You want them to feel comfortable that your entire home is a safe, clean, and nurturing environment for their children. Specifically point out features in the areas used for child care, such as the eating area, the bathroom, nap areas, etc. Once the tour is over, take a few minutes to get the new children started playing with the others and sit down nearby with the parents. Start by going over the contract, since this is what brings out and answers the most questions. Discuss rates, hours of operation, schedules, meals, drop off and pick up, everything! Also review all other forms. Check to see if they have questions. Make sure you ask them about their typical drop off and pick up times so you can make sure they fit with your schedule. Also, be sure to provide the parents with a form to fill out about their child. Include areas for sleep habits, food or other allergies, medications needed, previous daycare experiences, fears, likes and dislikes, anything you need to know about this child to provide the best quality care. I would recommend spending at least 30 minutes talking with the parents while observing the kids playing. If you see behavior issues in this time, discuss them right away. If the parents are ready to sign the documents when you are done talking and you also think this would be a good match, make sure you reiterate that all children are accepted into care on a two (or four) week trial basis. That means that if either party is unhappy with the arrangement in that time they can cancel immediately without penalty. This gives everyone a little breathing room.
Being a child care provider is the ultimate in customer service positions. You spend long hours each day dealing with children and the people who care the most about them, their parents. You need to conduct an initial interview for the sake of everyone involved. Better to be safe than sorry!