Currently, my policy is to get one week deposit to hold a spot and then it will be used for the last week their child is in care. I have been reading other posts and noticed a lot of ppl are stating their deposit is non refundable...just wondering if maybe that would work for me.

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One week deposit, refundable during the first two weeks of care if EITHER party terminates regardless of reason. After that, my contracts states "Deposit will be applied to last week of care when contract is terminated with a full two weeks notice."

Families pay on Friday for the next week. So theoretically they would give me notice as they paid for one week and they deposit would go to the week after that.

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I require a deposit equal to the time I require for notice of withdrawal. Some families must provide a notice of withdrawal that is more than 2 weeks depending on the number of children in their family.

I apply the deposit to the final weeks of care so it wouldn't be refunded but instead used or spent towards their final weeks of care.

On certain occasions, I have waived that policy and refunded a parent their paid deposit but under very specific and individualized situations and only as my call not something that I list or state openly in my contract/policies.

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I have a $100 non refundable enrollment fee. It’s worded in my contact that it goes towards things I will purchase or may have already purchased for the new child. I’ve never had a parent complain or question it. I also require two weeks notice to terminate care. The enrollment fee does not go towards it.

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I might make a change to doing that in the future.

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I take a two week deposit. This deposit applies to the last two weeks of care, I only take it because of issues of people leaving without notice because I get paid AFTER care has occurred. This way I am covered. It happened to me once last month!

The only time it is not refunded is if the family does not start when they say they will.

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Using a "deposit" and applying it towards their last week of care IS having a non-refundable policy. You aren't giving them the money back, you are applying it towards something. You just have to say that it's non-refundable.

I don't call it a "deposit", I call mine a "fee". The word deposit insinuates that you get it back and since I don't give it back I call it a fee instead. Tom Copeland has a good article about it http://tomcopelandblog.com/how-would...rs-program-and.
I don't call it a "holding fee" like Tom suggests but that's because I have a separate fee that I charge if someone wants to start later than a week (I don't hold spots if they're not going to start within a month).

I charge all new full-time clients a flat two-week security fee of 2 weeks worth of full-time care, and part-timers 2 weeks worth of part-time care. If part-timers move up to full-time care then pay the difference in the deposit. If part-timers later move back down to part-time they can give me enough notice to cover their holding fee or they lose it, it's non-refundable.

So for example if a part timer enrolls for 3 days at $155 a week they pay a two-week security fee of $310 plus $155 for the first week of childcare. If they don't want to start within a week then there's a weekly holding fee on top of that.
Later if they move up to full-time then they pay an additional $90 to go towards their 2-week security fee.
If they move back down to part-time then they can give me a minimum of 2 weeks notice but if if they give me less notice than their security fee covers then they don't get a refund for the difference.

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