Daycare.com Forum - Hurricane Irma

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- - Hurricane Irma (https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87316)

Hello we are from Deltona, FL and as you know we just had a visit from hurricane Irma. My children were off from school for about a week and a half. My concern is that our daycare is charging us for the week following the storm when the entire city had no power, and was declared a disaster zone. I find it pretty disturbing that they can actually charge people for a week that they were not even operational, and I just dont know where to begin with finding out if that is even legal? Who do I contact? Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

Excuse me?? Last time i checked when you are not open for business, and in fact CANT open for business, you dont make any money! It is disgusting to pass on charges to families suffering in a disaster zone. Thought i coukd come here for some actual duscussion, not an ignorant meme that has no point in this discussion.

Originally Posted by Shell2793:
Hello we are from Deltona, FL and as you know we just had a visit from hurricane Irma. My children were off from school for about a week and a half. My concern is that our daycare is charging us for the week following the storm when the entire city had no power, and was declared a disaster zone. I find it pretty disturbing that they can actually charge people for a week that they were not even operational, and I just dont know where to begin with finding out if that is even legal? Who do I contact? Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

Originally Posted by Shell2793:
Excuse me?? Last time i checked when you are not open for business, and in fact CANT open for business, you dont make any money! It is disgusting to pass on charges to families suffering in a disaster zone. Thought i coukd come here for some actual duscussion, not an ignorant meme that has no point in this discussion.

If your provider/center states in their contract that they charge whether your child attends or not then yes it is perfectly legal for them to charge.

If you signed the contract then it is your obligation to pay regardless of whether you had a hurricane or not.

I am sorry this happened to you but bottom line is if you signed in agreeance to pay regardless then you owe regardless.

There is NO law that states child care providers cant charge when not providing actual services. I don't know where parents find this info but as a self-employed business owner the policies I put in place are 100% up to me.

The only thing a parent can decide is if my policies work for them or not. If you dont want to pay the center/provider but signed a contract saying you will, the child care has every right to take this matter to court and ask the judicial system to help enforce the agreement between the two of you.

Did your bank charge you for your car payment? Was your rent or mortgage payment due, or did they give you a freebie for that week? When a childcare charges you every week whether you (or they) are there or not, it is because that is a weekly breakdown of their yearly fee. It is absolutely legal, and it is really standard policy for a majority of daycares.

You're paying for a guaranteed spot. In my contract, I tell parents they are paying based on enrollment, not attendance. Does your dc charge you for closures such as holidays, vacations, days they're closed due to illness, etc.? This is paying based on enrollment, not attendance. If your contract states that, then your options are to pay and move forward, or find other dc that does not charge based on enrollment but attendance only.

I'm sorry for the destruction Irma brought to your state and many other places. Sad and devastating indeed. :( And it may seem heartless to get charged for dc during such a catastrophe but if you've never had any issues before and you've always appreciated, respected and loved the care your child has gotten, then maybe you should try and show those feelings by making sure they get paid. If you don't respect the care they give, don't appreciate anything they've done in caring for their child, then it's best to pull out and find someone else. But if you did indeed sign a contract such as was mentioned above, then you really have no leg to stand on as to it being illegal.

I going to assume that you are referring to my avatar. That post every time I post something. I started to post something but in the middle of my post, I bumped the submit button. This forum only gives you 5 minutes to edit. I tried to edit but did not have enough time, so I delete what I wrote and just put opps. I have not had a chance to come back and post again until now. Sorry for the confusion.

Ok, what I was going to say before I submitted too soon, was that the whole thing is a domino effect. I understand how you feel, that you were unable to use their service but yet they are still charging you. However, they will still owe their creditors and will need the fees you and others pay them to pay their creditors or they could go out of business. If they go out of business then you are without care, without care you can not go to work, if you miss to much work because you do not have care, you lose your job.

But I do get it, you most likely did not work during this time, so you did not get paid and most likely have some kind of repair to your home that is going to cost you money that you do not have.

If you really feel that you still need to talk with someone on this, I would recommend you talk with Tom Copeland. He will be able to read through your daycare contract and let you know if the daycare is illegally charging you. He is a lawyer and a member of this forum.

However, my guess is that their contract or handbook will say that can charge for that week. If this is something that you do not agree with, you can always look for other care that will not charge you in the future.

I wonder if your dcprovider has insurance that covers loss of income in times such as this??