Ferreting out the perfect preschool, daycare or elementary school for your tot can be nothing if not stressful. You want to make the best choice for your baby so you scour reports, check out test scores, ask around at the playground and go with your gut. Well starting this week you’ve got something else to go with. The Shorty List.

The Shorty List is your chance to get the real scoop from those truly in the know, the parents whose kids attend these schools, daycares and preschools. It was created by local mama, Karen Young Chester, who was more than a little surprised to be told she was “way too late” to be entering her gestating baby on a daycare wait list and so she decided to do something about it. She’s gathered together, in one spot, all the key info you need to know about each facility and then opened it up to feedback from parents and educators.

Divided into three categories – Daycares, Preschools and Elementary Schools – and then further divided by neighbourhoods, in addition to feedback from parents, staff and more, you’ll get the type, age range, space and hours for daycares and preschools; and school size, principal info and links to the Ministry of Education stats for elementary schools. You can also search each list by your child’s age, facility name, postal code or city.

We found the search functionality a titch picky when we were searching by name. In the end we found it better to just put part of the name of the school or daycare we were looking for as you won’t get any results if what you type is slightly different from how it’s been entered into their database.

Currently limited to the Metro Vancouver, it’s fascinating to browse the site and check out schools you’re interested in, daycares you’re at, or preschools you no longer attend. All comments are moderated and they encourage playgrounds rules, asking you to play fair, keep things clean and not identify individuals in your reviews.

The site is already robust thanks to Young Chester soliciting feedback in advance of her launch, but to make sure it’s truly a valuable – and unbiased – resource we all need to start sharing so we really get the full scoop on what’s what.

Is The Shorty List the only source you should trust? Probably not, but it’s a valuable new tool in your school and daycare hunting arsenal. So go on, get shorty-ing.

The Shorty List: www.theshortylist.ca