No Call/No Show

[daycarediva]

I have a SA dcg about to age out of my program. DCG showed up Friday afternoon, during school hours, ALONE, to pay me. I questioned her briefly, and then sent her Mom a text that I had received the money and dcg was on her way home. (they live 5 minutes from us). No response.

Tuesday-Thursday she has been a no call/no show. I have called Mom every single day and sent her texts, all of which go straight to voicemail (which I leave) and texts go unanswered.

I have NOTHING in my contract or parent handbook about no call no shows.

Because she is aging up, she is only legally allowed to stay here until the start of next school year, but her age is getting to be an issue. I didn't WANT to keep her for summer anyway, but last week her Mom mentioned her going down to 3 days.

I have a SA kid on my waiting list that I KNOW still needs care, FT, possibly only for summer since their daycare closes for summer (neighbors kid, good kid, 6, friends with ds, has been a drop in before). Mom is a teacher, but teaches summer school. If he likes it, she might change providers since finding summer care every year is a pain. Her schedule is awesome, Dad drops off at 9, and Mom picks up at 3:30.

How long would you wait to mail the termination letter/2 week notice? If she doesn't show up today, I want to mail it certified tomorrow, but dh thinks I should wait until she hasn't come NEXT Friday as that is when she is paid up to. I am not terming immediately, I am giving her to the start of summer/3 weeks notice and my contract requires 2.

???

[jessrlee]

I would call the mom and tell her to get back to you by 5pm tonight or you will assume she has been pulled from care. If she calls you by 5 you will know whats up. If not then call waitlist boy and get that set up

[rmc20021]

I don't have anything in my policy about it either...I should say I DIDN'T have anything in my policy about it. Due to one of my families no show/no call for 3 days, and having quit on me once before with no notice, it's now in my policy that after 3 consecutive days no show/no call or 5 days within a calendar year that I may terminate and 2 weeks of early term fees are still due.

As for your current situation, I would send a letter tomorrow stating that it appears she no longer needs your services so the amount of the payment she made this last time covers her term fees and be done with it. It pretty much sounds like that is what she's doing anyways...except she doesn't have the face enough to tell you in person. That's why she had dcg bring the money and hasn't responded to your calls/texts.

[countrymom]

I have in my policy that no show no call means that I still charge you. This is why I don't call parents when they don't show up, I want my money.

[cheerfuldom]

If she is paid up till Friday, I would give the opportunity for them to come till Friday and then send a letter for termination. She would terminated due to poor communication. If she pops up and says they want to stay, you can still term on Friday by giving the notice directly to them.

[Willow]

One no call/no show is grounds for termination in my book.

I certainly wouldn't have waited around trying to track her down for a week.


I have written that if a parent is so much as a half hour late with no call I'm going to start calling them, their work, their emergency contacts etc to "make sure they're ok."

I'd send it now and date it whenever you want to. One occurance means something is wonky and I don't play the - pretty please with a cherry on top will you tell me when/if you're going to grace me with your presence again - game.

[Blackcat31]

If she is paid up till Friday, I would give the opportunity for them to come till Friday and then send a letter for termination. She would terminated due to poor communication. If she pops up and says they want to stay, you can still term on Friday by giving the notice directly to them.

I would term due to lack of communication. A day or two is one thing but no way would I be ok with no contact for more than 48 hours.

I don't get paid to wait around for someone to remember me.....

[Play Care]

My contract states that 5 days with no communication is grounds for termination. But since you don't have that, I agree with the poster who said to give a deadline of say 5:00pm. And then change your contract for next time

[TheGoodLife]

I would call the mom and tell her to get back to you by 5pm tonight or you will assume she has been pulled from care. If she calls you by 5 you will know whats up. If not then call waitlist boy and get that set up

This was my thought completely! Give a specific time that you need to be contacted by (ie 5:30 tonight) and explain you will send term letter with your contracted 2 weeks notice if you don't hear back.

[MarinaVanessa]

The first thing to do is decide what you want to do. Do you want to give this family another chance or do you want to take the other child and replace this family? If you want to take this new child (your neighbor's kid) then call the mom and confirm that she still needs child care and lock her in.

