View Single Post
Abigail 06:56 PM 01-03-2011
Originally Posted by JeepGirl6:
~*~ Policy Handbook ~*~
Financial Agreement/Payment and Late Fee
For each day your child is in my care, there is a charge of $40.00. If I am caring for two children in the same family the daily charge will be $70.00. If your child is in my care for 4 hours or less the rate is $7.00 an hour, $10 an hour for two children from the same family.
You should decide whether you are going to put $10.00 or drop all the ".00" from the previous three dollar amounts to have it flow well together. Same as below too highlight in red.

All payments must be paid in cash or check every Friday. If payment is not received every Friday, a $10.00 late charge will be added for every day without payment.
If a check is returned to me for non-sufficient funds, you will be required to pay a fee of $25 and also be required to pay cash only from there on out.

Provider Holidays / Sick days
I will be closed on the following Holidays (New Years Eve, New Years, Independence Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Christmas Eve) I may take off various days during the year. You’ll be notified in advance.
You should list your days off in order, so put Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Are you paid on these days?? What if these days fall on a weekend, do you reserve the right to be closed the equal amount of days?

Parent Vacations
Please notify me as at least 2 weeks in advance when you plan to take vacations.

Caregiver Vacations
I will notify parents a month in advance when I have a vacation scheduled. If I plan a vacation, parents will need to find their own care for their child during the duration of the week I will not be available.
You began referring to yourself as the provider and now this is titled the cargiver. Choose which way you want to refer to yourself and do that throughout. I would also add this section into the Provider Holiays/ Sick Days/ Vacation Days. Also, will you be paid for these days?


Infants sleep in separate cribs/Play-Pens with clean blankets, used only by them. Beginning at
age two, washable nap mattresses are used. Each child has a separate nap mat. Blankets are to be taken home at the end of the week to be washed by the parents. Toys are sanitized with a bleach solution once a week.
Above, you refer to sleeping and go right into bleach cleaning. I would either have more to say about cleaning and have a separate paragraph or just omit it. It's licensing standards anyways to do this (in most places) so they can't argue with you that you use it. If you need something more to add to create a separate pharagraph about cleaning, I would mention "some of the many cleaning tasks I'm required by law to do....." and mention vacuuming, mopping, cleaning cots/mats, and mention that the cleaning chemicals are never used when children are present. Back to your sleeping for infants, I would add that you practice "back is best" or however you want to word that you only put infants to sleep on their back.

Meals & Snacks
Breakfast foods and condiments must be supplied by the parent if you choose for your child to have breakfast here.
I will provide a nutritious lunch, two snacks and 2% milk/ fruit juice depending on
the hours your child is attending. If the child will be arriving after lunch time please feed
them before they arrive.
If your child requires a special diet due to allergies, medications, age and/or cultural or religious
beliefs it will be the responsibility of the parent to provide a well balanced lunch and snack for
their child.
I would start out by saying you provide a healthy lunch and an AM and PM snack.....then mention what the parent must supply to make it easier to read.

Child Illness
You should not bring your child to care sick (fever of 100°f or higher,vomiting, diarrhea not contained in a diaper, sore throat, continuous coughing, runny nose other than clear, draining eyes or ears, unexplained rash, lice, etc.) If you are not sure your child is well enough to attend child care call and discuss it with me. Your child may return to care 24 hours AFTER symptoms of illness end.

Substitute Care/ Provider Illness
If I am not able to care for the children, a substitute will try to be assigned for the day but due to unforeseen circumstances of medical emergency, family death, illness or vacations, please have back up care available to you.
You have vacations listed under "unforeseen circumstances" which you already stated above something about provider vacations. I would omit this from this category.

Nap/Quiet Time
After lunch, there will be quiet time. Rest time is essential for the development of your child. Each child under 5 years old will be required to take a nap or have quiet time when in care between 1:00 - 3:00 pm. Infants will nap according to their own schedule. I will provide a playpen/portable crib for infants and mats for those two and older.
You already listed a little bit about how infants sleep once before above. I would either move that section down to this section since it relates better to nap/quiet time better. This is also where you should have your information about sending home sheets weekly for parents to wash. Yes, it's about hygene, but it is more closely related to nap time. You could easily state everything in two categories: Infants (sleep times, what they have to sleep on, and procedures followed AND Older Children...with the same concept in mind.

