For Those Who Have Contracted Hours.....

[marniewon]

My families have contracted hours, based on their need for care. Last month dcd dropped dcb off half an hour early (!!) and then asked if we could re-do their contract because he now has to drive farther to work. I did not charge them for that time and I re-did the contract. Today, he shows up 15 minutes earlier than the NEW earlier contracted time. (Usually they are here at 8:20, even though the new time was for 8:00am, and he showed at 7:45).

Okay, here's where I need help. What are your reasons for charging for early drop-off? I'm going over my reasons in my head and they all sound lame!! But I do stand by my policy of contracted hours based on need. I will be billing dcp's for today (my policy is $10 for every 15 minutes early/late) but wanted to be ready for when/if they ask me WHY they can't come earlier without getting charged for it.

[SilverSabre25]

I don't charge for early drop-off, but I've never really had a problem with that (yet, KOW).

As for WHY they can't drop off early--explain that you need to know when to expect children to arrive because you plan your day and activities accordingly. This explanation works whether she's your first drop-off or not. If she's your first, you need to know when the earliest she might arrive is so that you're up and ready for the day then. If she's not the first, you need to know when's the earliest someone might arrive so that you know to listen for the door, have the correct amount of materials/food for a craft/meal/snack, so that you're not outside/on a walk when the child arrives, etc. You probably don't need to give that much detail, but whatever seems appropriate to the situation.

[SilverSabre25]

Not to mention that if they drop off early and don't get charged for it, they are getting free child care and that's not fair to your for the work you're doing. It only makes sense to charge for early drop-offs, because it's extra time that YOU are working and you deserve to get paid for it.

[DancingQueen]

I charge. My reason is simple - You've been contracted for this time slot and that is what you aer paying for - anything beyond that you must be charged for - the same as a late fee.

I open at 7 and I have a dad that tries to come at 6:50

I sit in my living room and don't answer the door and he has caught on.
I do not open til 7.

Target doesn't open early for you do they? LOL

[marniewon]

I charge. My reason is simple - You've been contracted for this time slot and that is what you aer paying for - anything beyond that you must be charged for - the same as a late fee.

I open at 7 and I have a dad that tries to come at 6:50

I sit in my living room and don't answer the door and he has caught on.
I do not open til 7.

Target doesn't open early for you do they? LOL

LOL - no, they don't! My fist dcb was just dropped off and I was in the living room and happened to see 2nd dcb waiting at the curb for first dcm to pull out. I was SO tempted to go lock the door!! Unfortunately, this dad would NOT get the hint if I did that. Besides, he knew I had another child here because he was waiting to pull in. Of course, I could have been getting 1st child settled, changing a diaper, getting breakfast, etc.

When they wanted to extend their hours last month I did without charging them any more, because it was still under my 10hours/day limit. It still is, even if they come early, but I do have a routine in the morning and am not great with last minute changes in schedule!

Thanks!

[MarinaVanessa]

I guess it all depends on how many hours the child is in care for. Like in my situation, I am open from 6am to 6pm Monday through Friday BUT they all have contracted hours that they are allowed to come at. The weekly rate that I charge is based on a flat fee depending on if they are full or part time. Full time for me is 50 hours a week max, part-time is 30 hours or less AND they can't go over 10 hours a day.

So if this parent usually brought their child full time but only for 6 hours and then they needed to drop off an hour earlier I would change the contracted hours and not charge extra because pretty much they are already paying my flat fee. Now on the other hand if they were already here 10 hours a day and wanted and extra hour (or part) then they would pay the regular weekly rate for the first 10 hours a day (or 50 hours a week) AND overtime for anything that went over that. KWIM?

If they wanted to know why they needed to pay extra it would be easy for me to explain that the weekly rate is only for the 50 hours a week, 10 hours a day and if they needed extra time then I need extra pay.

[legomom922]

How do you charge them? Hrly? daily? etc.

I charge by the day weather they are PT or FT, I still get the same pay, and if I open at 730, and a parent wants to come up to a 1/2 hr early, I will charge a $5 early drop off fee. However, if it is an hr early, then I charge my OT rate of $10. If a parent is contracted to come from 8-1pm, and wants to come at 730 and stay until 3, that is fine with me because they are paying for the day, and are entitled to come if they so chose up to 10 hrs a day. So I think it really depends on how you are charging them.

[marniewon]

I have a full-time weekly rate. That rate is good for up to 10 hours/day. I have never had anyone need more than that.

I have had parents ASK to drop off early or pick up late, and as long as it is pre-arranged, I will do it with no rate increase. The point with this family is, they don't ASK. We've just gone all over the whole "you are contracted from 8-5:15" last month, not sure what they are not getting here, but if I keep letting it go without saying anything, they will just start coming whenever they want, and then what would be the point of contracted hours?

[SilverSabre25]

It sounds like it would be entirely appropriate to remind them of their contracted hours, let them know that you need to know what the EARLIEST possible drop-off is going to be, and if they drop-off prior to that time, you will charge the them an additional $10/fifteen minutes they're early. And that it's due at drop-off or you won't take her.

[legomom922]

Well if your contract states that their fee covers "up to 10 hrs" then you really cant charge them a early drop off fee, the way I see it. I dont think it would hold up in court either. I think the only way you could get any extra money out of it would be if tehy wanted to drop off before you were open. The contracted hrs doesnt really mean anything, to me anyway, other than you can gauge as to weather or not to charge them PT or FT and you know what time to expect them and if tehy are later than their contracted time, you can charge them the late pick up fee.

