Those of you who do drop in care how exactly do you do it? I have 2 drop-ins enrolled right now. One Dcm contacts me the day of and I let her know if I have space if so she pays at drop off. The other Dcm does drop in care 2 days per week. She would give me her schedule for 6 weeks and pay for all 6 weeks of care at once. So she pretty much had contracted care for 6 weeks which worked out fine for the most part, but because I committed to the 6 weeks of care I would have to turn away potential Dcf who needed full time immediate care due to age/ratio dcg is under 2. Dcm will not be coming for a couple of weeks this month and with holidays being right around the corner I'm expecting she'll miss a few more days so that means I'll be short money those weeks. I told Dcm moving forward to contact me the friday prior to the week she needs care and if I have the space she can pay just for that week of care. She seemed ok with it. I had a interview today with a family who's interested in drop-in care. Dcm schedule changes from week to week. They don't want to pay for a full week of care if they don't need the days but want the days to be available if they need it. I told them with drop in care they don't have a guaranteed spot and that they would need to contact me each friday to see if I have space. How do you handle situations listed above?

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If they want the days reserved for them (have those days available when they want them), then they're NOT drop in, but they're contracting for care, and they pay for all days that they want available, regardless of whether they use them. Drop in, they ask if I'm available, if I am, they come and pay my higher drop in rate, if I'm not available, they don't pay. So, if the DCM wanted me available for her 5 days a week, she pays my full time rate every week.

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I specifically tell families that drop in care can only be scheduled up to 7 days in advance & there is a limit of 20 hrs week, limit 10 days per month ( if a parent schedules 3-4 five hr days in one week that's on them because that leaves less days for the rest of month), provided a spot is open for booking. I also explain that unless it is for school or work reasons, it is not allowed to be used as childcare credit for tax purposes.

I have a mom that just wants one day a week to run errands without a baby; she can't use that for the tax credit because it essentially comes down to me me being a babysitter for one day each week so she can do whatever she wants

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If the parent is paying for a block of time then that is not really drop in care. When I do drop in they call to see if I'm available for a day here and a day there and they pay right then.
It sounds as if you have handled those situations just fine. Just make sure your not loosing a chance to fill a ft spot.
Deb

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I do drop-in care. However, I never reserve a space or contract days for them. Drop-in, at my center, requires 24 hours notice. If I am available we make an agreement at that time. I have a 3 hour minimum for drop-in care. In addition, if for any reason they cancel the drop-in care once we made the agreement they still have to pay for the care they requested.

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Thank you ladies for your responses. Ive been open a little over a year and just wanted to make sure I was making the right decision changing the way I handled things. Do any of you have a drop in contract you mind sharing?

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I don't have any special or different rules for drop in families than I do fore regular families. The only difference is payment is due in cash AT drop off.

If they reserve time with me and cancel, they get one more chance. After they cancel the second time, I am no longer willing to reserve time for them.

Otherwise, my contract has space for families to simply indicate whether they are drop in, 3, 4 or 5 days a week.

Everything else as far as policies applies no matter what their enrollment status is.

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