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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Different Rates Based On Developmental Level?
mountainside13 03:14 PM 01-03-2014
Do any of you have different rates based on developmental milestones? I am wanting to change my rates and wondered if it would be a good idea. For example: 6 weeks to 2 years is $x amount. Then 2 to 5 years is $x amount but will drop to $x amount after child is fully potty trained.

I currently have is 6 weeks to 12 months is $x then 13 months to 5 years is $x amount. Lowering the rate at a year isn't working for me. Bc that age still requires a lot more than a 2 year old. For the PT I am wondering if that would give the parents a little incentive to work more with their child on it than putting it on me.

Is this a good idea or bad idea? Could it come back to bite me? Pros and cons?
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littlemissmuffet 03:24 PM 01-03-2014
I charge the same monthly rate across the board - I don't want to have to take a pay cut each time a child goes to the next rate category, and I don't want to keep track of different rates for different families. But that's just me.
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melilley 03:26 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I charge the same monthly rate across the board - I don't want to have to take a pay cut each time a child goes to the next rate category, and I don't want to keep track of different rates for different families. But that's just me.
Same here. I charge the same weekly rate for all ages.
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littlemissmuffet 03:26 PM 01-03-2014
Oh, and I would be EXTREMELY clear to parents on what your definition of "fully potty trained" is in order to qualify for the discount... I can't tell you how many parents claim their kid is fully PTed yet the child can't pull their own pants up/down, can't wipe themselves and can't wash their own hands
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Cat Herder 03:37 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
Oh, and I would be EXTREMELY clear to parents on what your definition of "fully potty trained" is in order to qualify for the discount... I can't tell you how many parents claim their kid is fully PTed yet the child can't pull their own pants up/down, can't wipe themselves and can't wash their own hands
Not to mention the pressure for YOU to potty train them. They may accuse you of stalling for the $$$ if the kid takes longer than they feel is appropriate. The kids are often potty trained by punishment because it is costing them money.... It can set up many issues.

IMHO, every age has it's difficulties... the older they get the more they cost me (curriculum, damages, art supplies, food costs, etc). Keeping the rate the same across the boards makes things simple for me.

Larger centers can do it because the teacher to child ratio adjusts, so they can afford to charge less and take many more kids to make up the difference. I can't.

Now, I think a periodic "Good Citizenship" discount would be amazing. To foster great kids in the long run by actively rewarding awesome behavior.
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Candy 03:39 PM 01-03-2014
You might want to put a cut off age that you will accept children in diapers. I don't know about you but I don't want to be picking up on a 4 year old in diapers unless special needs.
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Leigh 03:43 PM 01-03-2014
I can guarantee that any mention of potty training will have parents swearing that their child is trained, and have them trying to force kids to train early.

I charge the same for 12 months and up, and a 50% premium for 0-12 months.
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mountainside13 04:13 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
Not to mention the pressure for YOU to potty train them. They may accuse you of stalling for the $$$ if the kid takes longer than they feel is appropriate. The kids are often potty trained by punishment because it is costing them money.... It can set up many issues.

IMHO, every age has it's difficulties... the older they get the more they cost me (curriculum, damages, art supplies, food costs, etc). Keeping the rate the same across the boards makes things simple for me.

Larger centers can do it because the teacher to child ratio adjusts, so they can afford to charge less and take many more kids to make up the difference. I can't.

Now, I think a periodic "Good Citizenship" discount would be amazing. To foster great kids in the long run by actively rewarding awesome behavior.
So glad I asked! I never thought about it that way! I would love to charge a flat rate but everyone around me reduces their rates based on age. If I had a flat rate, it would make it harder to find new clients if they can go down the street and pay $25 less a week. KWIM?

I have had a 4 year old in pull ups before. It was not fun! He is now in preschool, wears underwear at school comes home and back in a pull up.

If I did change it to a flat rate and have a good citizenship discount. How would you do it? Worded in contract? Or another type of incentive to make the flat rate not seem so bad to new families?
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Annalee 04:43 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I charge the same monthly rate across the board - I don't want to have to take a pay cut each time a child goes to the next rate category, and I don't want to keep track of different rates for different families. But that's just me.

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daycare 04:54 PM 01-03-2014
I charge a higher rate for under two because they take up more spots. I can only have 4 children under 2. They are also a lot more work, so the more work I have the more money I expect to get paid.

Once they are able to master their self help skills, like PT and what not I reduce the fee. Not by much, but enough to make a difference in the level of work I have to do.
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Laurel 05:01 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by littlemissmuffet:
I charge the same monthly rate across the board - I don't want to have to take a pay cut each time a child goes to the next rate category, and I don't want to keep track of different rates for different families. But that's just me.


Not to mention someone might 'claim' child is potty trained to get a lower rate and they really aren't. That could be a battle I'd think.

Laurel

Edited to add: Oops, I didn't read all the responses before I wrote mine. I see the potty training issue was already addressed.
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Laurel 05:08 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by mountainside13:
So glad I asked! I never thought about it that way! I would love to charge a flat rate but everyone around me reduces their rates based on age. If I had a flat rate, it would make it harder to find new clients if they can go down the street and pay $25 less a week. KWIM?

I have had a 4 year old in pull ups before. It was not fun! He is now in preschool, wears underwear at school comes home and back in a pull up.

If I did change it to a flat rate and have a good citizenship discount. How would you do it? Worded in contract? Or another type of incentive to make the flat rate not seem so bad to new families?
When a parent calls they just ask me the price for their child. I've rarely had anyone ask me if I reduce my rate as they get older. If they ask, I tell them no but hardly anyone does ask. If it is done in your area they might assume you reduce the price. Once they discover you don't, as their child ages, they already love you so might not switch.

