How to Find Free Help for Your Daycare

Good help is hard to find. Free help that's good? That's priceless! Check out these ideas for getting free help at your daycare!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. 

   Check out your local public high school. If they have an early childhood ed program, or a parenting program, they may have a list of students looking for an internship/experience. Get parental permission and run their fingerprints for a background check just like you would any other volunteer, and be willing to write something for their teacher so that they will get school credit for helping you!

2. 
   photo/Trina Darling

   Check out local colleges. Not just in your community; check out colleges in your county. College programs for education, and especially early childhood education are looking for places to send college students for internships. Internships=free daycare help. If the student you get works out, they may also be willing to moonlight (for pay, of course!) after school hours, and may be willing to continue working for you after they have finished their internship.

3. 
   Photo/Trina Darling

   Ask parents in your daycare to solicit family members to volunteer. Aunts and uncles, grandparents, etc. often would LOVE to be more involved in the lives of the children you watch.

Tips & Warnings

• Run background checks/fingerprints on everyone who visits your daycare regularly. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
• Ask your licensor about regulations regarding volunteers, assistants, substitutes and visitors to make sure that you are following the rules.
• Keep a visitor register, and have your volunteers sign in and out. Not only will this please your licensor, it will also reinforce your professionalism to any school/college/agency that you work with!

Resources

• Teen Volunteers in the Daycare

[gentletouch]

on 10/9/2009 IF SO MANY PARENTS WOULD TAKE THIS STEP MORE SERIOUSLY THEN THE NEWS WOULDN'T BE FEATURING STORIES ABOUT BABY SITTERS HURTING THE CHILDREN THEIR SUPPOSED TO CARE FOR. BLESSINGS, gentletouch

[jaredsgirl]

on 10/8/2009 Great advice for finding free help for your daycare. Thanks for sharing! 5*