Changing Your Policies

[jenh171]

I'm in my third year of doing child care and I would like to adopt a few new policies, such as asking for a fee to hold a spot when a parent leaves for maternity leave or summer. I am just not sure how (and when) to adopt a new policy when I didn't have it upon their hiring me. Do you think it is better to use the new policy when I take someone new on, or just adopt it at the beginning of the school year in September or what? It just seems sort of unfair to start a new policy that I didn't have when they hired me, (especially $ related). I'm just trying to figure out WHEN to set it in place.

I'm also establishing a minimum weekly requirement of 20 hours, which I didn't have before, but I wish I had done this from the start. I am thinking I will just adopt that one with new clients.

Your thoughts?

[lvt77]

In my contract is states that I can make revisons at any time I see fit.... No one has had an issue with it. If it will affect the current childrens schedule, maybe you can explain to the families why you need to make this change. Like I just raised my rates, but cut my hours. No one said a word. But I have really really low rates and also have to go back to school so they were all ok with it...

I do however expect to raise my rates by $10.00 per day becuase they are that low, but it will only be for new customers....

[Michael]

You might find this previous thread on policy changes helpful: https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24336

[sahm1225]

My old policy was just pay for the days the child is here and now they are paying for their spot. I put the policy in place with the new children enrolled and talked to the current DCPs in September about how as of Jan 2011 that would be the new policy.

I lost alot of sleep over it and had lots of nightmares on how I would lose all of my DCKs.. So far, no one has left and only one of the parents had an issue with it (as a matter of fact, 2 other parents told me I shouldve increased my rates too).

Maybe you can do a quarterly review and inform them of the new policies starting in the next 60 days...

Good luck!

[Abigail]

Have you already decided what your new policies will be? If you're sure they are stated how you want them, I would just add them to your handbook and put the date on the handbook as "Revised Jan. 2011" in small font on the bottom right-hand side of all the pages so the parents know which is the new handbook and which is the outdated handbook. You could also just have each topic on a separate page and have the parents sign it. I would make sure you put an "Effective Monday, February 28th" or something near 4-6 weeks. I think four weeks is plenty of time. You said one was for maternity leave?...what is in your handbook on it right now? If you don't have anything stated in your handbook you can just create a separate contract pre-made and if someone wants to do your "holding fee" for extended leave then they sign that contract until they have enrolled their new baby on your regular contract. KWIM?

The other one you said you're changing is your minimum hours. Are you paid by the hour for part time care? Have you raised rates lately? If you have not raised the rates, I would go ahead and enforce the 20 hours minimum requirement at the same time because 20 hours is VERY reasonable. If you don't want to do that to current families under 20 hours, I would at least raise the rates because so few hours would be charged a premium. Check the prices of drop-in care and make sure you charge that for sure because you provide familiarity and less germs than drop-in centers.