? For Unlicensed Providers
 

Do you find parents are not willing to come to interviews once they find you are unlicensed? How dyou handle this?

Honestly, this has never been an issue. In my region in NS, the only licensed places are large day care centres. And it's completely legal to operate here without being licensed.

Where I live, if you are running child care out of your home, you can do it one of two ways: you can do it with no consistency and standards whatsoever and operate independently from the province, or you can work with a home daycare agency, who makes sure your home is running according to the same standards as a licensed day care centre. The agency inspects your home and you keep records of your children, just as though you would be licensed. You would be able to have parents apply for subsidy.

There is no cost to the home day care provider to be approved by the province to be a certified, approved home day care.

A provider is not obligated to become approved, either. It's a service that is offered and if a provider chooses not to do it, it's not illegal nor is it frowned upon.

Mind you, people in this area are starting to become hip to the whole "approved vs not approved home day care" thing, but for lots of people it's not a deal-breaker for them if the provider isn't approved. It's just that there are so many non-approved providers, and not enough of us approved providers out there yet.

The reason that I am licensed. First of all, I have a sense of security knowing that I am following licensing guidelines. My house was inspected by an outside source. The county is a source of information. I have the classes for childcare providers available. There is a certain standard that parents are comfortable with. It would make me nervous not to be licensed. If a parent ever lodged alligations against you, you would have no one else to back you. It would be you against the parents and possibly the police.

You also can be on the food program if your licensed. You can take "county kids".

Originally Posted by MaritimeMummy:
Honestly, this has never been an issue. In my region in NS, the only licensed places are large day care centres. And it's completely legal to operate here without being licensed.

Where I live, if you are running child care out of your home, you can do it one of two ways: you can do it with no consistency and standards whatsoever and operate independently from the province, or you can work with a home daycare agency, who makes sure your home is running according to the same standards as a licensed day care centre. The agency inspects your home and you keep records of your children, just as though you would be licensed. You would be able to have parents apply for subsidy.

There is no cost to the home day care provider to be approved by the province to be a certified, approved home day care.

A provider is not obligated to become approved, either. It's a service that is offered and if a provider chooses not to do it, it's not illegal nor is it frowned upon.

Mind you, people in this area are starting to become hip to the whole "approved vs not approved home day care" thing, but for lots of people it's not a deal-breaker for them if the provider isn't approved. It's just that there are so many non-approved providers, and not enough of us approved providers out there yet.

Exactly this. I'm in OH.

I think it depends on what the regs are for your state and what the norm is.

I am a listed home which means we've had a background check but there is no oversight unless there are complaints. I haven't had an opening in over a year until just recently, so I guess I'll be better able to answer in a few weeks. :rolleyes: But before, I hadn't found the forum and didn't realize that I could interview them as well as them interviewing me. My first parent didn't interview. She called late one night and brought the infant early (like 5:30 am) the next morning. :eek: Turned out great and now I have 2 of their kids. I got a few more calls that didn't pan out, either because they wanted a cheaper rate for fewer hours, even though the hours were retail (late night and weekends), or there were cat allergies, or in one case, I turned them down. I did have a bit of self-preservation that time, but only because my husband was standing behind the lady jumping up and down, waving his arms, and mouthing NO NO NO!! :lol: I quit advertising for a few weeks, then started again. I got 2 calls, they both took the spot, and that was that. If it wasn't for the dcp's medical issues requiring leave, I wouldn't even have an opening. So, here at least, I haven't had an issue. I'll let you know in a few weeks if that changes.

But, I've always been honest about my standings and no one has ever seemed to care in the least.

I too am a listed home. So I tell them, I am not licensed, but I am listed with the state, background checked and cpr first aid certified. I tell them that I don't want to be licensed because I only want a small group of children. Registered can have up to 6 and licensed up to 12 and listed 3 unrelated. That's what I tell parents. None of them have had a problem with this. I do tell them I may decide to get licensed in the future, but it's not something I am doing right now.

I'm not sure if your state has a name for legal daycares that aren't licensed, but if they do I would use whatever that name is to describe yourself. I also tell them what standards I have and my previous experience. For instance, I keep utd with AAP guidelines for infant feeding, safe sleep, and car seat safety. So, I explain what that means as well, for instance, extended rear facing car seats, I check on sleeping infants every 5 minutes and we use back to sleep, no blankets, and no stuffed animals for children under 1 and no pillows for children under 2.5. I also follow an ondemand schedule for infants etc.

That's probably more information then you were asking, but the point is by showing them what I do offer puts me above other providers in my area. Many parents don't know exactly what licensed means, only that there provider should be. So I tell them exactly what I do and that I do follow licensing practices, because I do for the most part. Especially in regards to safety, space, toys, etc.

So when they ask, don't just say no. Say I am not licenesed I am x and I offer blank...

I hope that helps. But I'm sure someone with much more experience will be able to help better, lol

I do that too Nickel. I tell them that I'm not registered because I have an old house that won't qualify. It is perfectly safe, and a few years ago it would have passed with flying colors, before they changed one rule. I'm not going to invest the several thousand dollars to meet that one rule, but I try to follow the guidelines as much as possible.

At one time, I planned to become registered when we move, but after the horror stories I've seen here, I think I'll just stay listed.

Originally Posted by Sunchimes:
I do that too Nickel. I tell them that I'm not registered because I have an old house that won't qualify. It is perfectly safe, and a few years ago it would have passed with flying colors, before they changed one rule. I'm not going to invest the several thousand dollars to meet that one rule, but I try to follow the guidelines as much as possible.

At one time, I planned to become registered when we move, but after the horror stories I've seen here, I think I'll just stay listed.

I kwym. It just seems so daunting honestly. And the time and effort for me isn't worth it at this time because I only want 3 children. I have a 2 year old so a 4:1 ratio works well for me, especially since most of the calls I've been getting are for children under 18mnths. If I decide to take on more than 3, then I'll go through the trouble. But for now, I'm happy as it is :)

Where I live home daycares can be licensed or unlicensed. To be licensed means that youre overseen by a company like Wee Watch who inspects your home, keeps you to certain standards, limits the number of children, helps bring in children, sets your prices and keeps a share of the income.

I can keep 5 children with no age restrictions as a n unlicensed daycare. Licensed can keep 5 but only 2 under 2 and 3 under 3, including your own children. I would make $7/day/child less if I was licensed. The only benefit is if a person has trouble getting clients, which I do not.

It is not required by the government. Licensing companies are private entities here.

I have never had an issue finding clients because I am legally unlicensed. I think if you have a quality program people can sense what you have to offer and the licensing is a non-issue. I have had people ask me why I was not licensed and I told them that I did not want to deal with the hassle of going through licensure, and they all understood.

Almost nobody here is licensed, so it's not an issue.

I did childcare in my home, legally unliscensed, for about 8 years and I do not remember anyone even asking me if I was liscensed. I know alot of ladies around me also do childcare in their homes and none of them are liscensed so I am thinking there are not a ton of liscensed around here. Our state allows us to have 6 unliscensed so the incentive to become liscensed is not as great as it would be for some other states.