I guess I'm saying don't advertise it if they don't ask and don't automatically assume they would leave just to get a lower price. Some would but a lot wouldn't.

Just something to consider....

Laurel
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mountainside13 07:05 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by Laurel:
When a parent calls they just ask me the price for their child. I've rarely had anyone ask me if I reduce my rate as they get older. If they ask, I tell them no but hardly anyone does ask. If it is done in your area they might assume you reduce the price. Once they discover you don't, as their child ages, they already love you so might not switch.

I guess I'm saying don't advertise it if they don't ask and don't automatically assume they would leave just to get a lower price. Some would but a lot wouldn't.

Just something to consider....

Laurel
I didn't think of it that way! Thank you! I am going to go ahead with a flat rate. One more question:
For the changes I make on my renewal contract for my current parents. Should I just give it to them and hope they notice the changes, go through it together or highlight the parts that changed?
I like the idea of highlighting it. A little less work for me but parents still know what has changed. Also don't want it to come off as rude.
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Annalee 07:29 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by mountainside13:
I didn't think of it that way! Thank you! I am going to go ahead with a flat rate. One more question:
For the changes I make on my renewal contract for my current parents. Should
I just give it to them and hope they notice the changes, go through it together or highlight the parts that changed?
I like the idea of highlighting it. A little less work for me but parents still know what has changed. Also don't want it to come off as rude.
I will usually bring attention to the parts with changes....either verbally, through a newsletter/coverpage, or something.
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Bookworm 07:39 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
Not to mention the pressure for YOU to potty train them. They may accuse you of stalling for the $$$ if the kid takes longer than they feel is appropriate. The kids are often potty trained by punishment because it is costing them money.... It can set up many issues.

IMHO, every age has it's difficulties... the older they get the more they cost me (curriculum, damages, art supplies, food costs, etc). Keeping the rate the same across the boards makes things simple for me.

Larger centers can do it because the teacher to child ratio adjusts, so they can afford to charge less and take many more kids to make up the difference. I can't.

Now, I think a periodic "Good Citizenship" discount would be amazing. To foster great kids in the long run by actively rewarding awesome behavior.
My center charges this way. 0-36 mos is $125 and 36-60 is 120. There is a $5 discount for potty trained 2yos.
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mountainside13 07:48 PM 01-03-2014
Originally Posted by dapb45:
I will usually bring attention to the parts with changes....either verbally, through a newsletter/coverpage, or something.
Thank you!!
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cheerfuldom 07:03 AM 01-04-2014
Our area for centers has an increased rate for kids under 2 because of the student teacher ratio. I don't know of any home daycares that do that. I personally would not take a 4 year old that is not potty trained unless they were able to clean up their own messes completely. I refuse to do older kids that are not potty trained. I have a special needs 4.5 year old of my own that regularly has accidents and I cannot handle another big kid doing that, especially a big kid that did not have special needs.
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Blackcat31 08:10 AM 01-04-2014
I charge the same base rate for everyone other than infants.

Infant space is HARD to come by here so I charge ONE flat weekly rate regardless of time used.

I charge the same for everyone else.

I adjust my rates according to pick up times instead of ages.

The later I have to work for a family, the higher their rate is.

Otherwise billing according to age is way too complicated.

I have a 3 yr old DCG that is 100x more mature (BOTH physically & mentally) than a couple other DCK's I have that are 5 yrs old so a rate according to age in that scenario wouldn't make sense.

I can see billing a family based on difficulty levels (of either parent or child) but so far I haven't seen anyone here or elsewhere come up with a good way of doing that.
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Unregistered 09:43 AM 01-04-2014
Originally Posted by Bookworm:
My center charges this way. 0-36 mos is $125 and 36-60 is 120. There is a $5 discount for potty trained 2yos.
Wow, that is really inexpensive for infants. I work in a center also. In the infants the rate is almost 300 a week, about the same for the waddlers ( 10-15 mos) because the ratio is 4:1 in both rooms. It goes down to around 250 in young toddlers ( 15- 20 months) The ratio there is 7:1. Then we have toddlers, ( 20_-24 mos ) I am not too sure of the ratio in that room, but the rate is around 215. It goes down from there. Do you have ages 0-36 mos in the same rooms ?
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Michael 10:04 AM 01-04-2014
Originally Posted by mountainside13:
I didn't think of it that way! Thank you! I am going to go ahead with a flat rate. One more question:
For the changes I make on my renewal contract for my current parents. Should I just give it to them and hope they notice the changes, go through it together or highlight the parts that changed?
I like the idea of highlighting it. A little less work for me but parents still know what has changed. Also don't want it to come off as rude.
Here are some threads on Rate Increase Letters:

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...e+notification

https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...ncrease+letter
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TwinKristi 12:17 PM 01-04-2014
I have to agree on the PTing thing, parents are going to be jumping at the discount when the kids aren't ready which will only make your job harder for less money.
I like the 0-2 and 2+ because like others said, infants under 2 are limited to 2 and should be more money.
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Rachel 04:19 AM 01-06-2014
Don't know how it would work for you, but here the rate goes on the age the child is in September, but they keep the same rate the whole year. The cutoff is 1 year and 3 months (I think because in centers that's when the ratio changes, in reality I'm 5:1 for everyone so it doesn't make a difference). Anyway if you did contracts you could do something like that so you have the year to plan for what the rates will be. The parents accept it because in the end it all works out the same (the kid who pays 2 years of "baby" rate didn't actually have 2 full years because the first year wasn't in daycare the whole year).
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