Teachers Schedule! Need Help With Letter To Parents About DC Changes

[KelMar79]

Hello! I'm new to this group, my DH actually found this group and posted a couple weeks ago about our 2yr. old DD being a handful for me during the DC day. We are still struggling, but I did get a ton of advice and DH recommended I join this group so here I am!

Anyway, I have been doing DC for 2 yrs. I live in South Dakota and I'm liscense exempt. I've been thinking about catering my DC to teachers and follow the teachers schedule, closing during breaks and summers. Well, I decided I'm for sure going to do it and start my new contract in January. Along with changing my contract, I will also be raising my rates. I really want to send a letter home to the families telling them about my changes and my rate increase. I want to tell them how this will benefit them (like not paying during breaks and summer). I have 4 kids who's parents are teachers, and 4 who are not. I would like to send a seperate letter to the non teacher parents too, telling them of the changes and rate increase. Im here asking for help because I am horrible at wording things and sounding professional in letters. Any pros out there who can help me out??? Any advice from those of you who follow the teachers schedule? Thanks so much for any help!

[Blackcat31]

Welcome to the forum!

Are you willing to risk losing the other four families?

I have teachers but they almost always use summer care or care on non school days for work shops etc... so is that something that your teacher families may not be happy with?

Do you live in an area that has a high demand for daycare so finding clients isn't/won't be an issue if you do lose the other non-teacher families?

[KelMar79]

I don't want to lose the non teacher kids, but I know I run the risk of it. 2 of the kids are part time and 2 of them are actually my niece and nephew. My brother said they would maybe hire someone to come to their home to watch the kids during summer. I don't plan on closing daycare for every day the teachers are off. Just 2 wks at Christmas, 2 days for Thanksgiving, Spring break and summer (plus all state/federal holidays). I am open to the idea of parents asking me to watch their kids if needed over summer, or even possibly staying open 1 day a week in summer for parents to drop kids off and run errands etc. I have mentioned to my teacher families that this was I change I wanted to make and they were really excited.

I do live in an area where I get calls about once a month with families looking for childcare, and we just moved about a month ago and now live only a few blocks from the local public schools.

[TaylorTots]

I have teachers but they almost always use summer care or care on non school days for work shops etc... so is that something that your teacher families may not be happy with?

BC has a good point here. Make sure your contract outlines that there will be no days for care in the summer. Also consider if you have teachers going back at different times in August or at the end of the school year (one has snowdays, one doesn't etc) -- what day are you open for childcare? I toyed with this in the past but I had teachers from too many different school districts -- there were just too many variables I didn't want to deal with.

[Blackcat31]

BC has a good point here. Make sure your contract outlines that there will be no days for care in the summer. Also consider if you have teachers going back at different times in August or at the end of the school year (one has snowdays, one doesn't etc) -- what day are you open for childcare? I toyed with this in the past but I had teachers from too many different school districts -- there were just too many variables I didn't want to deal with.

I also have several teachers that either teach summer school or other summer programs and a couple teachers that actually have other jobs in the summer time.

[KelMar79]

Neither of my teachers families teach summer school or work other jobs. They have kept their children home for all breaks and summer and paid a discounted rate. I wouldn't close for snow days etc. because of my non teachers families, but the teachers families could stay home and not pay for those days.

[spinnymarie]

We use a teacher-schedule for our daycare, and market specifically TO teachers. We chose the school district that my daughter attends as our official calendar, and we are open all 'teacher-workdays' through the school year plus ten extra business days in August, to give the teachers some 'prep' time if needed, for a total of 195 days/school year. You also may need to rethink rates, payment plans, if you charge for holidays/days off, how you handle snow days, which calendar you are aligning with, and if there are any days outside of the school teacher work-days that you are open.

I agree, you need two separate letters.

Teacher Letter
Dear DCF,
I'm pleased to announce a few changes for ABC Daycare beginning January 2015! We will now align our daycare calendar with ZYX School District Teacher Workday calendar, and we will only be open on teacher workdays during 2015!
Attached is a calendar listing new closing dates for Jan 2015 - July 2015.
Because we will now operate on a school-year calendar, we will make the following changes:
-Payments/Rates
-Snow Days
-Etc
Please let me know if you have any questions, and our new contract will begin Jan 2015!
Sincerely,
DCP

And to the non-teacher families:
Beginning January 2015, ABC Daycare will be making a few changes. We will now align our daycare calendar with ZYX School District Teacher Workday calendar, so we will only be open on teacher workdays during 2015.
Attached is a calendar listing new closing dates for Jan 2015 - July 2015.
Because we will now operate on a school-year calendar, we will make the following changes:
-Payments/Rates
-Snow Days
-Etc
Please let me know if you have any questions, and our new contract will begin Jan 2015.
Sincerely,
DCP

[momofsix]

Most of my parents are teachers also. Due to personal things that have been going on in our family I have been absolutely exhausted for the past two years. It was either quit daycare or come up with some other plan for my sanity and health. In January of this year I informed all of my parents that summer of 2014 would be my last summer offering ft care. I will close mid-June and reopen mid August. I also take 2 days for thanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas. As of now I will still offer care during spring break, random days off and snow days. So far the reaction has been favorable. I started a new family and was kind of nervous to tell them my schedule during the interview but they said that I had given them plenty notice and they would find a summer nanny.
This was also a way for me to get rid of the school-agers that kept coming back each summer
I CAN"T WAIT for summer!!!!! I'm planning to use my kayak that I got for my birthday this past June (only used once) and by bike I got the year before (again only used once!) Life felt so much lighter once I made the decision.

[KelMar79]

Momofsix this is EXACTLY why I want to change my schedule and take summers off! I'm getting burnt out and I think the summer will help refresh me for the fall! Did you give a letter to your families explaining the changes?

[momofsix]

Yes, I gave them all a letter explaining summers when I gave them their yearly calendar for 2014. So families that were with me at the beginning of this year had a whole year and a half to prepare. As usual, there is always the one family that doesn't pay any attention and I had a school age mom ask me to save her spots for next summer When I RE-told her her response was "must be nice to be able to make your own hours". She was being sarcastic-not serious LOL.
Everyone else is fine with it!