I supply all nap sheets for the mats. Please provide a blanket for your child’s naptime. All linens are washed weekly unless soiled during the week then they will be replaced sooner. If at all possible please try not to pick up or drop off your child at quiet time, if you do please make sure that he or she has already eaten lunch and is ready to rest quietly on his or her mat without disrupting the other children. Any child who continually disrupts the others will require a change in schedule. Are you willing to keep a child awake for a parent if they say they will be there right after lunch and do not show? You could add something that you will not keep a sleepy child awake if it's nap time. Do you watch older children? If you do, what do they do from 1-3 pm?

Open Door Policy
While your child is in my care, you can always be assured that the door is open to you. Open
Door does not mean that we keep our doors unlocked. For the safety of myself and the childrendoors are kept locked except for scheduled drop off and pick up times. Please feel free to drop in
and check on your child. Please keep in mind there may be times when it is not possible for me to run to the phone (diaper changing, bottle feeding, etc.) If the phone goes unanswered, please do not become alarmed, simply leave me a voice mail and I will call you as soon as I am able.
I would switch around the above highlights to read "For the safety of the children and myself...." so you are putting the children first.

Termination Policy
I have the right to terminate contract immediately if:
· Parents do not make payments when due for services provided
· Constant misbehavior or unruliness of child
· Unforeseen problems between parent and caregiver
· Lack of parental cooperation
· Failure of child to adjust to child care after a reasonable amount of time
· Lack of compliance with contract policies

I reserve the right to suspend or terminate care of any child without notice, should it be deemed necessary for the overall safety and well-being of my family and/or other children in my care.

Do not list reasons why you may terminate. This will only limit you in the end. Also, refer to yourself as "The Provider" instead of I because both you and the parents sign this in the end and it could be a debate as to who is referred to as "I". My contract now states: "Provider may terminate the contract at will without notice." Nothing more than that.

Damages PolicyOur home is child-proofed to the best of our ability, however, accidents do happen. Any damage to my home or personal belongings that is willfully caused by your child will be replaced or repaired at the cost of the parents. I will repair or replace broken daycare equipment & toys due to normal wear and tear.
The word policy isn't necessary. I have this covered under "Other Fees" in my contract. Also, remember to change "I" to "Provider"

Discipline/Guidance
I use a form of "1-2-3", "redirecting" and "time out" as a form of discipline. Any child who is aggressive, uncontrollable and can not follow the rules, the parents will be called to come and pick their child(ren) up. If your child continues to act in a matter that is distributive to him/herself or to other children, childcare may be terminated. I also give the parents the option of telling me what kind of discipline they use at home that they feel works best for their child. I will not agree to discipline I don’t believe in or that I feel is inappropriate in my home.
Is Cannot one word or two? I would take out the sentence in red. Add this to the last sentence..."is inappropriate in my home, but parents are encouraged to share what discipline/guidance methods they use at home."

-Guidance for Infant and Toddlers
Distraction away from the activity ,also referred to as redirection/redirecting."
Ignore the behavior, if it is not dangerous or causing someone else to be in danger
Removal of tempting items that are off limits
Telling the child “No” Sparingly
18 months and up- Time outs will be used as last resort for the amount of minutes equivalent to childs age
Keep everything congruent.....is that the word? Where everything flows well. If these are bullet items, have them start out with the words: "Redirecting, Ignoring, Removing, Telling" so they all are ING words.

-Guidance for Preschool Children
Give the child an opportunity to make the right choice, help them by making suggestions
Allowing children to resolve an issue as long as noone is getting hurt
Instead of telling child what they can’t do, tell them what they can do or should do instead
18 months and up- Time outs will be used as last resort for the amount of minutes equivalent to childs age
After time out is up, a recap of why time out was given will be discussed and what the proper action/decision should have been.
Same as I stated above. Make sure that your starting words all match "Making suggestions....., Allowing...., Creating a positive atmosphere by saying what they may do instead of may not do"

