1. Confirm the license yourself
Child care programs in Florida are licensed and inspected by the Department of Children and Families, and inspection history is public. Any program should be able to tell you its license number without hesitating, and you can look up the record independently rather than taking anyone's word for it — including ours. Ask for the number, then check it at home that night.
Look at the pattern of past inspections more than any single item. Every program that has operated for a while has findings. What matters is whether the same finding keeps coming back.
2. Ask about ratios at the hardest hour
Staff-to-child ratios are easy to meet at 10am. The honest question is what the ratio looks like at 7:30am during drop-off, at nap transition, and at 5:30pm when staff shifts are ending. Ask specifically: how many adults are in my child's room at 5:30pm? The answer tells you more about staffing depth than the number posted on the wall.
3. Watch a transition, not a lesson
Anyone can run a good circle time for a visitor. What reveals a program is a transition — moving from play to handwashing to lunch, or waking up from nap. Transitions are where thin training shows. If children know what happens next without being managed through it, the routine is real.
This is also the best moment to hear how adults speak to children when they are not performing for a tour.
4. Separate "child care" from "curriculum"
Both are legitimate needs, and they are not the same thing. Some families need safe, warm, reliable full-day coverage. Others want a structured program that builds toward kindergarten readiness. Most want both, but the balance differs by family and by child's age.
Ask what a child in your child's specific age group is expected to be able to do by the end of the year, and what the daily schedule looks like on paper. Vague answers here usually mean supervision is the actual product — which is fine, as long as you know that going in.
5. Check how they communicate on an ordinary day
Not how they communicate in an emergency — everyone gets that right. Ask what you will receive on a completely normal Tuesday. Daily sheets for infants and toddlers, photos, notes on meals and naps, a quick word at pickup. Parents rarely leave a program because of a single incident. They leave because they stopped knowing what was happening.
A note on bilingual programs specifically
If you are considering a bilingual daycare, ask how the second language actually appears in the day. A weekly thirty-minute Spanish class and full-day immersion produce very different outcomes. At My First Place Academy, teachers move between English and Spanish throughout the day, in every classroom, from the infant room through VPK — songs, routines, stories, and play — so children absorb the second language by living in it. That is a different product from a Spanish enrichment block, and worth asking about directly wherever you tour.
The short version
- Get the license number and check it yourself.
- Ask about ratios at 5:30pm, not at 10am.
- Watch a transition.
- Decide whether you are buying coverage, curriculum, or both.
- Ask what you hear on an ordinary day.
Then tour in person, during operating hours, with your child if you can. Rooms in use tell you far more than empty rooms.
Schedule a tour at My First Place Academy → · Infant-specific tour checklist →