Finding quality child care in Carbon County

By Sun Advocate

The Child Care Resource and Referral center that is located at the College of Eastern Utah serves the Carbon County area with information regarding child care and child care providers. The center’s services are free to the community and the staff is friendly and eager to serve all who are interested in receiving information about child care.
Anne Mackiewicz, the director of the resource and referral center explains the duties of the center as being, “to provide parents with referrals for child care providers, to provide educational material to parents and child educators, and to supply resources for providers to check out and use as part of their child care.”
The resource center provides for both educators and parents. By doing this, the center promotes proper care and education for children in a child care environment while providing parents with information regarding where child care is offered.
When the center provides information to parents concerning names of child care providers, the center is providing only information about what resources are available in the area, not providing recommendations about specific providers.
The referral center not only provides parents with names of child care providers, but also with pamphlets that informs parents about what to look for in a quality child care provider.
A check list is available that provides parents with questions and guidelines that each child care provider should be able to provide answers to.
The pamphlets also explain that a parent must be happy with a provider. A parent should attend the child care providers residence and observe the program that is provided to the children. If the parent has questions, they should be asked. If the parent does not feel comfortable with the provider, then the parent should look at other references provided by the referral center.
The center stresses that the child and parent must both be comfortable and satisfied with the child care provider. The best way to determine whether the child will be comfortable with the provider, is to take the child along when observing providers before a decision is made as to whom will be responsible for the child’s care.
The referral center at the college, also helps the providers to plan activities for the children in their care. The center does this by providing educational material and resources for the provider to check out and use as part of their curriculum. The material is then returned and put back into circulation for other child care providers to use.
The center is available through the Department of Workforce Services and is free to both parents and child care providers who are interested in finding out more about child care resources. Anyone who is interested may contact the office and receive information on how to choose or provide quality child care.
The center hopes to serve as many Carbon County residents as possible that may have questions regarding child care. By providing parents with referalls, information to both providers and parents, and educational material to day care professionals, the center hopes to serve as a backbone to the community in child care services.