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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Would You Charge?
Preschool/daycare teacher 01:45 PM 01-29-2011
For inclement weather if you closed? The utilities, rent, and all the other bills are still due, even if there's no children. But yet, since if it was our choice to close and not the parents...

If you would not charge them, what about children who would not be attending anyway that day, although they're scheduled to be: would you charge them the same since they decided not to come (and then you decided to close after several couldn't come anyway)? Would you still charge them, but not the ones who would have came if you had not closed?

The policy states that payment is due regardless of attendance. But it doesn't say anything about inclement weather if the provider chooses to close. We're redoing the policy and wondered what this policy would be.

I hope that made sense. Let me know what you all would do about payment in both situations.
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Sunny Day 01:49 PM 01-29-2011
If I make the call to close, no matter what the reason, I don't charge. However, if I chose to stay open during inclement weather and some of the kids came, I would charge anyone who was scheduled to be there. I will always stay open if there are some kids who can still come.
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Live and Learn 02:01 PM 01-29-2011
I close for weather occasionally. I follow the local public school schedule and if they close due to weather so do I.
I don't charge for those days. I love those unpaid days off with my own kids! Snow men, snow angels, skiing, sledding!!.... Whoo-hoo!......wish we had more snow here in paradise!
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SilverSabre25 02:39 PM 01-29-2011
If we get to a level 3 snow emergency here (city basically shut down completely; no travel unless you're an emergency vehicle, etc), I am closed, kind of by default. That's the only time I close for weather and I don't charge for it.

When I speak in the present tense here, it's really more hypothetical because it hasn't happened yet (in the 54 weeks I've been doing daycare). Man oh man oh MAN would I love some good snow and ice to get us to a level 3...
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Abigail 04:29 PM 01-29-2011
Are you asking about payment for the day or was payment for the week due? It shouldn't matter who might have come, vs who didn't want to come because that's not a good policy to follow. It's either all or nothing. If you charged parents who decided not to come due to weather and you closed anyways it should be a free day for everyone or a paid day for everyone. I'm assuming your closed for the day? Treat all the families the same if you closed, charge them half day for all families or be safe than sorry and not charge anyone at all. I guess I should look to see what is in my papers about if I close part-way through a day. Does anyone have policies about this scenario? If you're talking about a weekly payment being due, I would not charge late fees unless they didn't bring the check at drop off because technically if you closed parents should not be able to make it your home.
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Pammie 07:21 PM 01-29-2011
My policy is that my clients don't pay if I close. For that reason, I stay "open" on snow days - and generally will have one or two kids show up, but because I'm open, everyone scheduled that day still pays.

For the kids that do show up, it's a "fun" day - they can come in pajamas, we always have hot cocoa for breakfast and it's a free-play day for the kids.
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