Please read this Parent Handbook throughly and carefully. It covers very important policies and procedures that not only govern our childcare contract agreement, but also pertain to the care of your child.
If you have questions regarding my policies, please ask. There will be at least one annual revision to this Parent Handbook.
I reserve the right to make changes to the policies and procedures as I deem necessary. Please review my website from time to time. You will not necessarily be notified of any changes that may occur (unless they are major). My goal is to make this a rewarding experience for your child, for you and for myself.
I am committed to giving your child a safe, secure and fun environment in which to spend her days.
Nothing is as important as your parental time with your child. I am here to supplement the love and care that you give your child at home, not to replace it.
Registration Fee
A registration fee of $10.00 per child is due at signing of your contract. This fee is NOT refundable at any time, for any reason.
Deposit
There is a deposit equal to two week's fees, to be paid at the time of signing your contract. This fee will secure your child's spot in my dayhome. It will be applied to your child's last two weeks of care providing proper notice of termination is given and no other outstanding monies are owed to me. If for any reason proper notice is not given and or/outstanding monies are owed, the deposit will be forfeited and a termination fee equal to two week's childcare fees will be applied.
Holding Fee Policy
If you book a spot for childcare in advance of your start date, a non-refundable deposit must be paid to hold your spot. The amount will normally be two weeks payment and will be applied to your first two weeks of care. If you cancel your spot before beginning child care, this payment will be retained as an administrative charge.
If you wish to book a spot a month or more in advance, I may require a non-refundable holding fee equal to two week's fees per month per child. This will apply if I must hold a vacant spot for your child.
The holding fee is due as soon as you request the spot to be held. Failure to pay this holding fee will result in the childcare spot being made available to other clients.
There are a couple of forms which must be completed prior accepting your child for her first day of care. Please advise me if any of your information has changed and forms will be updated as necessary.
At least one parent is required to visit my dayhome with your child prior to your child's first day of care.
If parents wish to leave their child in my care in advance of their first full day, I can arrange that if you call in advance. My drop in rate will be charged for this advance visit or visits.
To be certain there is a good match between caregiver, child and parent, there is a 10 "child care day" probationary period. During this time either party may cancel the contract without the two week notice. There are no refunds if the child does not attend during the trial period. All contracts are under a 10 "child care day" trial period (unless otherwise stated in the contract). Drop in visits prior to full time care do not count as part of the probationary period. The probationary period begins on the first full day of regularly scheduled care.
If I feel your child is not adjusting well and will likely not adjust to my dayhome, care will be terminated during or after the probationary period. Issues such as constant crying, inability to sleep, refusal of food, behaviour issues, and being very fearful are all signs that your child is not adjusting to this situation. It would be in the best interests of your child and the other children in my care if care is terminated. Most children adjust well within the 10 day probationary period.
After the probationary period, either party may terminate our contract at any time for any reason with written notice. Notice to the provider will be not less than two weeks prior to the child's last day of care. Payment for the two weeks will be accepted in lieu of notice. All final payments are to be paid at the time of notice. If you chose to terminate care with less than two week's notice, you agree to forfeit the entire deposit. Regular fees will apply for the remaining time your child is in care.
If at any time, after consultation with the parent or guardian, I feel that you or your child pose a safety risk to myself or any of the children in my care, I will give you as much notice as possible that care is terminated. If your child displays behaviour which I determine I cannot or will not tolerate, I will terminate care. This includes but is not limited to: constant crying, biting, swearing, destructive behaviour (willfully breaking toys or damaging my house), or hurting me or other children. This action will be reserved for extreme cases only, and I will first attempt to resolve any issues with you before resorting to termination of care. Under these conditions, forfeiture of the deposit will be at my discretion.
My dayhome operates from Monday to Friday, 7:00 am to 4:30 pm. Occasional early morning drop offs may be arranged (but a small additional fee may be charged). A permanent early morning start time must be negotiated at the time of signing your contract. I may or may not agree to start earlier than 7:00.
My 4:30 close time is firm. Parents of children who remain after 4:30 may be required to pay an overtime fee before I will accept your child the next morning.
If you find you are running late and will not be able to pick up by your designated time, please call and let me know. I often have commitments after 4:30 with my own children and may have to take your child with me or drop your child off at your secondary drop off address. If you are consistantly late, I will consider terminating our contract.
I do not provide care for children in the evenings, weekends or holidays.
Please remember your fee is based on the hours you contract for, not the hours that I am open. Your specific hours will be outlined in your contract.
Basic hours are 9 hours or less per day, but I MAY accept a child for 9 1/2 hours.
Please notify me if your child will be absent, late or must leave early.
This dayhome is closed for all Federal and Provincial Holidays. All holidays are taken with pay. If a holiday fall on the weekend, I will be closed the next working day. A list of scheduled holiday dates will be given to you at the beginning of each year.
I am closed for the following holidays:
Please make alternate arrangements if you do not have these days off. In addition, I take a day off in each month without a stat holiday, usually two days a year. I will advise you of these dates early in the new year.
There will no NO refunds or adjustments made to your child care fee for your child's time missed due to illness, holidays or vacations. A place has been reserved for your child and they are using that space even if they are not here.
