What differentiates Sunshine Day Camp from other child care programs?
Sunshine Day Camp is a licensed child care, per the State of California, Title 22. This means that we operate under a strict set of laws and regulations, all of which ensure your child will be as safe as possible. Some regulations include child to staff ratios, safety protocol, supervision requirements, staff regulations (including mandatory background check, training, and further education), and facility requirements.
In addition, our curriculum is second to none! Whether your child is enrolled in our education-based preschool or recreation-based school-age or summer camp program, you will find an exciting curriculum awaiting your child. As an industry leader since 1984, one of our most ? components is our character development curriculum.
Finally, our staff is simply a cut above the rest! See what makes them better than the rest in the frequently asked question above.
Before considering another child care in Santa Clarita, we encourage you to visit one of our campuses to see first-hand why Sunshine Day Camp is a step ahead of the competition!
What makes your Sunshine Day Camp staff better than the rest?
The greatest thing about Sunshine Day Camp is our staff! Sunshine Day Camp “counselors” combine fresh, creative ideas with high energy to create a lively learning environment for your child. Many are college graduates and many others are teachers-in-training. And, their playful personalities and strong moral character make them excellent role models. Inspired by our fun, summer camp atmosphere, each counselor has a nickname, too. Whether you’re talking to Malibu, Noodle, Elmo, or any other staff member, you’ll notice our most outstanding quality right away—we really love kids!
We also take special attention in making sure our staff is prepared to work with your child. Here are a few extras we do:
Complete Background Check
Before an employee can begin working at Sunshine Day Camp he/she undergoes an extensive background check including fingerprinting and criminal clearance through the Department of Justice, FBI, and Child Abuse Index. What’s more, the background is “live”–meaning if a staff is ever convicted of a crime, we are alerted and can remove the employee immediately. Staff members are also tested for TB and obtain a general health clearance from a doctor.
Extensive, Ongoing Training
Staff is initially trained with over 8 hours of Sunshine Day Camp’s philosophy of discipline and positive reinforcement, curriculum, supervision skills, and State laws and regulations. Staff is regularly tested on their knowledge of the materials. In addition, Sunshine Day Camp holds monthly and quarterly training including emergency/disaster preparedness, classroom management, supervision, teamwork, parent communication, and much more.
Child Development Education
Each staff member is required to be in progress of 6 semester units of child development at a college or university. Teachers (or head counselors in a room) must have a minimum of 12 units in child development and a minimum of 1 year working professionally with children.
What is your child-to-staff ratio?
Sunshine Day Camp believes that low ratios allow for a more safe and fun experience for your child. That's why we aim for much lower ratios than the industry standard, which is 12:1 in preschool and 14:1 in school-age. Typically, our ratios start around 10:1 (children to staff) but is usually lower in most cases.
Is your tuition affordable?
While Sunshine Day Camp aims to provide excellence in child care, we are also committed to affordable tuition. We invite you to compare our pricing with our competitors. You will find we are comparable in pricing–more affordable in many cases–but offer much more in care.
What if I’m unhappy with the care, do you offer refunds?
If you are not completely satisfied with your care, we encourage you to see your director as soon as possible. If you are still unsatisfied after speaking to your director, during your first month of care, and choose to withdraw from our program, we will refund any security deposit or registration fee you paid and not charge tuition moving forward. The request must be made within your first month, and the request must be in writing. If it is the first week of care, you will be refunded for any prepaid tuition that is unused.
If you are unhappy at any point after the first month you can still cancel services. If you give a 30-day notice, you will be eligible to receive your security deposit back. See the facility director for more information regarding the cancelation process.
Are your facilities certified by the state?
Each Sunshine Day Camp location has a beautiful building to house our program. The building is certified by the State of California and provides all the essentials for the children and families we serve. The facility is always climate-controlled–cool on hot days and warm on cold ones. This means that our children always have a place to stay during any type of weather. In addition, each building has several rooms, allowing us to set up age-appropriate classrooms.
Do you provide on-campus transportation?
Sunshine Day Camp is exclusively located on seven local elementary school campuses. If your child attends Fair Oaks Ranch, Mitchell, Oak Hills, Pico Canyon, Pinetree, Stevenson Ranch, or Valencia Valley Elementary, children are simply walked over from school to our on-campus building. This eliminates the concern of having your child transported off-site.
If your child does not attend one of the seven elementary schools mentioned above, Sunshine Day Camp offers safe, reliable transportation from several nearby schools in Santa Clarita to one of our locations. Please contact us to find out what schools we currently transport from.
Do you provide transportation and how safe is it?
Sunshine Day Camp has been transporting children to and from elementary schools for over 30 years. We currently offer the transportation service to many neighboring elementary schools to our Sunshine Day Camp facilities.
Each Sunshine Day Camp staff driver is extensively trained, has all necessary driving certifications, and has undergone an extensive background check (both vehicle and personal). This includes a “live” check that will alert us if they receive a traffic citation and/or vehicle accidents–even while driving on their own time. They also obtain a thorough physical by medical professionals.
The vans we use to transport the children are inspected daily and properly maintained. And, since we only transport children from nearby schools, the amount of time they are in the van is minimal.
