Do You Have A Trial Period?

[renodeb]

Does it ever get you in trouble when parents pull there kids?
Ok heres the story:
I enroll this one year old, things are going ok and then on the 18th the dad calls and says Grandma is in town now and will watch her. OK, then the day before yesterday the mom calls me and asks when can she pick up her refund. I was floored becasue in six years I have never given a refund. We go back and forth texting and I finally just decide to give her half the money back just to be done with the whole matter. She said that it was her understanding that she could pull her child at any time during the 4 week trial period and not have to pay. I told her that dc fees still apply during that time. (as it states in my contract).
It was weird,she pays me on the 17th and pulls her on the 18th. Makes me wonder what happened.
So I go back through my contract and there are some loop holes the way I worded it. (they are now fixed needless to say).
Part of me hates the idea of a trial period b/c I feel it lets the parents off to easy. Thoughts?

[rhymia1]

I do have a trial period. My understanding of how it legally works is that if the parent decides to pull, they are responsible for payment. If you terminate and refuse to provide care, you have to give a refund. Tom Copeland just had something about this on his FB page last week.
UGH! Did mom give any reason? Is Grandma going to be staying for a while? Maybe free child care is better than one you have to pay for? Sorry! Hope you can get someone in to fill the spot!

[clep]

I have a 30 day trial. Parents are required to pay the 30 day fee up front. It says on the contract there are no refunds. If they want to hold a spot they have to sign that contract and pay up front.

[Lyss]

I also have a 30 day trial period. I have it in my contract that if a parent or I decided to terminate care during the trial period 2 weeks notice is not required and any fees for days not used will be refunded but I do not refund for days that the child attended.

[MarinaVanessa]

I have a 2 week termination period. The DCP is required to pay this AND for the first week of childcare up front. Once they start then they pay weekly as usual. If they decide to terminate during the termination period then I do refund the 2 week deposit because I use it as payment for a clients final 2 weeks of care in regular situations. Since my policies say that during the trial period either party can terminate care, I give back any unused part of the deposit which is usually the whole thing since my clients prepay for the following week in advance.

If a FT client was in their 2nd week of trial period and it was Tuesday and they terminated they would have paid me the previous Friday for this week. I would have refunded the 2 week deposit but not any part of the current weeks' tuition even though they were only with me 2 days out of the week and wouldn't use 3 days because I charge by the week... not by the day.

But that's just what works for me and that's what's in my policies. Others that have it written in their policies don't refund the 2 week deposit no matter what. It's up to you what works for you

[daycare]

what works for me

I have a paid 2 week trial period where either party can cancel at any time. At the end of the trial period, I will evaluate the whole family and ask myself is this family truly a good fit and did the child make good progress while here during that time? If they did and I really like the family then i will invite them to join our DC and give them a contract.

If I do like them and the child did not make a lot of progress, I may extend the trial period at that time. I will give the family an extension slip to sign so that we are all on the same page and let them know what the issues are that we need to work on. At the end of that period I will again either ask to stay or let them go.

[daycarediva]

what works for me

I have a paid 2 week trial period where either party can cancel at any time. At the end of the trial period, I will evaluate the whole family and ask myself is this family truly a good fit and did the child make good progress while here during that time? If they did and I really like the family then i will invite them to join our DC and give them a contract.

If I do like them and the child did not make a lot of progress, I may extend the trial period at that time. I will give the family an extension slip to sign so that we are all on the same page and let them know what the issues are that we need to work on. At the end of that period I will again either ask to stay or let them go.

This is what I do as well. In addition, I do not require a deposit, but payments need to be made in advance. If a parent gets paid biweekly, so do I. If they(or I) decide it isn't working out on Wednesday of the first week, they can terminate, not come Thursday but I have aready been paid for Thursday & Friday and NEVER give a refund.

[Mom&Provider]

Yes, I have a 2 week (10 day) trial period, BUT there is no refund involved and it is stated as such in my contract. If parent decides to pull child on day 7 of 10, they have already paid me the two weeks and that's that - no refund.

[Crazy8]

someone just asked this recently - I think I was the only one who said I don't do the trial period anymore. I used to but I really don't find any purpose to it - all the things I would term for are grounds for immediate termination in my contract anyway - whether it be 2 weeks in or 12 weeks in. If a child isn't adjusting chances are I'd want to give them a little longer than the 2 weeks I had as my trial anyway. For parents, if they aren't happy here they can give 2 weeks notice or just forfeit their deposit. The way my contract is written I honestly can't think of a single situation where I'd ever be giving a penny back to a parent (and this includes their deposit - it is CREDITED to their last 2 weeks, its never refunded).
I rather work for "free" at the end than have to worry about giving back any money.

[renodeb]

The dad gave no other reason other than Grandma will watch.
Debbie

[lovemykidstoo]

I might be the only one on this board that does not have a trial period or a contract per se. I do have an information sheet that has all of my conditions on it such as pay, hours, sick policy, holiday pay, food provided, etc. They do sign this, but it is not a contract for say a year of care or anything. I also do not have a trial period. Like Crazy 8 said that sometimes it takes longer than 2 weeks to figure things out anyway, so sometimes it's not really an issue. I have never had a problem at all with someone leaving. I've only had people leave for 2 reasons. First of which was the normal progression of going to kindergarten and the next was twice when I termed for children that just never adjusted (constant crying). I termed those 2 after a couple months.