Best Daycare Centers

5 Best Daycare Centers 

Trusting daycare centers with young children is an important decision - choose from the best day care centers for infants and toddlers. Read on to find the best platform for finding reliable and affordable child care. We present the 5 best providers of child day care in the United States. 

Primrose Schools

Primrose Schools summary 

Founded in Georgia, Primrose Schools has over 460 locations across the United States. At franchised locations, they offer early childhood care for 6-week-old infants through 6 years in addition to after-school care for school children. 

Why Primrose schools? 

As accredited private preschools, Primrose Schools offer an in-depth curriculum that encourages young children to grow emotionally and explore foundational learning topics. Because they serve a wide age range, children can attend the same daycare center for years and can experience a continual community of children their own age.

Primrose Schools locations 

Primrose Schools operates in 33 US states with many suburban locations outside Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Denver. 

Primrose Schools pros

Children at Primrose Schools are divided into multiple age-based classrooms to receive the best care. Classrooms include Infant, Toddler, Early Preschool, Preschool, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and Before & After School. Their daycare centers are based on the best practices for early childhood education with an emphasis on successful kindergarten preparation and activities to foster lifelong learning. As an indication of their innovate preschool age curriculum, every Primrose school has a set of 12 hand puppets used to explore emotional learning topics.

Primrose Schools cons 

In certain states, Primrose Schools have a limited number of locations. A lack of convenient locations could be problematic for working parents with longer commute times. 

KinderCare Learning Centers

KinderCare summary 

KinderCare Learning Center is the largest chain of daycare centers in the United States. They emphasize the importance of helping children learn through fun and evidence-based curriculum in addition to maintaining extra clean spaces. 

Why KinderCare? 

KinderCare will periodically assess childrens’ learning process to help children meet typical developmental goals and prepare for school successfully.  KinderCare centers offer flexible scheduling with extended hours or part-time enrollment if needed. 

KinderCare locations 

KinderCare has numerous locations across the United States including in major metropolitan areas like Washington D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Boston, and Chicago. Their website offers a helpful map of local daycares utilizing a browser's location services. 

KinderCare pros 

As the largest chain, KinderCare offers a high standard of childcare to thousands of young children everyday. They have a dedicated team of early childhood specialists who design Early Foundations programming for KinderCare Learning Centers and keep it updated to the developmental research. Activities are tailored for each age group and vary daily to promote curiosity. KinderCare has a commitment to fostering diversity and acceptance of children with all backgrounds and abilities.

KinderCare cons 

Specific childcare offerings may vary based on the local franchise, especially for school-age children.  Parents should double-check that the childcare services they need are offered locally. Additionally, KinderCare Learning Companies Inc. is a for-profit enterprise so parents should price compare with other local options.

Bright Horizons 

Bright Horizons summary 

Founded in 1986, Bright Horizons offers quality daycare for young children especially in employer-sponsored programs. By investing in excellent staff, they strive to offer an exceptional environment for young children and parental flexibility for working families.  

Why Bright Horizons? 

Bright Horizons offer age-specific daycare groups for infants, preschool, toddlers & twos ,and pre-kindergarten. Certain centers do offer additional programming for elementary school children, Back-up Care, or summer care. As part of their best-in-class daycare program, they offer an app for parents to receive updates and photos of their children. 

Bright Horizons locations 

With locations in western Europe and the United States, Bright Horizons daycare centers provide high-quality childcare. They currently have locations in over 30 states. 

Bright Horizons pros

Bright Horizons collaborates with major employers to offer on-site childcare or discounted child care to corporate employees across the country. Their learning framework Discovery Driven Learning is backed by human development innovations and implemented by trained daycare professionals. Bright Horizons strives to be an excellent provider of early childhood education and advocate for quality child care across the United States. 

Bright Horizons cons

One additional consideration is that Bright Horizons is a large publicly traded company with commitment to investors. Parents should price compare Bright Horizons childcare with other local options.

The Goddard School 

The Goddard School summary 

As a private preschool, The Goddard School focuses on providing early childhood education to children between the ages of two and five. Their curriculum Wonder of Learning emphasizes children's’ natural curiosity and ability to learn through play. 

Why The Goddard School? 

The Goddard School utilizes a specialized curriculum designed to promote independent, young learners. The Wonder of Learning curriculum is based on a dedication to STEAM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Many Goddard Schools have also incorporated additional spaces like on-site playgrounds, kid gyms, outdoor classrooms,  or extra spaces for art and cooking. 

The Goddard School locations 

The Goddard School has locations in over 35 states and the District of Columbia.

The Goddard School pros

The major benefit of The Goddard School is the high quality of early childhood education provided by expert early education professionals. They are trained above state standards in developmentally appropriate care and offer a custom curriculum the Wonder of Learning which helps children learn through play.

The Goddard School cons

As a private preschool, The Goddard School only serves children between the ages of 2-5. Parents of infants, young toddlers, or kindergarteners will need to use other day centers when their children are outside of that age range. Additionally, this specialized care comes at a higher cost than most other daycare centers. 

Care.com 

Care.com summary 

Care.com is a large network connecting families with caregivers for young children as well as pets and elders. Instead of a daycare center, parents can choose the best local caregivers or daycare centers for their young children. 

Why Care.com? 

By hiring a caregiver through care.com, parents have more autonomy of their children’s early childhood education. Care.com has an easy signup process that allows parents to find the best local daycare provider for their needs and for their child’s benefit.

Locations 

Care.com is a nationwide platform that allows parents to search for local daycare centers and childcare providers in one place. 

Care.com pros 

For parents with irregular schedules or who need more flexibility, utilizing care.com can offer them more tailored childcare options or combined multiple providers. Geographic or budget constraints can be accommodated with Care.com’s easy filtering options. 

Care.com cons 

With individual caregivers or nannies, the care will be less standardized than a childcare center. Parents should vet their local options careful and ask caregivers to provide proof of credentials or references from other young families.

Best daycare centers

We reviewed the best daycare centers across the United States. Use the resource as a starting point for reviewing nearby childcare options. The availability of locations, the age of children needing care, and the cost are all considerations for parents seeking care.