We live in an age where sending the kids to daycare is more common than the kids staying at home with Mom or Dad. There are definitely benefits to daycare-the kids learn socializing skills at an earlier age, they learn how to deal with a school-like setting (even if it is only for a few hours a week) and the kids learn that it is okay to trust adults who are not members of the family.

It is this trust that makes it incredibly important to make sure that the Child Daycare you send your kids to be able to pass a background check. After all, these are your children's lives you are entrusting to the Child Daycare employees. It is perfectly understandable that you would want to find out everything you could about them. Doing a Child Daycare Background Check is not only a good idea, but a daycare center that frowns on one or gives you a hard time is probably not worth sending your kids to anyway.

You'll want to ask the potential daycare provider these simple questions:

* What prompts you to work with kids?

* What prompted you to leave your last job?

* What is your policy on discipline?

* What can you do to enhance the kids' physical and mental development?

* How do you work with kids to encourage learning?

* Have you ever taught music or art to children?

* What types of things do you encourage kids to play with indoors and outdoors?

Some basic questions to ask a daycare center/facility during the child daycare background check are:

* When parent visit the facility, how do you handle their interaction with their children?

* Am I on my own if your program closes abruptly - either by your decision to call it quits or you are incapacitated or even if you should die?

* What are the hours of the facility?

* Who watches the children when they are playing on the playground?

* What is the age of your playground gear?

* When was the last time your playground equipment was inspected? How do you group the kids?

* Do you work with special needs children? If so, how do you work with them?

* What is the education level of your daycare employees?

There is no shame in performing an extensive criminal history check when checking out a daycare center. It is your children's safety at stake so there should be no limit as to how deep you look to find a possible shady character that will look after your child when you are not there to protect them. As a matter of fact, you should also check the sexual offenders database to verify there are not predators swimming the waters near your prospective daycare facility.

When running the background checks, you will also want to check out driving records. Though you may not care about there parking and speeding tickets, you probably want to know if they have a problem with alcohol or other abusive behavior.

If you are thinking of hiring a nanny or permanent babysitter, you will also want to verify his or her identity and social security number. This part of the child daycare background check will tell you where he or she has lived for the last seven years and where he or she has been employed.

Get references from your daycare candidate. Make sure you actually contact all the references they provide. If you can't reach any of them, ask for a replacement reference. Contact some of the other parents that use the facility to see what their observations are.

You want to have the utmost confidence in any daycare facility you choose. To gain that level of comfort, ask any questions that are important to you. After performing an extensive background research, there will probably be many more questions that you will want answered before trusting the care of your child to them. Remember, there is no suc thing as being "too safe" when it comes to the well being of your child.