All About Childcare

Since neither Patrick nor Esther have children, we decided to outsource the question of childcare to our fellow classmates who have been through the process of finding good daycare and preschools in the area. This is a collection of suggestions for places to look for the most appropriate form of childcare and preschool for your young ones.


The Yale WorkLife program has proven itself to be quite useful, and they have a variety of resources related to childcare for students' families. Here you can find directories for different childcare sources in the area, lists of nanny and au pair agencies, babysitters, FAQs about childcare in New Haven, as well as summer camp offerings and after school programs for kids of all ages. If you or your partner are a childcare provider looking for an opportunity to work in childcare in New Haven, there are also employment opportunities collected and listed here. We are so thankful to Jan Fournier for sharing this information with us, and so neatly compiled!


A fellow student recommended using Connecticut Parent Magazine's online directory for local childcare options throughout the state of Connecticut in addition to the directory provided by WorkLife. You can peruse reviews of the different options provided by fellow parents, and the search parameters are a bit more specific so it may be more helpful in terms of narrowing your search to your specific needs.


We also received this enticing bit of information: The city of New Haven subsidizes pre-kindergarten day care for residents through a program called School Readiness.  Subsidies are offered on a sliding scale, but most YDS students may qualify for some assistance. Assistance is granted on a first-come, first-served basis, without preference to certain neighborhoods or siblings of children already involved in the program. Once you apply for assistance, School Readiness can also assist you in finding daycare that has availability and falls within your price range. Most of their programs are housed in elementary schools, but there are some full-day programs to help accommodate working parents who need childcare for the full day all year round.


We hope this is helpful to those of you with young children who may be starting the search for daycare, childcare, babysitters, schools, etc. YDS values it's family-friendly campus, and so we want to do everything we can to help make your family's transition as simple as possible. If you have additional questions regarding childcare that you would like to have addressed, please either leave a comment here or email us at BTFO2012@gmail.com and we will follow-up with any additional information we may find. Or, if you have found another tremendous resource related to childcare, please leave a comment to share that information with fellow incoming students!