Greetings. I have been searching the internet for some insight into this question and haven't come up with anything, so I am hoping to get some perspective from you wise people.

We are currently considering switching our 6 month old DD from one daycare to another. We like our current center and our DD is doing very well there but there have been some turnover issues and some pretty aggravating communication problems with the director. That said, our situation is good and moving her is not urgent.

We have recently found another daycare (which also offers preschool) with dual language immersion and a farm-to-table food philosophy, and we are very excited about it. It is a little less expensive than what we are paying now by $100/month...not monumental but not nothing either.

But here are two strange things:
First, they ask for an interview playdate with our daughter to judge her developmental progress without us present. We can deal with this but wonder why they would do this with babies. Do they really reject some infants because they aren't hitting all of the CDC benchmarks exactly on time? (FYI, it is not a Montessori school) It just seems odd.

Second, they ask for a $1500 reservation fee THAT DOESN'T COUNT TOWARD THE FIRST MONTH'S TUITION. In other words, it's just an extra $1500 thrown in for good measure. We have looked at a lot of daycares and this is the first time that we have come across this. I told the director this and she shrugged it off, and said that it technically counts toward the tuition cost, i.e. if they didn't charge it, tuition would be $125 more a month. With all of this included, it is still less than our current daycare (because of a discount I get through my company) but still seems egregious.

Now, unlike many daycares at this price point, they do offer financial aid but even so, the whole thing (interview plus sizable upfront fee) is at least odd if not slightly discriminatory. What do people think?

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