My services will be available Monday through Friday from 8:00am until 6:00pm. Please discuss needs for care outside these times and I will attempt to accommodate reasonable requests at a possible additional fee. Although I will do my very best to be available every business day, it is conceivable that I may be forced to close occasionally due to vacation, illness, or other emergency. I also have 2 special needs children that require me to attend meetings at the school occasionally. At present, I do not have a substitute for these meetings, and will bring the children with me if you absolutely cannot find alternate care during the time of the meeting. If you cannot ever tolerate rare, but possible lapses in care, you should consider placing your child in a daycare center, or make other arrangements for backup coverage.
Unless other arrangements are made in advance, charges for the next week's care will be due on Friday. This will enable me to purchase food and supplies on the weekend for the coming week. The first week's fee is due the Friday prior to your child's first week of service along with all additional paperwork that needed to be filled out. Your specific rates will be outlined in your contract and rate agreement.
My current rates are as follows:
Full Time (4-5 days) Infant/untrained preschooler: $170
Full Time (4-5 days) Preschooler/Kindergarten: $160
Part Time Daily (up to 3 days): $35-40
Full Time Before and After School Care: $80 per week
Due to the fact that I can have only 6 children full time, ALL Before and After school children will have to find alternate care during the summer vacation, unless I have available space (first-come, first-served). Full Time summer care will be at the Full Time Preschooler Rate.
A non-refundable security deposit equal to two weeks of childcare services plus a yearly supply fee per child is due upon signature of the contract in order to hold your child's space. (This does not include your first week's fee, which is due on the Friday before services begin.) This fee is due prior to the start of childcare (when the decision is made to have your child attend my facility) and will be credited towards you child's last two weeks of care. I say credited, because your child's fee at time of termination may not be the same amount that it was at the time of enrollment, and in this case, you will be responsible for paying the additional amount owed. This deposit is not returned to you if you change your mind before care starts and decide to not have your child attend my facility. If you cannot afford to pay this deposit in full prior to the start of care, you will be required to pay one weeks deposit and arrangements will be made to split the second weeks deposit into equal installments that will be added to your regular weekly tuition. I will make every effort to work with you so that this deposit will not affect your ability to have your child in my care.
A late payment fee of $25 plus an additional $10 per day will be added to the weekly tuition charge, unless prior arrangements are made. I have a "no pay, no stay" policy which means that your child will not be allowed to stay in my care until tuition is paid in full. Also, unless prior arrangements are made, there will be a late pick-up charge of $1 per minute after that, per child, if you arrive after your regular scheduled hours. For this reason, please plan accordingly when calculating your pick-up times taking into consideration traffic and bad weather conditions.
I will attempt to be generous on this since I was once a working parent myself and I realize job pressures, traffic, and weather conditions can occasionally affect your ability to arrive on time. However, since a habit of arriving late does affect my family life, I will need to charge late fees if I feel a pattern of late arrival develops. Please feel free to discuss arrival and drop-off times with me if your needs vary, such as when you or your spouse need to travel for business. I will attempt to be flexible to meet your needs for occasional early arrival and late pick-up time, but these will need to be exceptions rather than the general rule so as not to unduly impact my own family.
Every 1st of January, new contracts will be put into place along with a "possible" cost of living increase in your weekly fee. I say "possible" because I reserve the right to raise fees at any time and fees may or may not be increased at that time. This increase will never be more than $5 per child and you will be presented with this new contract and fee schedule in early December to give you plenty of notice of any changes. All signed forms will need to be in my hands no later than that January 1st.
Payment is preferred in cash; however, checks and money orders will be accepted when drawn on a local bank. In the unlikely event of a returned check, I will require a $25 service charge in addition to the payment of any additional bank charges I may incur as a result of the inconvenience and, after a 2nd returned check, no further checks will be accepted for a period of 3 months.
If you prefer, you may pay once per month, at the beginning of the current month. The payment would be at the same weekly tuition rate, calculated for the number of days in that month. In order to provide my own family with a stable financial situation, I cannot offer any discounts for days your child is not in my care, such as when you are on vacation, or when your child is ill. Fees are not based on attendance. You are paying for a specific slot and in order to keep that slot open your fee will be due every week. The main reason providers charge for absent days is to provide stability in their budgets. Although I realize daycare is a major expense for most working parents, I also rely on this business to support my own family. Since I will be holding a space for your child for you to use at will, I need to charge for that space whether you use it or not. Rare exceptions may be made at my discretion for extreme circumstances. In-home childcare is a home-based business, not a BABY-SITTING service. In the event that your child is to be absent, or late, please contact me as soon as possible. Feel free to contact me on my cell phone if you end up getting my voicemail.
Spaces are available on a "first-come, first-served" basis and therefore, in order to hold a spot for you for longer than 4 weeks I will need to collect a weekly fee equal to half of each week's tuition for each week that the spot is held that your child is not attending. This fee, along with your security deposit is non-refundable should you change your mind and find care elsewhere. This fee can be dropped off weekly, monthly, or paid in full at time of enrollment (signing of contract and handing in deposit) if the exact number of weeks off is known. Once your child has begun care I will charge a weekly fee equal to 1/2 of your normal rate for any extended absences (those over 2 weeks in length) that you need to take for illnesses or maternity leaves.
You will always receive a receipt for payment of tuition and supply fees. At the end of each year, I will provide you with a proper tax form showing the full amount of all charges for that calendar year.
