'Tis The Season...

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I will go with this on the next one. ::::

The one this morning was very catty about meals and curriculum being included in my rates. Kept asking about hidden fees :confused:

I chalked it up to "red flag wait list basket" (garbage can) but when I asked for her name she hung up on me. Quick google drop; just opened a family child care last month.

You'd think they'd be smart enough to use a cell phone or something. If she had told me the truth, I would have answered anything she needed to know. Now I know her name, address, phone number and will see her in a training class very soon. I am pretty sure she does not know how this community works, yet.

"Hey girl. Did you get those hidden fee issues figured out yet? "


I haven't had this happen that I know of.

[Cat Herder]

"Hey girl. Did you get those hidden fee issues figured out yet? "


I haven't had this happen that I know of.

:::::: Love it!!

I'd guess, after a few hours of thought, she was referring to the sign on deposits and supply fees some bigger places require? When I asked for clarification she became more agitated. I have never been able to pull those off.. I am happy with my paid vacation and National Holidays. That was all I ever had in the public market as well. :confused: Just a weird topic, IMO.

When I first thought it was a parent I was concerned she was a chronic late pick-up or chronic late payer. Those were the first red flags that I came up with. That is the only way to rack up fee's here..

[blandino]

So funny you mention this... I ran into a past DCM at a liquor store Friday night, and she told me she was going to get her license. Her oldest son (that was our DCB) is 10 now and she has been a SAHM since new baby arrived.

She wants to come meet with us and see how our day is structured. Which I have no problem doing.

We are sort of interested for her to see it from the other side, since I always got the feeling that she thought our policies were a little ridiculous.

[blandino]

Also, I stay pretty close to what my state pays out for subsidy payments so I kind of feel like it is "public info" for newbies if they base their rates accordingly.

Do you realize how crazy that sounds to me ? Right now our rates are $140-160/ weekly, average for the area is $125-150. The state reimbursement rate is $68.00/week AND we are not allowed to charge parents the difference.

So if you can imagine, no one is willing to take state payments. So all the subsidy clients are at horrible daycares. Talk about a broken, broken, broken, system.

[Sunshine74]

Last year we had another center call us about our rates pretending to be an interested parent. Funny this is, we have caller ID, so the center's name came right out. The person who answered the phone responded, "What do you charge there at (competing center's name)?" And the person hung up. We all got a good laugh out of it though.

[Play Care]

None. Maybe it's because I'm in a small town? IDK.
When my own kids were little, just before I started doing day care, I was desperately seeking child care - and people weren't even calling me back. I hadn't even thought to begin the process of being licensed at that point. I'm sure there are some providers in my town who think I was trying to set my pricing, but the reality was that if I had found a good provider, I wouldn't be doing this at all.

[morgan24]

None. I'm in a small town and I know all the other providers and even though we aren't suppose to talk about rates we do.

[Cradle2crayons]

Do you realize how crazy that sounds to me ? Right now our rates are $140-160/ weekly, average for the area is $125-150. The state reimbursement rate is $68.00/week AND we are not allowed to charge parents the difference.

So if you can imagine, no one is willing to take state payments. So all the subsidy clients are at horrible daycares. Talk about a broken, broken, broken, system.

I get it... Our state reimbursement rates are in the $40's a week... But we can charge the difference.

I never ever get calls from other childcare people.... However I saw an ad on CL about a person starting out so I emailed her and I was going to share about our NHI program etc to help her with her start up. We ended up becoming friends and she drove over one day and we hit it off. She is very grateful for the help and had no idea about all the helpful information.

Of course, she isn't really competition as she is like 45 minutes from me anyway...

[Blackcat31]

Do you realize how crazy that sounds to me ? Right now our rates are $140-160/ weekly, average for the area is $125-150. The state reimbursement rate is $68.00/week AND we are not allowed to charge parents the difference.

So if you can imagine, no one is willing to take state payments. So all the subsidy clients are at horrible daycares. Talk about a broken, broken, broken, system.

Wow, that's a bummer how your state pays.

Ours does a rate survey of ALL providers in the state to see what the average rates are.

Once they have that info, each county or area figures out the amount they will pay as reimbursement.

Right now our reimbursement rates are above the average cost of child care so its a GOOD thing here. We are also allowed to charge parents the difference if we charge more than the state pays.

We also get paid 15% more (than the reimbursement rate) if we are accredited or have a CDA and we get paid 20% more if we are a star rated facility.

Most providers around here charge the same or less than what the state pays out.

I charge a bit more, but I have also been in the business for two decades and don't really get many calls for families in subsidy. I don't know why, it is just the way it seems to be.

Most the seasoned providers in my area don't even accept subsidy families.