Hi! I have a prospective family who is looking for care on a part time basis. We are interviewing/touring tomorrow. They are thinking every other week 2-3 days per week OR every week, but differing amount of days. She also asked about drop-in care which I'm not doing. I have no clue where to start with pricing or if I should enroll (sounds like a migraine waiting to happen). Have y'all had any experience with this?

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I would not do every other week unless she was willing to pay on the weeks that child didn’t attend. I also don’t accept kids only need 1 or 2 days unless they want to pay for at least 3 days. I charge a daily rate and if it was only 2 or 3 days I would hike the price a little so it makes up for not being full time spot.

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I have 2 daycare kids that attend every other week due to custody/visitation statuses with their parents.

I still get paid every week though as rates are based on enrollment not attendance or time used.

Im not in the business of losing income every other week due to someone else's situation.

Drop in care is an option but ONLY if space is available and I can't promise that. Even far out...

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If it were me, I'd be charging a FT rate since the schedule is not consistent and you're not able to fill the days they're not using. I'd also do it on a trial basis since some children have a hard time adjusting to part time schedules.

Drop in may be more beneficial for you.
Typically, providers charge more than their standard daily rate for drop in status, plus they outline the contract to state that drop in status in NOT guaranteed. They would need to contact you in advance to schedule their days and you decide if you can take them if you have the space. That way, you can still market to fill the space FT and will have interim income in the meantime.

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I did this for my first sign up of a kid. At the time I had 5 spaces to fill. I hated it. As others have said it's hard to find someone to fill pt care days that are open the same each week. It's impossible to find a family that fits with a rotating schedule.
If it works for you to do pt then set days of the week and charge each week for days enrolled not for days used.

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I accommodated a firefighters schedule that was different every week but they were able to give me a years schedule upon signing so I knew when they would be here. Can they at least do that for you? Otherwise it might be a huge headache. Some provider also charge them for a minimum amount of days but I didn’t do that.

In the end it ended up being a hassle, even with the schedule because I had to count their spots as full time because they came on different days of the week (so I had to hold that spot for 5 days a week) so it became bery difficult to sign on other kids.

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I would not do every other week myself, even though right now I purposely have all part-time, flexible schedules. Aside from the scheduling headaches, I feel like when they miss whole weeks at a time kids have a harder time adjusting to rules and routines and are either miserable or making everyone else miserable.

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I wouldn't do it unless they paid for the full time spot. That is too much juggling to possibly find someone to share the spot.

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