I provided child care in my home. My policy was basically, if I chose to close due to illness or whatever, I did not charge for the day. If there was a snow day, I charged for the whole day even if the child did not attend since I was open no matter the weather (since I was in my house). I charged for half the day for children not coming because they were sick...I found it was less likely parents would bring a sick child if the fee was less. I know my rules are very lax compared to other providers though...I only did child care to bring in a little extra money while staying home with my own child. I wasn't trying to run a household on my income so it did not cause me to miss paying bills when I had less income.

I have friends who provide childcare who could never miss payments like that...they would not be able to pay bills or buy groceries. They are struggling with all of these snow days lately. They have parents balking at paying for snow days when they were OPEN (teachers, of course, who did not have to work due to weather and see the opportunity to keep that money they had budgeted for daycare).

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