Demand for Special Needs Daycare

[Unregistered]

I have started working more with special needs kids babysitting etc. G tube, oxygen, immobile etc. Have any of your heard of what kind of demand is out there for specialized small daycare for infants/toddlers of special needs?

It would be in home, maybe max of 3 kids. What are your thoughts.
Thanks

[cheerfuldom]

I think the reason there are not more of this type of daycare is due to training for the provider and liability should something happen in your home. Same reason why it is hard to find care for kids that have severe peanut allergies and other issues that make group care difficult.

[itlw8]

age 3 to school age those children are provided services by the school district though it may not be full day childcare. We are lucky to also have a center that has Easter Seal funding and serves local children birth to 3 and other school districts 3 to school age.

[Unregistered]

I guess I mean for the little ones.

[daycare]

I guess I mean for the little ones.

do you have some kind of medical back ground??

[Starburst]

Some local community colleges or online schools have special needs(SNs)/ Special Ed (SE) training/classes available. It depends on your area and what the special needs demographic is like to focus on just special needs (such as is there high cases of children with ADD/ADHD, Autism, or mobility/seeing/hearing/speaking learning impaired in that area?) It also depends on what you consider SN/SE and if you decide to specialize in a particular illness (sever allergies, asthma, diabetes, dislexia/discalcula?).

I am not sure if you can exclude/refuse other children who are not special needs (NSN) from your program also many special needs parents want their children to have a chance to be included in activities with NSN children to get them used to a variaty of people and it could also teach the NSN children about tolerance/ acceptence. Also I do not know if you can legally have a special needs only care unless you have some special credentials or training. Another option is that you can always just open a regular daycare and say something like you have "training/ expierience with special needs children", "Emphisied (first priority) care for special needs children" or "Special needs families welcome" with no specialized training required. You can always advertise at schools/ specilist/ doctors offices. But If you include NSNKs you cannot charge a higher rate for SNFs than the NSNFs because it goes against the Americans with Diabilities Act (ADA).

[CedarCreek]

A lot of the times, those children qualify for home health care nurses. My son had one until he was old enough to attend the special needs preschool program at school. He had oxygen 24/7, g-tube, heart monitor and 02 monitor. It was very hard to get him into a daycare for after school though. No one wanted to take him because he was a liability. He was 4 by that point and just had the g-tube. (still does)

[Candy]

Only two states that I know have daycare centers just for special needs children and that's Kentucky and Delaware. There aren't many because they usually only employ RN or LPN to work there

[Unregistered]

I run a special needs daycare. It's not specifically special needs, but we take medically fragile, special needs, and foster children. We have nurses on staff and I have a medical background. There is a pretty high demand for us, and most of our very fragile kiddos come with their private duty nurses. Their parents send them for therapy, for playtime, for socialization, to have a little time to themselves, whatever. It works well. We are able to get special grants to modify our guest house (where we do the daycare) and we get nursing students and special ed students from the college in to do hours ALL. THE. TIME. I love my job. If you have a calling, I say go for it! It's not easy, but it's definitely fulfilling and it's a service you will be compensated proportonately for.

[Cradle2crayons]

Special needs here too

I currently run a legal but unlicensed daycare with five total enrolled. I never have five at the same time though. I also have a 10 year old child (in school) and a 4 year old child (starts school in August). I have an evening 16 month old who drives an hour one way here just to bring her baby here. She has chd, torticollis, scoliosis, reflux, and a Mickey j button. She's not mobile and doesn't crawl. She's actually my most precious little one of all. Special needs care here is impossible to find. There aren't really special programs if they aren't school aged and most individual providers won't care for them. I do have a medical background so popping a j tube back in with my eyes closed and two hands tied behind my back is commonplace . But I do understand why providers are leery but to be honest my other dck are more likely to be hurt than she is in care so it doesn't panic or bother me at all.