I used to have the "up to 10 hrs" clause in my contract, and then I took it out, bcause people were questioning me when they were late, etc. I got the "well I dropped off 1/2 late today so why cant I pick up 1/2 later for the same rate, it s still 10 hrs" thing, so take that out of your contract for future clients, and you wont have that issue.

[MarinaVanessa]

but if I keep letting it go without saying anything, they will just start coming whenever they want, and then what would be the point of contracted hours?

Exactly! If you don't say anything then they'll just show up whenever they want and you do not want this to be a regular thing. When you think about it it all adds up.

At this point if they showed up early again I would say something along the lines of "Oh, I wasn't expecting you until another 15 minutes since you are contracted for drop-off at 8. So would you prefer to be charged the early drop-off fee of $xx.xx or is this going to be a regular thing because then we'll need to change the contracted hours and a new contract needs to be signed and we'll need to renegotiate a new fee ..." etc.

Try putting it into persepective by doing the math for them. Let's say that each time they show up early it's 15 minutes earlier than their contracted hours. If they do this twice a week that's about two hours more of your services each month that they are getting for free.

15 minute early drop-offs X 2 times a week = 30 minutes free a week
30 minutes free a week X 52 weeks = 26 hours free a year

That's about 2 days and 6 hours of free services a year.

I don't charge much for overtime but even for me that translates into $130 a year (if I charged hourly) or $520 a year (if I charged the early drop off/late pick-up fee in 15 minute incriments). I only charge $5 an hour for drop-in and $5 per 15 minute minute incriments if they are early/late in dropping off or picking up and I know there are those that charge $10. That means that you would double the totals, and that's what you be missing out if they were only doing it twice a week!

[Rachel]

I have a full-time weekly rate. That rate is good for up to 10 hours/day. I have never had anyone need more than that.

I have had parents ASK to drop off early or pick up late, and as long as it is pre-arranged, I will do it with no rate increase. The point with this family is, they don't ASK. We've just gone all over the whole "you are contracted from 8-5:15" last month, not sure what they are not getting here, but if I keep letting it go without saying anything, they will just start coming whenever they want, and then what would be the point of contracted hours?

If the same rate is good for up to 10 hours, why not just change their hours to 7:15 - 5:15?

[MarinaVanessa]

Well if your contract states that their fee covers "up to 10 hrs" then you really cant charge them a early drop off fee, the way I see it. I dont think it would hold up in court either.

Not necessarily true, it all depends on how it's worded in her contract. For example, this is what I have in my contract ...

Full-Time Care: Up to 50 hours a week.
Part-Time Care: Up to 30 hours a week. Both full and part-time care each has a 10 hour maximum per day within a 24 hour period.

Just shows that full & part time care has a maximum of up to so many hours. The parents may not need an entire 10 hours a day/50 hours a week so their contracted times could be less than this. Of course if they need more hours and they asked me to change the contracted hours I would gladly do that with no extra charge as long as they asked first and they did not go over the weekly or daily hour maximum.

Our regular hours are Monday through Friday 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. These hours are not necessarily the hours that you are allotted to bring your child. Hours for care will be discussed and a schedule will be set which includes a fair amount of commuting time and this will become your "scheduled hours". Care will be provided for your child only during these contracted hours. Any changes made to your schedule hours must be discussed and re-assessed based on the ability for the childcare provider to meet your new needs.

Here I clearly say that the contracted hours are the only hours that they are allowed to bring the children.

Late Pick-Up
A $5.00 fee will be added to your account per child for every fifteen minutes, or portion thereof, that your child is late in being picked up when past the contracted pick-up time without my prior approval.

Here I say that there is an extra charge if they are picked up later than the contracted pick-up time.

Early Drop-Off
There is an extra $5.00 fee per child for every fifteen minutes, or portion thereof, that your child is dropped off earlier than the contracted drop-off time without my prior approval.

And here I say that there is an extra charge if they drop-off earlier than their contracted drop-off time.

I've had a lawyer review my contract and because of the way everything is spelled out and the parent's signed and agree to this then they have to follow the policy. The key is to spell everything out clearly. Of course, I am in CA and laws, regulations etc. could vary from state to state. But in my case if a parent just showed up before the contracted hours and didn't ask first I can still technically charge the fee. Would I do that? Who knows, it depends on the family but more than likely I would talk to them first and let the one time slide. If it happened again and they didn't need their scheduled hours changed then you better believe that I would charge, if only to remind them of the policies ::.

[legomom922]

Again, it may be different for you because you are charging PT & FT rates and saying that PT is up to 30 hrs. Mine is daily withn a max of 10, no PT rates/hrs offered. Everyone pays the same. I would not want to offer PT care up to 30 hrs a wk, and have the kid 6 hrs a day for 5 days. This way I can get $175/wk for part time care.

[Gurdy]

This kind of thing just drives me batty!!! As daycare providers we are contracted for a service for a specific amount of time for a specific amount of money. There is no question he should pay the early drop off fee. However, as a business person, sometimes you have to bend your rules alittle for your customers. I would give him a warning and make sure that he knows if he needs to drop off early in the future that he needs to call and prearrange that with you.
It truly is a matter of common courtesy and respect. Some days it feels like we have to fight just to be shown either one.