Red Flags to Look Out for When Choosing an At-Home Daycare in Texas

Difficult Daycare Decisions for Texas Parents

Some parents may look into choosing an at-home daycare facility for their child, as their budget doesn’t allow them to pay over $300+ a week for daycare. It's not easy to trust someone with your child, let alone a stranger.

Our FREE guide, "10 Tips For Finding A Safe Daycare", can help parents navigate the decision-making process when it comes to finding a daycare that will adequately care for their child. While this can provide helpful tips for what to look for when choosing a daycare, we'd also like to provide you with a list of things to NOT do during your Texas at-home daycare search.

First, you want to avoid searching for a Texas daycare provider on Craigslist, Nextdoor, or Facebook. These platforms, while easily accessible, may not provide safe options due to the limited information provided by the content poster. In some instances, you may not be able to see who posted the ad or the physical location of the at-home daycare. This could lead to higher levels of risks in security for both you and your child. 

At-home daycare providers listed on these websites are likely not registered with the State of Texas. This means that anyone can decide to open an at-home daycare facility without going through the proper channels of obtaining a safe space, hiring qualified caregivers, acquiring proper insurance, and getting a Texas state license to properly care for children. Additionally, with at-home daycares, there’s no way for you to know the criminal background of the caregivers.

Information the Texas At-Home Daycare May Not be Providing to Parents

There are often minimum requirements with daycare centers based on the information that the daycare director must provide to parents prospecting at their facility.  At-home daycares in Texas may not be held to the same standards, especially if they are not registered with the State of Texas. Here's a list of potential questions we urge you to get answers to before leaving your child under the supervision of an at-home caregiver:

• Do the caregivers know CPR in the case of an emergency?
• How often do they keep up with disinfecting and sanitizing?
• Will your child be the only one being taken care of, or will multiple children be in the daycare?
• Will the caregiver's family members or any other non-employees be around the children? 
• Does the caregiver have their own children that they will be caring for as well?
• How long have they been taking care of kids?
• What are the hours of the at-home daycare?

There is a high probability that you will not be able to read reviews online for an at-home daycare facility because they are not a licensed and vetted business. You also may not know if there have been any previous injuries or medical emergencies at the daycare because there is no legal requirement for these daycares to report these incidents to the state like there is with licensed daycare facilities. We discuss these issues and more in our article, Dangers of At-Home Daycare Facilities in Texas. 

What Can Texas Parents Do to Vet an At-Home Daycare?

We recommend using our FREE guide to properly vet an at-home Texas daycare facility. While a few of the tips may look different because of the type of daycare center, this guide will give you a good outline of information to obtain from a daycare before you register your child.

When searching online, instead of using the sites we listed above, consider using a site like Care.com. This site allows you to put in your spending limit, location, and the age of your child/children. There are great alternatives to use instead of the sites listed above. Other sites, like Care.com, allow you to put in your spending limit, location, and the age of your child/children. Care.com also requires more information about the daycare centers listed on its site, such as background checks, initial screening processes, and online reviews that other parents can view. 

How The Button Law Firm Can Help Texas Parents

If you’re in the process of looking for a daycare for your child in Texas, please check out our daycare articles, where you will find useful information to help you make the important decision of choosing the right caregivers for your child. 

If your child was injured or neglected at an at-home daycare facility in Texas, our team of experienced and compassionate daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm is here to help. Our Dallas lawyers are recognized on the prestigious Texas Super Lawyers list, and we can help you move forward after a traumatizing incident involving your child. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to get started on your case. Call us at 214-699-4409, email us at [email protected], or fill out a contact form for a free consultation.