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Parents and Guardians Forum>Is Pay Required At Termination If A Safety Citation Was Served?
Unregistered 06:53 PM 09-08-2012
My contract with my in-home daycare provider requires 2 weeks written notice to terminate the contract - and if you choose to remove the child you still need to pay for the 2 weeks. But if they received a safety citation from the state (leaving children unattended and unsafe sleep space to name a few) and I want to remove my child immediately do I still need to pay them for the 2 weeks? Is the contract void if there is a safety citation?
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Blackcat31 07:52 AM 09-09-2012
I think that it really depends on the situation. Sometimes the state words things to sound worse or different than they really are. For example, I know a provider who received a correction order for unsafe sleeping space too. In reality it wasn't like she was stuffing kids in closets or bathrooms for nap time, it was that she was using a PNP that had a small tear in the mesh, making it "unsafe" for use according to licensing regulations.

As far as the kids being unsupervised or unattended, I also think it really depends on what EXACTLY happened to fully understand if your child was actually in danger or in unsafe conditions.

Was it YOUR child who was left unsupervised? Was it your child who was sleeping in that unsafe sleeping area? What are the details of the citation?

Did you have any concerns about the care your child received BEFORE you were told of these citations?

I think that if you really want to leave your current provider, I would give notice and use the last 2 weeks of care.

If you REALLY believe your child is in danger, then I would leave immediately and would probably still pay the final two weeks of care.

I think you would probably have to proove that your child was in immediate danger in order to release you from your contract. I also think that if the children in this providers care were in immediate danger or shouldn't be in this persons care, then the state would have shut her down and not just given her a correction order.

That could all play a major part in whether you are legally entitled to break your contract and not have to give notice and/or pay for the last two weeks.....and no, in my personal opinion, receiving a correction order (but NOT a loss or suspension of her license) does NOT void your contract.

Hope that helps answer your questions or at least gives you some insight on what to do next.
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Heidi 11:39 AM 09-09-2012
I agree with Black Cat.

In our state, there are approx. 764 licensing rules. NO one, honestly, could possibly be 100% in compliance all the time. Even when a licenser visits and finds nothing wrong, their write-up says "upon a PARTIAL review, no licensing violations were found". Even they know they can't check all 764 items each visit, and chances are, they'll find 1 or 2 thing every time.

First, consider the surrounding circumstances, then consider your history with the provider. If you feel your child is in danger, then by all means, find other care right away. But please don't use this as an "excuse" to term immediately without paying unless the situation is truly horrible.
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saved4always 02:15 PM 09-09-2012
I agree with Blackcat, too. I know of a daycare that was told that the cover on the changing table was not acceptable because there was a hole in it. This "hole" was the size of a pinhead, literally. You almost needed a magnifying glass to see it. The liscensor put this as a non-compliance (not a serious one, but still as an issue) that was required to be fixed (get a new pad). So, sometimes the things that the state cites are really not a safety issue to the child at all. Many things are subject to interpretation, too, so what one state worker cites another may not depending on how the rule is worded. I think if any child had been in "real" danger, the daycare provider would have been shut down, not given citations to be rectified.
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itlw8 05:10 PM 09-09-2012
I would assume if it was a real hazard like they left the building not that they went to the bathroom they would have shut them down.

Un safe sleep space that could have been something simple like the cots were too close together.or really bad but in most states if it was really bad they would have close them

So I guess the answer is it depends.

Do you know exactly what happened?
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