Day Care in Paterson, NJ (how much, home, inspections)

[neekah18]

My mom retired from her career at a large hospital in order to fulfill her dream of owning her own business and opening a quality day care. I told her Paterson was not where she would want to be because it seems like everything is so subsidized that no one will want want to PAY out of pocket for any type of service. She disagreed because there are so many children in Paterson and she, being a parent, knows how much people value quality day care. Well it has been months and she has barely been able to find people who are willing to pay $150 a week ($30 a day for taking care of a child for almost 10 hours!!!). Am I being too hard on the city I grew up in or is it like this in alot of areas? Her day care is beautiful, a strong learning curriculum, feeds them hot home cooked meals, and it's a small so each child can get the attention they need.

[cmsvmom]

Is your mom running a daycare center or a family child care business?

If she's in family child care, I did that in bergen for 9 years. If she is in an area where there are a lot of people needing subsidized care, she needs to check with the child care resource and referral agency. When I was in child care, the agency was 4Cs. They administered the child care food program in Bergen, but they did not do the registration or inspections, the Bergen County office for Children did.

Your mom needs to network with other family child care providers like crazy. She should join the New Jersey Family Child Care Providers Association, which is a statewide professional association. She should also become registered with the resource and referral agency if she has not done so by calling (973)684-1904.

A lot of people think that oh boy, you will be just full real quick all the time. It really doesn't work that way. Many people don't trust home daycare, no matter how good it is, it gets a bad rap in the media. Actually, it is preferable in many ways to center based care, especially with little ones.

If she is operating a licensed mini center, then she should network with people from the Association for the Education of Young Children and take all the training that DYFS and the child care agencies will offer. Whether she is center based or home based, the NJAEYC is a great organization, a wonderful resource.

[neekah18]

Yes she is registered with 4C's and they are a mess down there!!! They are overrun with kids. And the food program is horrible. She filled out her paperwork in May they made a mistake on her application and she had to fill out the form again in July and she has not seen a dime yet!!! She wants to be a center and I think she is certified for that she went through a long process and she said it was because she wanted to do it right and she wants center status.

Thanks for the input I will give it to her!!!

[cmsvmom]

Originally Posted by neekah18

Yes she is registered with 4C's and they are a mess down there!!! They are overrun with kids. And the food program is horrible. She filled out her paperwork in May they made a mistake on her application and she had to fill out the form again in July and she has not seen a dime yet!!! She wants to be a center and I think she is certified for that she went through a long process and she said it was because she wanted to do it right and she wants center status.

Thanks for the input I will give it to her!!!

Ah, well, some thing just never change, I see!

The CCR&R agency is pretty much the lowest common denominator. If she checks out the NJAEYC and especially the NJFCCPA she will be with the pros.

I remember when the food program started and I went in to sign up for it at 4Cs. The social worker actually had providers coming into her cubicle to fill out the paper work, where she had hung pictures from Bloom County. One panel showed Opus the penguin, all dressed up with flowers, and she had captioned it "before provider contact". The next picture showed Bill the Cat all strung out, and she had captioned it "after provider contact".

After we got a good relationship going (guess I was part of the circle of trust) I let her know that this was really not very motivational for providers. But having sat on some certificate revocation panels in Bergen, I certainly understood her perspective.

Many of the people who initially go through the CCR&R basic training are really not the brightest crayons in the box. It really is the bare minimum. But if she networks with family child care providers and small center owners who understand child development and business, she'll get inspiration, ideas, and resources.

[neekah18]

Thanks for all of the info. I hope it will help her. She is ready to throw in the towel because she put so much time and $$$ into it. I try to be as motivating as I can (especially since I never understood why she would want to go into a business like this).