Hello All-
I am in my first year of running a small family sized daycare and was curious to get some feedback on the following (this was recently brought up by a parent):

1. Is it normal for day cares to charge tuition even when there is no school (i.e. holidays, winter break, spring break, summer break etc.)? From what I have gathered, it is pretty standard and it makes sense because we still have rent/utilities/insurance/payroll etc. to pay. Based on this, the monthly tuition is based on an annual amount as opposed to the days children are present. I am off on this?

2. Based on the above, what is the standard of charging graduating families? In our case, graduation/last day of school is before summer break, which is 3 weeks - then we offer a summer session before the first actual day of the new school year (basically a month after the last day of the school year). Do we not charge the graduating families for the last month, since basically their kids are done? Not sure if I made any sense.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

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There are some TAGS I included below left that may help.

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I present my fees as annual tuition, and tell parents that they can pay it annually, monthly, or weekly. I don't discount for days off for any reason, and I don't refund. I tell parents if they do complain about paying the same 52 weeks, regardless of attendance, that my fees are based on my expenses, and my expenses don't change when their child is home sick or they are on vacation. I'd be happy to offer 2 weeks unpaid to them, but they would still pay that 2 weeks unpaid in higher weekly fees, because my YEARLY tuition does not change.

I am sorry, I didn't understand the second part.

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Thanks Leigh.
So it is normal to charge for a full month that you are not open, which in our case is summer break (3 weeks in July)?

Regarding my second question, I kind of thought would be confusing-sorry. Maybe this will help; so our yearly schedule is as follows:

July 1st - Last day of school year/graduation
July 25-Aug. 19 - Summer session
Aug. 22-23 - Staff work day - No school
Aug. 24th - First day of school year

My question is, since our school year doesn't start until about 2 months, how should we handle charging the summer session? Currently we charge because I don't think we should have to lose a month because a family wants to go on vacation.

Thanks again!!!

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So you are closed for a month.Do you take school vacations off ?Christmas ,spring break and are you paid for those and Holidays? If you take the weeks and holidays with pay I think you will have a hard time being paid for a month in summer.You could take the 48 weeks you are working and add to make it cover your closing.I would charge a fee to hold spot for coming back in new school year. Non refundable if they do not come back.

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Thanks, Rosie. Well we are open for a week in July after the summer break. Our monthly tuition is based on a yearly breakdown of all overhead and expenses which is why we continue to bill for the month of July - additionally we still work at the school part of the time to clean and prepare the school. The other times we take off are holiday's, winter break (2 weeks) and spring break (1 week). It seems fair to me to charge because we still are charged rent, utilities, insurance, and some payroll - these expenses do not stop because the children are not there. But then again, is there something I am missing? We obviously want to do what is fair. Thanks!

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You can do whatever you like ... some providers charge for days off, some don't. Pretty much a majority of providers feel like they deserve paid days off and the majority of parents feel like they shouldn't pay if the daycare is closed

An easy "fix" for you to be able to charge for these days without having the parents feel like they're being charged would be to figure out what you want to charge for the year. Then figure out how many paid holidays, sick days and vacation days you want to take off. Subtract the number of paid days you'll be closing from 365 and then divide your yearly income by that number.

In other words (example):
If you want to close for 10 holidays per year and have 5 paid vacation/sick days and want to earn $30k per year ...
365 days per year, subtract 15 days = 350 days
$30k divided by 350 days = $86 per day you have to earn
The way I see it the average provider could make that by filling 2 full time spots and 2 part-time spots ( at least that's what I would have to do in my area).
Does that make sense? In your case you'd be factoring in how much money you need to make to run your daycare and how many clients you'd need to make that (and also by keeping in mind that you probably won't have full enrollment at some points)

If you figure it this way then you could "deduct" any closed days since in reality the cost for these days are already factored into your yearly salary. I really hope I'm making sense lol

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I would do what Marinavannessa 's post says.I would find the amount you need to make.Then I would deduct the closed weeks of summer.My example you want to make x amount. Take the amount and divide by say 48 weeks (you want to close for a month in summer).that amount would be tuition a week.I would keep the paid winter and summer breaks along with paid holidays.Parents would feel like they don't have to pay for summer break but actually they pay a little more weekly to make up for it.EX-tuition for 1 child is $250.00 weekx 52 weeks =13000.You want to take 4 weeks in summer $13000.divided by 48=$271.00 charge parent $271.00 a week and do not charge for summer closings.Same amount of money but they do not feel like they are paying for summer and you stil have 3 weeks paid vacation at the larger amount.

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you all are great! i am actually open one week in July (not the full four weeks) after summer break. So would your recommendation still apply? BTW our contract does say that spring, winter and summer breaks are paid. That being said I still want to do what is fair, even though I understand we can charge and run our daycare however we want. thanks again!

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