State Pay

[SimpleMom]

I charge state paid families the same as everyone else. They pay me upfront and I reimburse them with the money when I get paid.

[happykidschildcare]

statye pay vs private

Its illegal to accept money from parents on dshs other then their monthly co payment. And dshs (state pay) is significantly less then private pay. I except dshs but I limit the amount I enroll so I don't lose to much income. Right now the economy ****s and I had 4 spaces I couldnt fill so I went ahead and accepted 2 more dshs, so I have a total of 4 on dshs and 7 private pay. Im very lucky to be almost a capacity. Theres so much competition, licensed & sahm in the area, and some of the prices are unbelievably low. I have stood my ground @ $150 week but I do include preschool & all meals and snacks.

[PitterPatter]

Do you charge your state pay parents as much as your private pay parents, or do you charge what the state will pay you?

I do not have any state parents right now but was wanting to possible look at changing my rates so I pulled up the rates for state pay clients and WOW! If I were to go on their rates I would lose money big, big time. Most of my parents still pay now more than what the state would be will to pay and I charge an hourly rate.

For my area a full-time infant is $455 a month

Toddler=$450

Preschooler=$425

When I figured up some of these full time amounts by the hours you were making less than $2.00 an hour!!!!!!!! No wonder parents don't want to pay what you are wanting to charge if they know some people are getting it for that low even if it isn't coming out of their pocket.

I'm reallly going to have to go back to the drawing board on this!

Here we don't have a choice. We are not allowed to charge extra. We get paid a set daily rate. For preschoolers/toddlers we get $5 for 0-2 hrs, $10 for 2 -4 hrs, $20 for over 4 hrs.For school age we get $15 per day for over 4 hours. $7 for 2-4 hrs and $3.50 for under 2 hrs. If we have the child LONGER than 12 hrs then we get $4 more for that day. On weekends and holidays we get $4 more also but that's the max ever.

[PitterPatter]

I used to take state children about 5 yrs. ago, I only made $14.50 a day for a 9 1/2 hr. day!!! I used to charge $25.00 a day. It is illegal, from what I am told to charge the family any extra money to make up the difference!! I quit doing it once they left for school!

Yep same here!! I just changed my hours and dropped a boy because I got tired of working 11 hr days for $20!! (plus other drama) It's not too bad if I have other kids in daycare as well but there were some days I was open with that 1 kid that needed 11 hrs. I don't take school kids if I have limited spots because they drop to a $15 per day pay.

[christinaskids]

state pay

I love state pay kids! I like to have a regular paycheck every two weeks but I am a pretty new daycare so parents pay me as what is convenient for them which has worked out but its all at different times. My state pay kids all had great parents that I have not had problems with but I am sure that will come sometime in the future. Here in SD, you tell them your rates and they tell you what you can get paid maximum and tell you what the families co-pay is. They pay about 2.75 per hour for school age kids and 2.70 for younger ones but each county is different.

[alysiav]

how different it is here

I was amazed at the responses to this post. Where I live state pays much better than people privately are willing to pay. A lot of providers here wish they had state pay but don't want to deal with the rules and regulations that go along with it.

[Blackcat31]

I was amazed at the responses to this post. Where I live state pays much better than people privately are willing to pay. A lot of providers here wish they had state pay but don't want to deal with the rules and regulations that go along with it.

State pay rules vary as much and as differently as licensing rules do. :confused:

[Crazy8]

I took state paid ONCE and will never do it again, she paid me the difference from what the state paid and what my rate was at the time - it was about $40/week for her two kids.

Just out of curiosity I just looked up the rates - all I can find are the 2009 ones but from the looks of it they are about $50-60 LESS a week than my regular rates so I would charge parents the difference.

[Country Kids]

I called someone yesterday and asked them about our rates and why so low. She said they are actually from 2007 and they aren't planning on changing them anytime soon. Whats sad is alot of providers in my area base their rates on these and they are from 4 years ago. They are actually losing so much money on this and don't even realize it.

[Blackcat31]

I called someone yesterday and asked them about our rates and why so low. She said they are actually from 2007 and they aren't planning on changing them anytime soon. Whats sad is alot of providers in my area base their rates on these and they are from 4 years ago. They are actually losing so much money on this and don't even realize it.

Our state does a survey of all providers in the area and the rates for the state pay are then based off the averages of those rates. What ****s for that method is the casual provider who isn't really in it for a living who charges cents compared to the dollars everyone else charges throws our pay scale off a ton!

We have been running on the same pay scale since 2006 and no changes seem to be happening any time soon.

I raise my rates when necessary but the additional cost for some state pay families is hard and although I haven't lost any clients yet because of the difference, I do think it will eventually happen.

I am however, leaning towards not taking state pay anymore because the whole state shutdown was a real eye opener for me about a lot of things within the system.

[NiNi.R.]

Parents transfer their state pay to me on the 1st work day of the month. They then pay the difference in payments every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month when all the other parents pay.

[MG&Lsmom]

As far as i know, we aren't allowed to charge the parents more than what the state pays us. I don't take vouchers right now. But iirc, it's about $33/day for full time and the employer submits working hours to the state. They only pay for days/hours the parent works or is in an approved school program. If they get sent home early, they are expected to pick up their children. The state will not pay for the full day if they work a 4 hour shift.

[learn-n-grow]

It is illegal where I live to charge state pay families more than private pay families.

I charge everyone according to the same rate scale. Some families pay more and some pay less but it isn't based on the fact they are or aren't on state pay. It is based on the hours/days they need for services NOT where the money is coming from.

My rates are higher than what my state pays so the clients on state pay must pay the difference. For example; the state pays out $28 per day for a daily rate and my rate for the day is $33 so families on state pay $5 more per day in addition to whatever their co-pay is.

Here in Ohio, if my rate is higher than what the state will pay, I am not allowed to charge parents the difference. I wish we could because they recently lowered their rate again.

[Blackcat31]

Here in Ohio, if my rate is higher than what the state will pay, I am not allowed to charge parents the difference. I wish we could because they recently lowered their rate again.

If that were the case where I am, I would never take a state paid client. Not allowing providers to charge families the difference is the dumbest rule I have heard of yet....

Each state that has that rule should just open a center for state paid clients only. That way they can pay the employees whatever rate the state chooses and the parents can just bring their kids and not worry about any of the money side of being a parent.

Sheesh....everytime I hear that providers in certain states can't charge the difference, I just shake my head and wonder...:confused: