Georgia inspects every licensed center against the same rulebook. The five DECAL rules a cleaning crew actually touches, and what nightly service costs.
Every licensed child care program in Georgia is inspected against the same rulebook: Chapter 591-1-1, the Rules and Regulations for Child Care Learning Centers, enforced by Bright from the Start, the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, better known as DECAL.
A cleaning company cannot make your center compliant. Most of what the rules require happens during the day, by your own staff, between children. But several of those rules are squarely about cleaning, and a director who knows which ones can buy the right service instead of a generic office contract.
Here is the part of the rulebook a cleaning crew actually touches, and what it means for a center in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody or Brookhaven.
The rules that describe cleaning
Bathrooms, rule 591-1-1-.06
Bathrooms must be cleaned daily with a disinfectant, and equipped with soap, toilet tissue and single-use towels within easy reach of the children. The rule also sets fixture ratios: one flush toilet and one handwashing sink for up to twelve children, two for up to twenty-five, and one more of each for every additional twenty-five.
The words doing the work there are daily and with a disinfectant. Not "wiped down." Not "as needed."
Diapering areas, rule 591-1-1-.10
The changing surface has to be smooth, non-porous and guarded against falls, and it must be cleaned with a disinfectant and dried with a single-use disposable towel between each change. The diapering area cannot double as a food area, and it has to be stocked with liquid soap, single-use hand towels, single-use wash cloths and a covered container for soiled items.
That one belongs entirely to your staff, during the day. What an evening crew can do is make sure the consumables the rule depends on are stocked, and flag the surface when it stops being non-porous. A cracked or peeling changing pad is a finding waiting to happen.
Equipment and toys, rule 591-1-1-.12
Toys for children under three have to be easy to clean with a disinfectant daily, and equipment and furniture must be kept clean and in good repair. In practice this is a purchasing decision as much as a cleaning one: soft, porous, seam-heavy toys in an infant room create a daily job that nobody has time for.
Hygiene, rule 591-1-1-.17
Handwashing requirements for both children and staff, plus a set of specifics that sit right on the line between staff work and contractor work. Potty chairs emptied into a flush toilet and cleaned with a disinfectant after each use. Bathtubs and showers cleaned with a disinfectant after each use. Drinking fountains kept clean. Soiled items in covered, waterproof containers. Wet or soiled clothing bagged individually. Laundry areas kept out of children's activity rooms.
Physical plant, rule 591-1-1-.25
Floor coverings must be tight, smooth, free of odors and washable or cleanable. The building and grounds must be kept clean, free of debris and in good repair. And the one that catches cleaning contractors out: cleaning supplies, poisons and insecticides must be stored in a locked area inaccessible to children.
The mistake that gets a good center written up
It is almost never the floors. It is a spray bottle.
A crew that arrives at six in the evening, works until nine, and leaves a caddy of chemicals in the corner of a classroom or an unlocked supply closet has just created a licensing finding in your building, with your name on it, not theirs. Same for a mop bucket left standing, an aerosol on an open shelf, or anything at all stored above a diaper changing station.
What to require of any contractor, in writing:
- Chemicals come in with the crew and leave with the crew, or live in a locked store that you control.
- Nothing decanted into unlabeled bottles. Ever.
- Safety data sheets on file in your building for every product used in it.
- Products chosen for a room with children in it, used at label dilution and left for the full contact time on the label.
- The crew understands that a classroom is not an office, and that a surface children put in their mouths is not cleaned with whatever was used on the front desk.
What a cleaning company can and cannot take off your plate
Cannot: the between-each-change diapering surface, the daily toy handling, the handwashing routine, the checks through the day. Those are staff duties tied to specific moments, and DECAL expects your people to do them.
Can: the whole evening reset. Bathrooms cleaned and disinfected properly, every fixture you are inspected on. Floors, which have to stay washable and free of odors. Classroom surfaces, cots and mats on a rotation, trash out nightly so nothing sits overnight. Kitchen and food areas. And the periodic work nobody ever gets to: tile and grout, carpet extraction, vents, and walls at child height, which is the height that actually gets dirty.
Our crews hold seven IJCSA certifications, including Biohazard, Bloodborne Pathogens, Chemical Hazards and Medical Cleaning, along with OSHA HAZWOPER 40-hour training. For a licensed facility, that training usually matters more than the price does.
What it costs in Sandy Springs
Childcare and school work prices at $0.042 per square foot per visit here, plus restrooms, less a frequency discount, with a $150 minimum per visit. Nightly service carries a 45% discount off the per-visit rate, which matters, because the rules are written around daily cleaning.
Three examples, five nights a week:
- 2,500 sq ft preschool, two restrooms: about $91 a visit, roughly $1,823 to $2,219 a month
- 4,000 sq ft center, four restrooms: about $109 a visit, roughly $2,174 to $2,647 a month
- 6,500 sq ft center, six restrooms: about $177 a visit, roughly $3,525 to $4,291 a month
The same 4,000 square foot center on three nights a week instead of five comes down to roughly $1,539 to $1,874 a month. Before you cut nights, check what your own daily obligations look like. Cheaper is not cheaper if it moves the bathroom cleaning onto a lead teacher at 5:45 in the afternoon.
Centers around the Perimeter
The centers we see around Sandy Springs fall into three rough types, and they do not cost the same to clean.
Church and synagogue preschools in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and Roswell. Shared buildings where the classrooms turn over for weekend use. The complication is coordination rather than square footage, because somebody else uses those rooms after you do.
Corporate and hospital-adjacent centers near the Perimeter and in Brookhaven. Often inside a larger building with its own security, loading dock and after-hours rules stacked on top of DECAL's.
Converted houses and small storefronts in Chamblee, Vinings and parts of Marietta. Older bathrooms, more floor types per square foot, and the tightest margins of the three. This is where the condition score from a walkthrough matters most.
We cover Buckhead as well. See service areas, or the school cleaning page for scope detail.
Common questions
Do you clean while children are in the building?
Not normally, and we would advise against it. Evening or overnight cleaning keeps equipment and chemicals out of the rooms while children are present, which is both safer and easier to defend at inspection. Emergency clean-ups during the day are a separate conversation.
What products do you use around children?
EPA-registered disinfectants used at label dilution and left wet for the full contact time on the label, and low-odor products where a disinfectant is not required. Safety data sheets go on file in your building, and nothing is left behind unlocked.
Will a cleaning contract make my center compliant?
No, and be wary of anybody who says otherwise. Compliance belongs to the center, and most of the daily rules are staff duties by design. What a good contractor does is remove the evening workload and the periodic work, and keep its own practices from creating findings for you.
Are you insured for work in a licensed center?
Yes. Insured, bonded and background-checked, with certificates of insurance on request. Most licensed centers and their landlords want the certificate before the first visit.
Which areas do you cover?
Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Chamblee, Dunwoody, Marietta, Roswell and Vinings. Each has its own page under service areas.
