Originally Posted by spud912:
This is my opinion only so please don't take offense!
I personally would not do it....but that is just me. It's not that I don't care or don't want to look out for other providers, but I think there are better to ways to prevent these issues.
If the issue is that they aren't paying for services rendered, then I can't emphasize enough to have parents pre-pay!
As far as other common child care-related issues, many can be solved with thorough screening before accepting families, a well-developed contract and the backbone to enforce the policies and procedures.
I'm not saying this prevents 100% of problems, but it does drastically decrease the amount of time you have to deal with the problems with as little loss as possible.
Other issues not covered in the contract in my experience has been because the family was not a good fit for ME and my program. It may very well be that they would be great in someone else's child care and I wouldn't want to deter that relationship from forming with another child care provider.
I personally have had some problems here and there and they were because (1) the family was not a good fit, (2) I didn't screen incoming families properly and (3) because I did not follow through on my policies and procedures. In the second and third scenarios, the only person I could truly blame was myself 
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I think screening is good but other businesses don't rely on screening alone. It's a tool but it's not the only key component. My State now requires fingerprinting, cpr, child abuse training, credit continuing ed etc. They don't accept an interview or two to register me. They want PROOF. Proof in a child abuse registry check, criminal check, copies of the documents etc.
When I sign up for a cell phone or tv service the contracts are PAGES long and they check my credit. Why should child care services NOT require such lengths to give a slot or slice of our services? Just because the service we provide is care of kids it shouldn't mean we can't employ the same methods of selection other businesses use to be prosperous.
A rating system for parent compliance is a great idea. I