Since you don't have anything about no calls/no shows or about no communication in your contract or policies I would go by what your termination policy says. If it says that you can terminate at any time with no notice then I would send out a termination notice today that says that you have attempted to call her numerous times and have sent her text messages and that you have received no communication from her at all and that due to no communication you are terminating your contract and his last day of child care will be next Friday (the last day he is paid up until).

If you have to give her a 2 week notice then I would send the letter out today and give her pretty much the same letter as above but give the termination date of 6/14 with the contingency that she contact you no later than Monday by X time to confirm that she is in fact going to show up and if she does not then termination is terminated effective immediately. You can add that you will release her from her contract early (if you require a 2 weeks notice of termination from a client) due to a child that will start 6/10 but that the payment for 6/3 to 6/7 is non-refundable due to lack of termination notice from her etc.

If all of her calls are going straight to voicemail I'm assuming that her phone can be either lost, off, broken or shut-off ... none of which are your fault. Short of her being in the hospital or being kidnapped she could have used a different phone to call you to let you know that she would be out this week but chose not to.

[daycarediva]

I didn't want to keep her anyway. She is 12 and the next kid in age is 7. It just isn't working anymore. I was going to stick it out for summer, seeing as how this will be her last summer with me (been here 5 years in July) BUT then Mom mentioned going down to 3 days and only paying the daily rate (I charge regular weekly rate + 1/2 daily rate per day) so she wanted a discount ON TOP of going PT. I said no, your 3 day rate would be x, only set days, and she didn't bring it up again. That was in March.

I called and left her a voicemail asking if DCG would be coming today (it rang this time, phone is on!) and said that REGARDLESS of DCG coming or not, I would appreciate hearing back from her by 2:45 (time bus arrives dropping off dcg)to discuss DCG's last day and that if I didn't hear from her, I was terminating care, effective 6/14, and that her payment would be due 6/7 regardless of attendance. That she would be getting the termination letter via certified mail to her home and work address. AND, IF she calls me to discuss it, I am willing to let dcg go next Friday/pd up date and NOT require the 2 week notice. I also texted her the EXACT same message, so that I have a record of it on my phone AND I left this message on her voicemail at work.

I am REALLY irritated by this, I think it is SO RUDE. She is paid up until 6/7, but never gave me a two week notice (required) and after being a GOLDEN family for the last 5 years, I was pretty shocked.

I also emailed neighbor family and she wants dcb to start 6/21 and will be coming over this evening to pick up a packet and drop off a deposit.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I have a SA dcg about to age out of my program. DCG showed up Friday afternoon, during school hours, ALONE, to pay me. I questioned her briefly, and then sent her Mom a text that I had received the money and dcg was on her way home. (they live 5 minutes from us). No response.

Tuesday-Thursday she has been a no call/no show. I have called Mom every single day and sent her texts, all of which go straight to voicemail (which I leave) and texts go unanswered.

I have NOTHING in my contract or parent handbook about no call no shows.

Because she is aging up, she is only legally allowed to stay here until the start of next school year, but her age is getting to be an issue. I didn't WANT to keep her for summer anyway, but last week her Mom mentioned her going down to 3 days.

I have a SA kid on my waiting list that I KNOW still needs care, FT, possibly only for summer since their daycare closes for summer (neighbors kid, good kid, 6, friends with ds, has been a drop in before). Mom is a teacher, but teaches summer school. If he likes it, she might change providers since finding summer care every year is a pain. Her schedule is awesome, Dad drops off at 9, and Mom picks up at 3:30.

How long would you wait to mail the termination letter/2 week notice? If she doesn't show up today, I want to mail it certified tomorrow, but dh thinks I should wait until she hasn't come NEXT Friday as that is when she is paid up to. I am not terming immediately, I am giving her to the start of summer/3 weeks notice and my contract requires 2.

???

I was going to say I'd do what your DH said, but since you are giving her 3 weeks notice I would term now.