Should I Do This And How Much To Charge

[LittleScholars]

A neighbor would like me to get her kiddo off of the bus at 2:45 and she would pick her up at 3:05. Her daughter attends a school for special needs, so her schedule differs from my other school-agers. At that time, I'm in the middle of teaching our preschool curriculum and can't give up that time. In order for this to work, the child would have to cross my lawn and enter my side basement door to enter the program. This lack of supervision makes me nervous, particularly because she is young and cannot hear without her hearing aids, which mom has shared she refuses to turn on. Licensing echoed my concern and suggested I request a bus aide escort her to the door. I'll work on that request Monday, but I don't know if that is realistic. If not, would you agree to this?

Full disclosure: it is possible I'm just an excessive worrier. I live in a super safe neighborhood, on a quiet street, and my lawn isn't very big.

If I do agree to this, how on earth do I determine a reasonable rate? My current school-age rates are completely random and set way, way, wayyyy below market rate because they were a form of sibling discount. I wouldn't be doing much of anything with her, but this is also super inconvenient. She is a neighbor and has been very sweet to us, so I can't help but take that into consideration, as well!

[Blackcat31]

I would not request an aide, MOM should. It's HER child/situation to address.

YOU are assuming ALL liability (regardless of whether it's a 10 minute period or an 8 hour day) so IF you do charge, you need to make sure the income is worth the risk.

$10 wouldn't be worth the risk in my eyes but I think that's an individual thing to decide (cost vs risk)

If the bus will not allow an aide, I personally would not agree to take on this child. The refusal to turn her hearing aides on is the biggest reason why.

That's my two cents

[Ariana]

I personally am nervous when my own child walks home from the bus and I am watching her from a window! Sometimes I can't get to the window and rely on my husband to be home from work on those days. I do not like her walking without supervision (I also live in a super safe neighbourhood and a quiet street).

With someone elses kid and not being able to control all the elements myself (what happens if the aid is sick? What happens if the bus is late? etc) I wouldn't feel comfortable, especially since you will be inside not really knowing what is going on and not being able to leave your class to find out. Couple this with the hearing aid issue and I just would not assume this type of responsibility at all.

[LittleScholars]

I would not request an aide, MOM should. It's HER child/situation to address.

YOU are assuming ALL liability (regardless of whether it's a 10 minute period or an 8 hour day) so IF you do charge, you need to make sure the income is worth the risk.

$10 wouldn't be worth the risk in my eyes but I think that's an individual thing to decide (cost vs risk)

If the bus will not allow an aide, I personally would not agree to take on this child. The refusal to turn her hearing aides on is the biggest reason why.

That's my two cents

I still don't know how to quote multiple people, but thank you both! I want to help this family, but I don't like anything about this scenario. I feel kind of terrible saying no, but all signs point to no.

[Blackcat31]

I still don't know how to quote multiple people, but thank you both! I want to help this family, but I don't like anything about this scenario. I feel kind of terrible saying no, but all signs point to no.

To multi-quote click the little button on the bottom right of the first person you are quoting that has a piece of paper and this symbol in it: "

Click that little button for each person's post you want to quote. When you click on it, it should turn red/dark orange...

Then for the LAST person you want to quote, just click the QUOTE button next to it. It will show all the posts you quoted in one reply

Hope that helps.

As for telling the family, just use the excuse that the hoopla required for liability would make it so that you would have no choice but to charge them a big rate and you just wouldn't fee comfortable doing that to someone using such a small amount of time. I always fall back on the it's MORE work/liability/cost than it's worth type excuse for these situations.

[Mike]

I still don't know how to quote multiple people, but thank you both! I want to help this family, but I don't like anything about this scenario. I feel kind of terrible saying no, but all signs point to no.

I would say if all signs point to no, and especially considering the risks, you should say no.

For multiple quotes, this is the button you want:

[Blackcat31]

For multiple quotes, this is the button you want:

Thank you! I was on my iPad outside so I couldn't find/edit pictures of the buttons...

[daycarediva]

I am a special needs mom and I would never assume this risk.

Not unless she has a door to door escort. Depending on how flexible the bus driver/aides are- this most likely would have to go on an IEP and be proven as necessary by the school district's special programs office.

I turned down a PERFECT daycare family with two full time kids AND a kindergartener, (I know their former provider- they moved. ) bc I couldn't let the child walk out of my sight on/off the bus.

[Mike]

Thank you! I was on my iPad outside so I couldn't find/edit pictures of the buttons...

No prob

[flying_babyb]

At that time, I'm in the middle of teaching our preschool curriculum and can't give up that time.

any chance you could do preschool earlier or later even by a few minutes to make it work? That way you could stick your head out the door and watch for the child

[storybookending]

To multi-quote click the little button on the bottom right of the first person you are quoting that has a piece of paper and this symbol in it: "

Click that little button for each person's post you want to quote. When you click on it, it should turn red/dark orange...

Then for the LAST person you want to quote, just click the QUOTE button next to it. It will show all the posts you quoted in one reply

Hope that helps.

As for telling the family, just use the excuse that the hoopla required for liability would make it so that you would have no choice but to charge them a big rate and you just wouldn't fee comfortable doing that to someone using such a small amount of time. I always fall back on the it's MORE work/liability/cost than it's worth type excuse for these situations.

I was a moderator on two vbulletin forums for literally years and I've never known this trick.

[Alwaysgreener]

It is very common for a child with little to no hearing to not like devices to help them hear. And because they can't hear they adjust and relay on their other senses for daily tasks.

You mentioned that the child was young, how young is she? Under five?

A request for a bus aide to walker to your door is pretty reasonable but sometimes they will agree to this for a short period of time and then they wean the child from the assistants to teach Independence. Are you going to be okay with this?

Could you request the driver honks when the bus arrives, so you know when to expect her?

Have you ever spent time with just this girl? Maybe spend some one on one time with her to see see if she is capable to walk directly to your door with out distractions.

Cost, this is a hard one, $25 a week maybe.

[Mom2Two]

Wow, they don't walk to the door? Sped bussing here has at least two adults on the bus and they always walk to the door.

DD did pre-k sped for two years and was bussed, and I've had one daycare sped kid dropped off here.

I would charge $10 a day but only if the child was walked to the door. $10 is my minimum before or after school rate. Dealing with the whole buss/timing/waiting thing is a chore all by itself.

I wonder what the actual policy is where you live. Sped is expensive and the school districts will try to cut costs.

I tend to stay in touch with bus drivers and the bus garage here for all my SA kids. I can't give permission for the daycare kids to do this or that, but I do try to find out policies and work/communicate with the staff to make it all work out.

[LittleScholars]

Thank you all!

My apologies for the delayed response-- I had trouble getting on yesterday. Your advice was so helpful. I ended up saying no. Licensing knows my set up and didn't love it. It is hard because there is such little visibility and I couldn't hear a bus or a horn even if I was trying to. If I had to get upstairs quickly for some reason I couldn't possibly do so at that time.

I feel like a total jerk, but even though this is such a small chunk of the day I knew this was going to be challenging. I've been working on saying no, so I did just that.

Thank you again!