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nannyde 05:18 PM 02-01-2011
Originally Posted by Mrs.Ky:
You can NOT charge more for a child who has special needs or deny a child care its against the law

Ex A: My middle child has ADHD combined type he is special needs if I went to find daycare for him and provider said she was charging higer rate because he is more work THIS IS AGAINST THE law he is cover under ADA

Ex B: I take my ADHD child and try to get him in a center who recieves Subsidy care they decide they will charge me more because he is more work they would lose any goverment assitants they recieve because of section 504

As you see she could be in a heap of trouble for charging more for a special needs child as the law states children with disabilities has a right to be treated, edcuated, etc. as all others maybe not in those words. No it doesnt FORCE her to care for this child but it says this child should be treated the same as others and she can get rid of said child for other reasons but she can not use the reason based on the childs special need.
There's so much misunderstanding about the care of children with disabilities.

The child care provider HAS to be paid for the care of the child. She HAS to have a client base that can support the care of a special needs child or additional govermental/grant funding accessable. She doesn't have to work for free because the child is disabled.

The support for the care of a special needs child can include personal one to one time above and beyond "regular" care, the INSURANCE to cover the providers "treatment" of the child, the physical alterations to accomodate the child etc.

When you have a very small client base... two/three/four/six/eight clients you have to have enough income from each of the clients to support the care of the special needs child. It takes very little to consume such a small business.

In order to decide whether or not your business can sustain the cost of care for the child you have to be knowledgeable about each aspect of care and the hard cost of providing that care.

If the provider is questioned regarding her inability or unwillingness to care for a child who she is refusing care then she needs to be able to back up the actual cost, her attempts to access funding within her client base and any community funds available, and the affect it will have on her business to provide that care.

Because I'm a RN, I have had many many requests to provide care for special needs kids. Because of this life experience I have been very fastidious about documenting the hard cost of providing any care to children beyond the "average" care over the five years of care I usually provide per child. If I am certain that the care of a child would overwhelm my business and my client base is unable to support the hard costs of the additional care the child needs then I will decline to care for the child.

I'm perfectly aware that I may be challenged one day and I would be willing to undergo whatever govermental involvement is necessary to prove that I can not do what I say I can not do. I will not be bullied.

I will be happy to take a child with special needs and go through the process of documenting the cost of that child's care and evaluating whether or not the cost of the care is feasable. With such a small client base it really doesn't take very much at all to prove the costs of additional one to one care, insurance for any medical care, etc. will consume a business very quickly. Even the cost of two/three dollars per day per client could wreck a small business like a home child care. With a small client base there really isn't much of a window of fee increases that would devestate the business in pretty short order.

Providers should understand THEIR rights to operate, be finacially viable, and provide services they are comfortable with.
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