Urgent by Mon. Morn - Should Parent Pay?

[sierrastreasures]

Help, I will have to make a decision before monday morn.

I have two dcb's (brothers), Wed of last week dcm shows up at the door and said one son had a bad night and she did not know why and hopes he has a better day today. An hour into daycare he complains that his tummy doesn't feel well. Since there was not any sign of fatique or temp I thought maybe he was just being whiny so I didn't really make a big deal about it since he does seem to demand more attention than others plus he has ADD. A few minutes later he is off playing with other children so I didn't think anything of it.

1/2 hour before the end of the day same dck said he was sick and threw up all over my carpet going up to the front door to greet him aunt. I put a sign up and closed that entrance right away while spending the next 45 minutes cleaning up each and every one of the steps, floor, and walls.
Thursday she shows up with child that is not sick and he seems fine.Friday she texted me and says she will keep both children home since she has to take the day off anyway and she was feeling ill anyway.Sun she text to say 2nd son is throwing up now and she will keep him home on Monday but send the other since supposably he's over the flu.Tues she said other son is fine now so she sent him.
Thurs afternoon I became so sick I had to call everyone and tell them to pick up their children 1 1/2 hous early.Friday I closed the daycare because I obviously am sick with the flu and can't even sit up in bed.

I don't have any sick days on my contract so I guess I will have to refund services not rendered on Friday. I DON'T think it's fair that I should have to refund ANY money to the partent with the two boys since obviously I became sick with same symptoms they had and no other became sick by then.

This is the 2nd time I've had to close my daycare because of the same dcm due to these two boys.The first incident was because (one week after they started daycare) she insisted they both had allergies and they always get the sniffles this time of year because they have mold in the house.After a week of of having both wiping green mucus from both sons noses and hearing them continuously cough I insisted they needed to go to the doctors, sure enough I got sick and had to get medication myself and close my daycare. She has insurance, I don't so my medication was quite expensive.

The only thing I have is holidays, Columbus not being one of them so I can't open and give them a free day and I can't claim Friday as a vacation day since I pay for my own vacation (I charge for theirs). What would be the fair thing to do?
Rox

[Live and Learn]

I guess it depends what your agreement is with your families.
I charge families for the days I am open whether they choose to use those days or not....That includes half days, vacation days AND their sick days. I I I I don't get sick often...Just once in six years. And when I did close for that one sick day I did not charge my families.....even though I know darn well what family infected me!!!
It sounds like this is a good time to review your sick day policies and see if you need to inform your families of changes in the future.....it was a situation very similar to this that forced me to change my policy to what it is today. Ironically the infecting family was totally cool with the idea of the new policy until cold and flu season rolled around. In theory she agreed that it was fair. But after she had to pay for two days of care with me when her two children were out sick she was pretty darn grumpy. I had to term and was glad that I had a waiting list.....she had been 1 sa and 1 full time 1/2 day and I replaced her with 1 full time all day so it totally worked out for me. The little one I replaced that family with almost never gets sick so it is all good!!
In conclusion...review your policy & don't refund the sickies unless you absolutely have to....make sure that everyone knows what your policy is from this day on...'tis the season to sneeze and vomit

[Unregistered]

If you've already used your sick time as outlined in your contract, I wouldn't charge the parents because you had to close due to illness. I understand how you feel, though. In my contract, I state that if I have to close the day care due to my own illness, the parents don't have to pay. I do get upset when I come down with an illness that very obviously came from a child who should not have been at day care in the first place but I **** it up because that's the policy I set and asked my dc parents to agree to. I don't feel I can turn around and go against what I have in my contract just because I don't like the outcome -- even though I've been tempted at times!

[sierrastreasures]

It sounds like this is a good time to review your sick day policies and see if you need to inform your families of changes in the future

I agree with you, submitting a new contract with sick leave days would be appropriate at this time since the holiday season is upon us however I just started daycare this past June and have submitted an addendum to my original contract (1 month ago) due some very sound practical advice from other providers here. I'm learning the hard way! The same dcp were driving me crazy and were very bossy thinking I had to take their children from the time I opened 6AM till the time I closed 6:30 PM since my contract stated my hours of operation were of such but nothing else. After some very helpful advice I have reiterated in my contract with an adendum stating that my hours of operation is to accomodate many schedules and I offer serves for no more than 10 hours to each parents.

[SilverSabre25]

I think that you should adhere to the terms of your contract for this instance, and then revisit your sick policies and sick day policies. Like a PP said, you could do an addendum to the original contract and give yourself a couple of paid sick days each year. I don't think you can rightly charge only the family that got you sick, but I think you can rightly give yourself a few paid sick days.

[broncomom1973]

I sooooo know how you feel, . I have gone through this a couple of times and it is usually due to 1 dcb. About 3 weeks ago he came and seemed fine, ate lunch, started playing and I was doing dishes but happened to look over at him at precisely the moment that he projectile vomited all over my carpet and several toys. Every other child was with 1-2 feet of him when it happened. I picked him up, set him in his feeding booster seat, called his mom and started cleaning up the mess. Within a span of 2 weeks every other child here got it including my own 3, so needless to say I was closed Monday-Thursday.

I will say that my own son (who went a total of 8 days throwing up on and off) had not thrown up for 36 hours, had not run a fever at all and I opened on that Friday thinking he was fine. He woke up Saturday a.m. again and had thrown up sometime in the night. Then on Sunday, the 1 dcb who had not gotten it but had come to daycare on Friday when I thought my son was fine, got it and he was out the entire next week and his whole family got it. These viruses spread very easily and once they are introduced into a daycare setting it is hard to prevent everyone from getting it.

I do get paid holidays but I do not have paid sick days, and I am not going to change that, but I am going to subtract out my 2 weeks of unpaid vacation per year and the 1 week of unpaid vacation per child and then average it out over the course of the year. So, I take my rate times 49 weeks/year (52 weeks per year minus the 2 weeks for me and the 1 week per child) and then I divide it by 52 and that is my new rate. So, I didnt change anything other than my weekly rate went down a little but it will always be the same even if Im am closed I will still get paid. It is not a paid sick day because I subtracted it out for the entire year. It is confusing but this way I know that as long as I am not closed more than 10 days/year I will always get paid the same rate. If I close 3 days one week, it's still the same rate and I will still have 7 more days to use throughout the year.

My opinion is that you can change your policy for the future but it probably wouldnt be fair to change it without giving them notice that you are doing so. Good luck with whatever you decide to do with this family.

[QualiTcare]

i agree - you can't charge only the sick family- and it's not fair not to refund the other families for a day they didn't get to use - esp. when it's not in your contract. if they wanted to get technical about it, they could ask to be refunded for having to pick up early, lose time at work, etc. getting sick is frustrating, but unfortunately, it's part of the job.

[misol]

I also agree that you should not penalize the families - even the one that got you sick. Definitely revise your contract to reflect changes in your sick policy and add a couple of paid sick days that you can use if you or your family gets really sick. FYI, my contract says that depending on the illness if a child is sick the siblings may be required to stay home as well.

[sierrastreasures]

Thanks everyone for your support! I knew I joined a forum that is not only helpful but supportive as well. I'm sure as time goes on and I get to know most of you I will feel as if I've found a home.

Good news! I contacted all of my dc parents and told them that I would be well enough to open on Monday. They were very happy and some were surprised to hear I would be open during Columbus Day so it was good news for them. I decided not to mention and just take what was offered when they wrote their check on Monday. To my surprise not one asked if they would be compensated for Friday. Each wrote the check out for the full amount and never questioned. I thanked them all and had a wonderful day with the children.

Thanks again everyone!
Rox