Local Resource: Find a daycare near you

The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care is the formal body responsible for licensing daycares (family and group) in the state of Massachusetts. They have a fantastic search feature built in for all daycares they have licensed: EEC Online Daycare search feature.

When we began our family home daycare search, I asked each one a set of questions and realized I was getting a standard response back. I then realized that a lot of my questions were covered by the licensing regulations of the state of Massachusetts. Here is a non-exhaustive summary of the things your family home daycare provider (if licensed) will/should be following (but might be a common question you have):

Child to provider ratio:
Home daycares are licensed for either up to 6 children or 7-10 children. More than 10 children and it's considered a group daycare (Infants are 0-14months and toddlers are 15mos-two years).
For up to 6 children:
Case 1: One caregiver and one assistant can provide for only three children under the age of two (at least one of these three has to be a toddler)
Case 2: Two caregivers - no limits on the distribution of ages under two years old.
For 7-10 children:
Case 1: Two caregivers + one assistant, only six children under the age of two allowed, no more than three of them may be infants.
Case 2: Three caregivers: all ten kids may be under the age of two, but only seven of them may be infants.

Visiting policy:
Directly from the EEC regulations: "Parent Visits. Parents must be permitted to visit a child care home unannounced any time during the hours that their child is present. The provider must inform all parents of this policy in writing, and maintain a copy of this notification in the child's record."

Illness and Medications:
Your child will not be allowed at daycare if they have a fever of 101 degrees or higher or have active symptoms such as vomiting or diarrhea. They must then be symptom free for at least 24 hours before returning to daycare. Children with common colds are allowed (as long as they don't have a fever). You'll need to fill out Medicine Authorization forms if they need to have medicine dispensed during daycare hours.

Vacation policy:
I can no longer find the document that contains the policy for provider vacation, but I believe it allows for two weeks of paid vacation for the provider. In addition to that the daycare will be closed (and paid) for typical holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas, MLK, Labor day etc. Providers are required to give you a 30 day notice for the intent of a vacation (again this is from memory, so make sure to ask your provider what their policy is). Essentially, plan on paying for 52 weeks a year and hope that you can line up your vacation with theirs. You will not be discounted tuition for anytime your child is out of daycare (once they begin) for vacation or illness.