What Is the Difference Between a Day Care Center and a Child Development Center?
Generally, day care centers are nurseries, safe places for parents to allow their pre-schoolers supervised socialization or baby-sitting services for working parents. Child development centers often focus more on academic learning and advancing the children’s maturity. The difference between day care centers and child development centers differs according to region.
In Montana, for example, child development centers are government-funded resources for children who have developmental disabilities and are economically disadvantaged. Conversely, many child development centers in Florida operate as 501(c)(3) non-profit institutions serving both low-income families via scholarship and more affluent families with pay based on attendance. Both Montana and Florida child development centers offer a range of services that are unavailable at traditional day care centers. These services include early intervention and developmental therapies for children with social, emotional or academic issues.