Child Care Openings

Child Care Openings

If you're looking for in-home child care you may have discovered that openings in licensed family child care centers are hard to come by - especially if your child is under two years old. This is primarily due to licensing ratios that are set in place to provide high quality care for every child in the center.

Current Child Care Openings

Child care openings in our center occur when children turn two or when children leave the center. Generally the longest wait is for an opening for infants and toddlers up to age two. Our current openings are listed below:

Two Weeks to Two Years - Current Child Care Openings

Two Years to Twelve Years - Current Child Care Openings

Before/After School - Current Child Care Openings

Anticipated Child Care Openings

Child Care Openings Occur with Birthdays

We are often asked when we think we'll have an opening and although we can make a guess based on current children's birthdays, we never know for sure. Families' childcare arrangements change unexpectedly; sometimes parents leave the center earlier than anticipated due to job changes, or discover that they're going to have a new baby who will need an upcoming infant opening. Sometimes parents find alternate childcare arrangements while on our waiting list and decide not to take an opening in our center.

Parents with children under two may have a longer wait than parents with children over two. Believe it or not, the best time to look for child care is before your baby is born! Parents who are looking for more than one opening may also have a longer wait. Most openings in our center occur one at a time so if you have twins or siblings you may want to consider enrolling one child at a time with the understanding that you will get the next available opening for your other child.

Anticipated child care openings are listed below:

Two Weeks to Two Years - Anticipated Child Care Openings

Two Years to Twelve Years - Anticipated Child Care Openings

Before/After School - Anticipated Child Care Openings

Child Care Openings are Based on Ratios

In Wisconsin licensed family child care centers are allowed to care for a maximum of eight children under most circumstances. Children's ages dictate how many children in each age group a center is allowed to care for. The following table illustrates Wisconsin's caregiver/child ratios.

Under Two 0 1 2 3 4
Two and Up 8 7 5 2 0
School Age* 0 0 1 3 2
Maximum 8 8 8 8 6
* in care less than 3 hours per day

Waiting List for Child Care Openings

We maintain one waiting list and fill available child care openings from that list. Parents wishing to be placed on the waiting list need to provide information for the waiting list. When an opening becomes available families will be notified in the order that they were put on the waiting list, with priority given to siblings of children already enrolled and those families whose child care schedule most closely fits the available opening. Parents must submit a completed enrollment Intent/Acceptance and the enrollment fee within 24 hours of being notified, or the opening will be offered to the next family on the list.

We hope this information has been helpful to you as you seek child care openings for your child.