Excessive Absences

[Thetotspot]

I have a family that started just under 2 months ago. This family has a few children. 2 are here for 2 hrs a day 4days a week. 3 are here twelve hours one day a week. A baby is on the way that is supposed to be full time (at least 6 hrs a day). The family knows i will not hold 3 full time spots for them if a full time client comes in...well...i told her this prior to taking children but have not advertised open spots because full time baby coming. But as it sits...this family has had ten absenses in less than two months. Half have been no call no shpw. The rest have been mom showing 5 minutes (sometimes a full thirty minutes) before the children are to be here telling me they are sick...visiting dad...or simply dont want to be here. So, i know i cannot let this continue, and im sure this will happen tons with new baby too. I just dont know how to tell her...if i should warn her...or just term her. They are great kids and mom is very nice...despite constant late pick ups and drop offs as well as excessiveabsences. If this family was private pay i would just charge for contracted hrs and be done with it. But this isnt case. The absences are starting to cost me money. All her children were absent on a day only they were on schedule...so i bought food for kids only to be closed how would you approach the subject with mom?

Sorry about any typos. My droid doesnt love this forum as much as i do.

[Holiday Park]

I have a mom who doesn't have contracted hours. Even though she uses me 2 days a week , I consider it drop in . It wasn't an issue before because I had the room whether or not she came . I am filling the ft slot starting in January. And sometimes my PT (who does pay n advance) client wants an extra day. So now I have to tell drop in mom that from now on she will have to pre pay in advancr if she wants me to hold space for her dd on those 2 days . I've decided until I fficially get the deposit $from new ft boy's parents before saying anything to drop in mom .
Why don't you do onteacted hours with her ? Especially if you say they are on a schedule ? Is it like my situation ? Why not just grt her to agree to contract hours or tell her se can choose to continue using your services the way she has been but that when you don't have space ( from someone else coming and pre-paying) she will have to find alternate care .

[laundrymom]

I base my pay on enrollment, not attendance just for this reason. If they stay home, it's a free day for me.

[MarinaVanessa]

I have a family that started just under 2 months ago. This family has a few children. 2 are here for 2 hrs a day 4days a week. 3 are here twelve hours one day a week. A baby is on the way that is supposed to be full time (at least 6 hrs a day). The family knows i will not hold 3 full time spots for them if a full time client comes in...well...i told her this prior to taking children but have not advertised open spots because full time baby coming. But as it sits...this family has had ten absenses in less than two months. Half have been no call no shpw. The rest have been mom showing 5 minutes (sometimes a full thirty minutes) before the children are to be here telling me they are sick...visiting dad...or simply dont want to be here. So, i know i cannot let this continue, and im sure this will happen tons with new baby too. I just dont know how to tell her...if i should warn her...or just term her. They are great kids and mom is very nice...despite constant late pick ups and drop offs as well as excessiveabsences. If this family was private pay i would just charge for contracted hrs and be done with it. But this isnt case. The absences are starting to cost me money. All her children were absent on a day only they were on schedule...so i bought food for kids only to be closed how would you approach the subject with mom?

Sorry about any typos. My droid doesnt love this forum as much as i do.

Sounds like this family has their childcare paid for by subsidy. Does your subsidy program allow you to charge the family money that the program does not cover? For example, our subsidy program does not cover penalty fees (overtime, late pick-ups, late payment fees, bounced check fees etc), deposits and other things like that but they allow us to charge the client these fees. So basically whatever the subsidy doesn't cover we can charge the clients. I'm assuming that vecause you said that you are losing money that your program only pays you for the days that the child is actually in attendance.

Our subsidy program also pays us the same as how we charge our clients so for example I charge a weekly flat rate thats based on enrollment not attendance so the program pays me a full week even if the child wasn't here.

If your program allows you to charge your client any difference that they do not cover then I would put all of this in your handbook and contracts and have them sign a new agreement. They are doing this now because it's not hurting or bothering them, once you change it then things could better.

Hopefully you can say that you charge a weekly flat fee of $***.00 and when they are absent they have top pay you $XX.00 per absence since the program doesn't cover it. Hopefully your program works this way too.

If nothing above is possible for you I'd start looking for other clients to take their place. Start advertising and interviewing and once you have clients lines up you can give this family notice.

Just as a side note ... I'd be wary of any family that has multiple children enrolled. If they decide to leave then you'll be out a lot of income. At this moment I have several children enrolled and they are all singletons. I can take one family leaving no problem because I'd only be losing one child's income ... if I had sibling groups I'd be losing a much higher chunk of change.

[Thetotspot]

We are on contracted hours 1 to 3 m-f and 9 to 9 friday. It was only supposed to be 3 to 9 fridays but she always asks for earlier... It has come to a time where in 2 weeks i no lo ger have the space to take the kids for 12 hours on friday. I can guarantee what she originally asked for but no more in some cases due to a new child and a faithfully paying mom that uses her contracted hours plus available drop in. But im to the point where im tired of doing special. I stay 3 hrs late on friday for this family who never shows up on time...picks up late at least 3 out of 5 days...and doesnt use their space. I plan on terming if i hqve a person come to me needing even just 1 full time space.

[Thetotspot]

Marina...i totally understand so many children...if they leave it could be bad. This is something i will def pay attention to in the future. It didnt bother me because they are all part time and temporary in the fact i adv mom i can jot offer these positions if a ft child comes...but what do u think i did? I had a child that needed ft and i told her i didnt have space...i went soft for a family of 4 that i told i wouldnt hold space for grr. THanks for letting me rant. I realize i have adv this family i cant hold position. So i have decided prob not best to reiterate...just fill at earliest convenience and let that warning come true i guess.

[MamaG]

Pretty much what pp said above. If a family is coming so randomly Id charge a drop in rate, much higher then regular. If state allows you too. I also don't do drop in. I do 5 days a week or 3 days a week, contracted days and times, and they pay for the spot even if they don't use it, and they must make up the difference if using state aid.

[SunshineMama]

Sorry, I did not read the other responses, but I wanted to chime in. Are they paying you for the absences? If so, then I would keep them, but also add a no call/no show financial penalty. In my care, part time or full time, you pay whether or not you come. That way, I dont mind if the kiddos dont come because my fnances are taken care of. The no call no show would greatly bother me, however- I think if you can get handle on that, and have them pay for the spot, you might be ok with the arrangement.