Looks like we'll be needing childcare for our first! Any recommendations for childcare centers with programs under 18 months? We're based in NW Austin, but not sure what we're about to get into for availability and pricing. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Can't help with a reference but I assist with a second mortgage to pay for it.

When is the baby due? My advice is to get on every waiting list you can and prepare to hire a nanny unless you want to end up at Stepping Stone or Primrose

You might take a look at the JCC

We are at St. George which in North Central and we love it but the infant room is difficult to get into without a sibling at the school

Those 200 dollar a month Daycares we did with our son are long gone. Thank goodness my son is not having kids. Lol

We loved First United Methodist Preschool downtown next to the capitol. The huge drawback for a lot of families is that it's only part-time (9-2, I think). They have limited infant slots, so you'd probably be on a waiting list like any of the good spots in town.

I live in NW Austin and have a young infant. We toured a number of venues and ended up at One World Montessori. Its been great, but we have friends that have gone to other places and had good experiences as well. It seemed that most places ranged from $1200-1800/month in price. Availability was not an issue for us, but we did start calling around at about the 16week of pregnancy range. Friends that did the nanny route usually tried to co-nanny with friends nearby to reduce costs. Otherwise, it seems that is a more expensive option.

The big things for us outside of price and location were kid to teacher ratio, age range for classrooms (one place that was highly recommended to us did 0-18 month together, which we did not like), and whether they provided food on site. Best of luck with the search.

Congrats on your new baby!

We've done the following, but not sure about <18 months though

Hillcrest Baptist (Mother's Day out)
First Presbyterian (Mother's Day out)
Four Seasons Community School (Full time)
Joy of Learning

no particular order

We've been with FSCS with our kids, I would recommend them. They will take children as young as 12 weeks depending on availability.

Infant room ratios are state mandated at 4 to 1. You need 2.5 caregivers to run a full time infant room. Total cost to run an infant room is 100-120k per year divided by 4 families the annual cost is 25-30k per year per student. Thats 2-3k a month. However most schools operate these at a loss. I'd definitely do what you can to understand the school financial footing. With the Covid funds not being renewed most early childhood education centers are running a deficit. In 2024 almost 50% of the area school were in need a a influx of cash to stay open.

We paid our nanny $27 per hour plus a completion bonus that brought her up to $30 per hour. This gave her incentive to work the entire contract and not just leave when a new family was interested.

Nanny Poppins is a good nanny match maker, Care.com is also good and Facebook can work in a pinch

Keeper of The Spirits said:

---

When is the baby due? My advice is to get on every waiting list you can and prepare to hire a nanny unless you want to end up at Stepping Stone or Primrose

You might take a look at the JCC

We are at St. George which in North Central and we love it but the infant room is difficult to get into without a sibling at the school

---

curious what is wrong with Primrose? My oldest went to two different locations and we had no issues with them.

AggieOO said:

---

Keeper of The Spirits said:

---

When is the baby due? My advice is to get on every waiting list you can and prepare to hire a nanny unless you want to end up at Stepping Stone or Primrose

You might take a look at the JCC

We are at St. George which in North Central and we love it but the infant room is difficult to get into without a sibling at the school

---

curious what is wrong with Primrose? My oldest went to two different locations and we had no issues with them.

---

It varies greatly depending on the location, its a corporate for profit franchise so depending on the franchisee the quality will vary. You also have a higher level of bureaucracy and admin which takes money out of the pool for caregivers which leads to higher turnover.

Keeper of The Spirits said:

---

Infant room ratios are state mandated at 4 to 1. You need 2.5 caregivers to run a full time infant room. Total cost to run an infant room is 100-120k per year divided by 4 families the annual cost is 25-30k per year per student. Thats 2-3k a month. However most schools operate these at a loss. I'd definitely do what you can to understand the school financial footing. With the Covid funds not being renewed most early childhood education centers are running a deficit. In 2024 almost 50% of the area school were in need a a influx of cash to stay open.

We paid our nanny $27 per hour plus a completion bonus that brought her up to $30 per hour. This gave her incentive to work the entire contract and not just leave when a new family was interested.

Nanny Poppins is a good nanny match maker, Care.com is also good and Facebook can work in a pinch

---

We found our nanny on care.com. Ended up having to bump her to 25/hr because as she had an offer to go to another family for more money, but a good one is well worth it.

Worth mentioning that things can also change depending on the child, our daughter is autistic so daycare really wasn't an option. But what we pay for a nanny for her and her brother is pretty equivalent to what daycare for both of them would cost.