Your teachers keep the between-use work — the changing table after every change, the toy a child mouthed, the table before and after snack — because licensing rules tie it to each use, with children in the room. An after-hours crew is the nightly layer: floors, restrooms, diaper-area floors, the toy and nap-mat rotation, cubby areas and the entry.
That’s the standard a building should be held to. If you’d rather have it in writing, tell us about the space — we walk it and come back with a scope of work and a price, usually within one business day.
The schedule the split comes from
The national reference is Caring for Our Children, the health and safety standards for early care and education from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education. Its Standard 3.3.0.1, as printed in the condensed Basics edition from the federal Administration for Children and Families, calls for a routine schedule of cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting and says those products “should not be used in close proximity to children.”
The schedule is Appendix K, last updated in July 2022: a table that gives each surface it lists a method and a clock — before each use, after each use, daily at the end of the day, or weekly. Our guide to cleaning vs. sanitizing vs. disinfecting covers what separates the three methods; for a director, the clock is the useful part. Read the table by its timing columns and the line between your staff and a night crew is already drawn.
Who does what, surface by surface
- Before and after each use: your staff. Changing tables (cleaned, then disinfected, after each use), mouthed toys (sanitized before another child gets them), highchair trays and food-prep surfaces (cleaned and sanitized before and after each use). That work only happens in the room, during the day, and our daycare cleaning page says so: “Your licensing rules require your teachers to sanitize toys, diapering stations, and surfaces between uses during operating hours, and that stays with your staff.”
- Daily, at the end of the day: the nightly pass. Classroom floors swept or vacuumed, then damp-mopped; in toilet and diapering areas, floors, toilets, sinks, faucets, countertops and diaper pails cleaned and disinfected; door handles and light switches cleaned; drinking fountains cleaned and disinfected. That is a crew’s shift, and the scope on our daycare page includes “Diaper-changing area floors and surrounding surfaces disinfected with EPA-registered products.”
- Weekly, or on a rotation: scheduled work, plus laundry. Classroom toys weekly; cribs, cots and mats used by one child weekly, on top of the clean after each nap. Our daycare page covers the hard-surface side: “Washable toy sanitizing on the rotation set at your walkthrough” and “Nap mats and cots wiped down and sanitized on a scheduled rotation.” The laundry in that column (sheets, blankets, cloth toys, dress-up clothes) isn’t on our published daycare scope.
So the rotation is a second layer, not a substitute: it won’t pull a mouthed block out of circulation at 10am, but it works through the washable toys on the schedule set at your walkthrough.
Your state’s rule is the one that’s enforced
Caring for Our Children is guidance (ACF calls its Basics edition voluntary); your state’s licensing rule is the law, and it can use different verbs or a tighter clock. Three examples, as general information rather than legal advice:
- Texas. The Minimum Standards for Child-Care Centers (26 TAC Chapter 746) require you to “sanitize the diaper-changing surface after each use” (§746.3505) and to set mouthed toys aside “to be sanitized before handling by another child” (§746.3407).
- Minnesota. Minnesota Rules part 9503.0140 says toys that infants and toddlers are likely to mouth must be “cleaned and disinfected when mouthed or soiled and at least daily,” and toilets and seats “disinfected when soiled or at least daily.”
- Florida. Centers follow Chapter 65C-22 of the Florida Administrative Code and the Child Care Facility Handbook it incorporates by reference.
Write the scope in your rule’s words: if it says disinfect, a scope that says sanitize falls short. Where a rule sets two clocks, as Minnesota’s does, the “when mouthed” half stays in the room and the daily half needs an owner named in writing.
Products: fragrance-free, disinfectant where required, dry by drop-off
Our daycare page answers the product question in one paragraph: “We clean with non-toxic, fragrance-free products, and where disinfection is required — restrooms, diaper-area floors — we use EPA-registered disinfectants applied after hours, so every surface is dry and residue-free before the first child arrives. The exact product list is agreed at your walkthrough and stays consistent.”
Appendix K’s notes agree: “Choose products that are free of fragrances or dyes.” A front label won’t settle that, because fragrance-free and unscented aren’t the same thing, so hold us to the product list, by name. If your parent handbook restricts a chemical, our preschool page covers it: “If your parent handbook or licensing file restricts specific chemistries, walk us through it and we match it.”
