Charging When Sick

[Country Kids]

I see alot of people on here who actually get paid sick/personal days-the norm seems to be 5. What happens if you go over that? Do you just not charge them or to you reimburse for the time?

The reason I ask is I know some of you are pregnant and wondering how you handle all the appts. and also when you go into the hospital that is usually a 2-4 day ordeal and then recover time. Will you not charge for that time?

Also, with just the usual appts. and sickness do you not run out of 5 days rather quickly?

I do have 5 also in my HPB but I do not have it as paid and then if I go over I draw it from my vacation days-also not paid.

[nanglgrl]

I don't take paid sick time or vacation but I never thought of limiting my sick or vacation days. If I'm sick 1x a year parents don't pay, If I'm sick 20 times a year they don't pay. Why do you put a cap on your time off when you don't ask clients to pay you for it?

[Crazy8]

I don't have sick days (for me) in my policies at all - if I had to close unexpectedly for any reason no payment would be due. I'm not sure I understand the cap on them if they are not paid either. I think I would only give a number if they were paid.

in the past 11+ years I do not think I closed unexpectedly more than 5-6 times. I have NEVER in that time actually taken a sick day because I was sick - my closings were more for other personal matters like my dad's heart attack, my sister in laws funeral and once when my son had RSV at 10 months old. I went thru 2 of my pregnancies while running my daycare and never closed for appointments. I closed for 2 weeks for each of their births, one week was my paid vacation week, the other was taken as an unpaid week.

[MyAngels]

I have ten paid days off per year in my contract (over and above holidays). I wouldn't expect payment for any days over ten each year. I have never needed more than 10 days in a year so it's never been an issue.

[littlemissmuffet]

I have only once ever gone over my 5 paid sick/personal days. In a case like this I simply minus $25/day from the parent's next payment (I charge $30/day, however).

I am pregnant, and for appointments I try to book them for as late in the day as possible (4pm is the last appt time I can get) and I either close early or have my hubby come home and close the daycare. If I cannot get the last appointment of the day, I have my husband stay home (he can switch shifts/days off easily) or in one instance, I closed for the entire day because I had 2 appointments booked (one am and one pm) and wanted my hubs to join me. All of my parents are really understanding about closures/early closures due to pre-natal appointments because they've all been there! I am taking 2 weeks unpaid maternity leave... and hubby will be home for 6-12 months running the daycare/helping with baby.

I don't ever draw from my 10 paid vacation days because I hand out a schedule every January stating all the closures (minus person, sick time or emergencies of course) for the year so parents can plan. If I drew from that time to cover illness/personal I would screw up alot of people's schedules.

Like PPs, I also am unclear as to why you cap your sick time or draw from vacation time if it's all unpaid :confused:

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

My sick days/personal days taken off would be unpaid.

I take off 11 days, and the parents get 1 week (5 days) of vacation time of their own FREE. So, I really only take off 6 paid days. However, I did take off an extra 2 holidays this year because all but one of my families choose not to bring their kids so I closed. So, 8 days!

[SilverSabre25]

I take a few holidays paid and then 5 paid days off (usually all at once). I then usually take 5 more unpaid vacation days but there's no cap except my mental one.

[Country Kids]

I actually did change it this year to just "the right to take personal/sick days". I did have it as 5 last year but had to go over that and it upset a few parents.