Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Where I live you are allowed to charge more for a child with special needs IF you need to make accommodations for their disability such as having an assistant or special equipment/materials or have to go above and beyond the normal services you offer.
Correct, but not only because they are special needs but think I covered that in my reply. I only mention it because not everyone understands the Americans with Dissabilities Act (even I needed to look it up to get a refresher). I was just pointing out that someone can't just say that they are going to charge a parent more only because their child has special needs. Each client with special needs can be taken on a case by case basis and if their needs are more than what the provider can cover and it creates a financial hardship on her then she can charge more to cover these costs. If modification have to be made to the home then the family can be charged this one time fee, if the provider has to hire an assistant to help with caring for this special needs child only then the parent can be charged a higher rate etc. I hope that this is the case with wdmmom but in her post she simply posted that "Unfortunately I charge a higher rate for special needs because they need that much more attention." which I believe can cause her trouble if a parent wanted to fight it. If she was charging more because she needed to pay someone to help with this child because he/she needed more care then that's a different story.