Working after close also settles a conflict a daytime wipe-down can’t: a registered disinfectant needs the surface wet for its label contact time (see how long disinfectant needs to sit), and the same surface must be dry before a toddler touches it. Ask any vendor, us included, where products wait between visits; Appendix K wants them “locked up and safely out of the reach of children.”
The window between close and the first family
Our daycare page sets the hours in one line, “After-close scheduling with crews out before your first family arrives,” and the finish line in another: “Entry, reception, and cubby areas presented for drop-off, every morning.”
Two habits make it work. A hand-off at close: rotation toys in their bin, cots stacked, and a note about the day, like a room where a sick child spent the afternoon; the crew can only plan around what it’s told. And a hard line at the cubbies: our preschool page says “we never touch the contents of a child's labeled cubby.”
Kitchen and snack areas: two lanes
Food is where the line is sharpest. Appendix K puts food-prep surfaces and highchair trays on a before-and-after-each-use clock, with “an EPA-registered product that is safe for surfaces that touch food”: your kitchen’s lane. Ours, on our daycare page: “Kitchen and snack-area floors, surface exteriors, and trash — your staff keeps its licensed food-prep sanitation.” The crew mops under the highchairs; the prep counter stays with the people who cook on it.
Outbreak weeks
When flu, a stomach bug or hand-foot-and-mouth disease moves through a room, Appendix K notes that programs “may need to sanitize, or disinfect surfaces more often during illness outbreaks,” and should check with health authorities and child care licensing. Our part, from the preschool page: “Illness-outbreak deep cleans: room-by-room disinfection scheduled around your closure window,” covering “touchpoints, floors, restrooms, and cubby exteriors, so you reopen with something to show parents.”
Settle two things early. The product’s label has to list the germ behind the outbreak; for norovirus, the EPA keeps a separate register, List G, searchable by the EPA Reg. No. on the bottle. And the contact time doesn’t shrink in a hard week. Appendix K also keeps water tables out of use during an outbreak.
Where we stop
- Daytime. Our janitorial page is direct: “we do not staff day porters today.” A midday accident is your staff’s to handle.
- Restorative work. The same janitorial page: “We do not strip and wax, screen, or refinish floors — that is a flooring contractor's job, scheduled separately, and our crew works around it.” Appendix K’s carpet steam clean, every three to six months, is a job for a carpet-cleaning specialist, booked separately.
- Health and licensing. “Non-toxic” is the word on our daycare page, quoted as written, not a health guarantee. We promise nothing about a licensing visit or an inspection result: your inspector reads your rule, not our scope.
- People. Our janitorial page says “every cleaner passes a background check.” We claim nothing beyond that line — no state child-care screening or clearance — so if your rules ask something specific of contractors, raise it at the walkthrough.
FAQ
Are your cleaning products safe around toddlers?
Our daycare page answers: “We clean with non-toxic, fragrance-free products, and where disinfection is required — restrooms, diaper-area floors — we use EPA-registered disinfectants applied after hours, so every surface is dry and residue-free before the first child arrives.” “Non-toxic” is the page’s word, not a health guarantee, and “The exact product list is agreed at your walkthrough and stays consistent,” so you can check each product against your policies.
Does an after-hours crew replace our staff’s sanitizing?
No. Our daycare page says it plainly: “Your licensing rules require your teachers to sanitize toys, diapering stations, and surfaces between uses during operating hours, and that stays with your staff. We are the after-hours layer: the nightly deep clean and scheduled toy and nap-mat rotation that cover the whole facility after your staff go home.”
How often are toys and nap mats done?
Our daycare page lists “Washable toy sanitizing on the rotation set at your walkthrough” and “Nap mats and cots wiped down and sanitized on a scheduled rotation,” on top of your staff’s between-use work. The weekly column of Appendix K in Caring for Our Children is a sensible reference, and your state rule may ask for more; the written scope should match whichever is stricter.
When do you clean?
Our daycare page sets it in one line: “After-close scheduling with crews out before your first family arrives.” That window lets a disinfectant stay wet for its label contact time, leaves surfaces dry by drop-off, and keeps cleaning products away from children, as Caring for Our Children recommends.