If a child does not behave in an acceptable manner redirection or an appropriate “time out” (one minute per child’s year of age) will be given. If the behaviors continue, I will increase the “time out” time a few minutes at a time and discuss the behavior with you, the parent, and devise a plan to correct the behavior of the child and possibly (depending on the behavior) put the child on a two-week probation period. During the two-week probation period there MUST be improvement in your child’s behavior. If at any time during the probation period the behavior continues this contract can and will be terminated immediately depending on the seriousness of the behaviors. Please keep in mind that the two-week probation period is given at my discretion depending on the seriousness of the behaviors.
Make sure to call yourself the Provider instead of I. You can remove you and the commas and just use the parent wording. I wouldn't necessarily say you will add time above one minute per age because it sounds like they could be in time out for a very long time. LOL Change "there" to "The provider must see improvement. The parent may say they've improved when you can't see it. I would create a separate pharagraph for the Probation period because this gets longer than most of your other information. Remember that you do have something way up towards the beginning on poor behavior that you expected parents to pick up so I wouldn't repeat that too many times or in different sections because parents may feel that you will not do every step possible to care for their child if a problem arises.

Weather
We will try to do our best to keep the sidewalks and stairs shoveled during winter months, but may have times that we can not keep up with the snow fall. During daycare hours I will not be able to shovel the sidewalk/stairs.
Who is we? You never used this term before, so I would avoid it. You could say "The daycare does its best to..." Cannot might be one word again here. You can also say something like "Please be extra cautious when arriving and departing at daycare during the winter months. Shoveling during daycare hours is not possible sometimes, but the sidewalk and driveway will be shoveled before and after hours." I still think you could try to shovel the front walkway at least during nap time or something or state that if the weather is nice enough that you will try to get it shoveled if it snows during daycare hours to help prevent any potential falls.



Communication
Communication is very important to me. When I accept a new family into my home I like to be
sure that we can share openly any concerns or questions that may arise. I feel that we are a
team raising your child. If we can work together then your child can feel secure in knowing they
have two families who love them very much. I grow to love each child I keep very much and I
am always glad to have a chance to be a part of their lives.
Parents of infants/toddlers/pre-schooler's will receive a daily note. Some typical things that you
may find on this note would be daily activities, feedings/meals, diaper changes, naps/quiet time,
and things to remember or to bring.
Once again, try to avoid the I, me, we, us....it can become confusing and might be interpreted wrong. "Communication is very important"....you should have this towards the top of your handbook to imply the importance of communication perhaps. "The provider and parent should work as a team" This area is for communication, not for saying how you love their children and are glad to have a chance to be a part of their lives....the parent may feel this statement put them in charge of your business because you "Get a chance...." If you want to express how you feel, I would have that information under a "Why I choose this career path...." as a separate handout.

By signing, I (the parent) am agreeing that I (the parent) have read and understand
the Policy in the Policy Handbook
Found it, notice how the "I" you are referring to as "The parent" but all along prior to this "I" was always "The provider"! LOL. I wouldn't put "Policy in the Policy Handbook....you have many policies, not just one.

I (the parent) hereby acknowledge that I (the Parent) am aware of the conditions stated in the Child Care Home’s Policy Handbook, and agree to abide by the above signed policies and requirements in conjunction with the Financial Agreement and the Agreement for Child Care Services.
parent doesn't need to be capitalized. You also don't need it in here twice. I think you're just repeating yourself by stating "hereby acknowledge" and "am aware" These last two paragraphs refer to this as "the Policy in the Policy Handbook" and the second paragraph is calling this "Child Care Home's Policy Handbook" so make sure you choose one and stick to it throughout.

Date: _______________________

Parent full name_______________________ Parent signature_________________________

Parent full name_______________________ Parent signature_________________________


Date: ______________________

Child care provider’s signature_____________________________
I would change Parent to Parent/Guardian. You should also have their full names, addresses, home phone/cell phone/work phone, email, and name and address of their employer and also the child's name and date of birth at the beginning. You should just have two blanks for the Parent/Guardian signatures at the end here and date after each signature. So, both parents with sign and date it, THEN you will be last to sign AND also date it. Make a copy for them and you keep the original in your file.

It's pretty good overall. I didn't see anything about what their rates are....that should be included in the contract. Do you require a deposit? Good job, I hope this helps.
Reply