How Do You Find a Daycare Provider in Your Area?

Sittercity.com Care.com (one of my current clients came from Care.com) and daycarematch.com would be my suggestions. I'm a provider in IL, not back home in KS... But Olathe is big enough it should have about the same effects.

I usually use craigslist to get my daycarematch profile out in the open. Also check around, see if there is a local group of Family Childcare Providers. If not, you might try to start one up. I belong to a group locally that has many home daycare providers, we pass on potential clients to those with openings, we have school year monthly meetings (important ones that count toward the required in-service hours.. For example CPR training last month, Food program person is coming out this month).

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas. I know it's tough to get clients.

Church. i would advertise at my church and other churches in my area.

I would also put a note up on the "available" or "wanted" board at my grocery store. You can still weed out clients that way too.

Good luck!

If there is a civic association nearby, consider advertising there. Ours is free and my friend's community is $25 per ad (he's a handyman so he does that sort of thing).

In our area, there is Freecycle for stuff and a different list for services, coupons, etc. See if there is one in your area like that.

If you don't have a sign up, do you want to get one? I found DD's school when they had the "call for open enrollment" sign up out front (as they do every winter). Most preschools around here do that and many daycares have their # on a sign. DD's old daycare put up a sign when they were looking for new admissions, too. And they offered referral bonuses (if the new family stayed 6 mo, you got a week free).

You might ask local businesses (even offices in high rise buildings) if you can advertise there, like in the break room. We had a place where people could stick that sort of thing in the main break room next to the worker's comp info.

Local doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, the coffee shop, the laundromat, the grocery store, the employment office, on lampposts near the local elementary/preschool. If people have a school aged child, they might have another, or a younger one on the way in need of daycare.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I also am a childcare provider in Olathe. I have only gotten one or two from the agency I work with and have managed to be lucky by making signs and putting them out at the entrance to my subdivision and the subdivisions close to me. I don't leave them out long as any location, maybe just the weekend or during the day and then take them down or move them so that there is less of a chance that someone takes them. That is how I have gotten at least half of all the kids I watch and the other is from friends or past/current daycare parents. Good Luck

When we moved here a few years ago, we needed to set up childcare ASAP for after-school. We went to the elementary school office, and the secretary told us of 2 daycares in our immediate neighborhood that she knew had openings. We went to interview them, and placed our kids in one of them starting the following day! So, I would recommend the elementary school in your neighborhood.

care.com and sittercity.com both are great

Pennsylvania has a childcare provider rating system (Keystone STARS) that licenses childcare, and puts them on a 4-star rating system based on their standards. They have a searchable website. Does Kansas have something similar?

Otherwise, NAEYC

Those are the 2 resources I used.

You might see if some of the neighborhood schools will let you place a flyer in the teachers lounge. Elementary, middle and high schools..

Lots of young teachers look for good daycare that is close to their work. You get in good with a few young teachers in your community, you will have clients for years .

They love knowing their children are close by.. For drop off, pick up and in cases of emergency.

Our DHS has a list they hand out that is free. When a mom applies for child care assistance they have to have that list for them so they know who will accept the state payments.

I always advertised in the classifieds but I only got a couple of parents through that venue. Not a lot of parents can afford a newspaper on top of internet and phone service for the internet. But it did work those times.

Put up a sign in your area. Something that says...."Licensed home child care has 1 opening for a 2 year old child...call ###-####". They won't remember the number if the area code is on there but if it's different than others in this area you have to put it on there of course.

If I were doing this in my home I live off a highway that I have driven from Denton Texas to at least to Omaha Nebraska. So if I wanted to let people know I had an opening I would select several busy corners on this highway to put a short sign. Then I'd select a couple more places off that path where businesses are like Walmart so that people pulling in and out would see both sides of it.

Good luck finding kids!

Churches, facebook, local stores.

I have looked at all these places for listings when I was looking.