Please advise me if your child will not be attending due to illness or for some other reason. Call me the night before if your child is known to be ill, or first thing in the morning if they awaken ill. If your child will be away for any other reason please advise me as soon as you know.
If you are going to be more than 30 minutes late for your morning drop-off, please take a moment to call and let me know. We follow a consistent routine and can be disruptive to have a child dropping in mid-morning or mid-afternoon. We may be out for a walk in the morning, or in the middle of afternoon sleeps. In the case of a morning outing, I can arrange things differently if I know in advance your child will be late. Children may not arrive at my door during afternoon sleeps.
If your child has appointments and must leave and come back the same day, you must let me know in advance so I can plan our time accordingly. If your child misses a scheduled snack or meal, we proceed without them and they will not be fed that meal at a later time, so please make sure she eats before arriving.
I will advise you early of my vacation dates. Please let me know your vacation dates as soon as you know them, especially if they differ from mine. I take two to three weeks of unpaid vacation time each year. You must pay me for all your vacation time taken if different from my vacation dates.
You will pay me for any days which I must close my dayhome due to my own illness. In the case of an extended illness, we will negotiate an arrangement at that time. I have been closed only 2 days due to illness in the past 7 years, but it is advisable to arrange an alternate caregiver in advance, in case of my illness or other emergency.
Please advise me early if you plan to remove your child from care for any lengthy periods of time, such as for the summer, maternity leave, extended vacations etc. A holding fee may be required to hold a spot for your child. I am sure we can arrange something which will be satisfactory for both of us.
Occasionally, I will be absent due to an appointment or an unavoidable urgent matter. I will try to provide someone to take my place, usually one or more of my teenage daughters, when they are home from school. Your child will be comfortable and familiar with them, and children love to play with my own girls.
Rarely, and only if my own daughters are unavailable, I may leave them in the care of another dayhome caregiver with whom I am friends. I do this at my own expense.
My absences are not frequent and I try to minimize the time I must be away.
Please have a back up plan in place in case of an emergency situation.
It is advisable that you pre-arrange alternate child care. You may need it if I am ill, on vacation, or some emergency prevents me from providing care.
I will advise you as soon as possible if I will not be available. In the case of illness or an emergency, it may mean an early morning phone call to you.
It is always your responsibility to find back-up child care.
Fees are for normal child care services. Payment is made in advance and due on the first day of the month. My fees are based on the contracted hours and are payable whether your child is in attendance or not.
I will not hold cheques.
Receipts are given out as cheques are received, monthly.
You will receive one month's written notice for rate increases.
There will be a grace period of one working day given if you forget your cheque on the first day of the month. After that I may charge $10.00 extra per day which you are late. If your account is not paid in full (including late fees) after 3 working days, I may suspend child care until payment is made. After one full week, if your account is still delinquent (including late fees), I may terminate care for your child. Your deposit will be kept in lieu of payment and notice.
Please talk to me if you have trouble making your payment for any reason.
There will be a $20.00 charge for all NSF cheques. After one NSF cheque, all future payments must be made in cash.
There may be an early fee charged if you need to arrange an early drop off for your child. I will determine the fee in each case, depending on the extra time needed and how early it is. You must notify me in advance of an early drop off. I may not always agree to an early drop off. Early drop off fees are due the same day.
There will be a late fee charged for late pick-ups. I may waive your late fee, depending on the circumstances and if you have called me in advance. You may sometimes pre-arrange for a late pick-up by calling me or talking to me in advance. Give me as much notice as possible. I am not always able to agree to a late pick-up.
My dayhome is closed at 4:30 pm. It is unlikely that I will agree to a late pick-up past 4:30 as I have scheduled family commitments. If your child is here past 4:30 there will be a fee of $10 charged for every 10 minutes or portion thereof. This fee must be paid at time of pick-up or when dropping off your child the next day. There are no exceptions to this late fee.
You will be responsible for all court, legal and collection agency costs if it proves necessary to take you to court to collect any unpaid balance.
Childcare can and will be terminated the following reasons (but not limited to the following reasons). The deposit paid upon enrollment will be forefeited.
Termination for the following reasons may also be made, with a refund of your childcare deposit if two weeks notice is not given:
Termination by the parent will be at your discretion. After the probationary period either party may terminate this contract with two week's written notice. With less than two week's notice your deposit will be kept in leiu of notice. I reserve the right to terminate without notice if you as parents are in violation of our agreement and/or safety or health of children is at risk.
We may take field trips from time to time. Many trips will not have any charge associated with them, such at library visits or a picnic. Some field trips will have a charge, and they will be paid by the parents, in advance of the trip. These are trips such as visits to the zoo, science centre, or to an age-appropriate movie. You will receive a minimum of one week's notice of a field trip with a fee. If you don't wish to have your child attend any field trip, you are responsible to find alternate care for that day.
If the children in my care are all very young (toddlers) I will not be taking them on field trips.
By acceptance of your contract, you are permitting me to transport your child in my vehicle. They will always use an age and size appropriate car seat, booster seat or seat belt.
We try to go outdoors to play everyday, weather permitting. This may depend on the age of the children in my care as well. If I have too many little ones to push in a stroller and the grass is too wet, we will stay inside. If the children in my care are all too little to enjoy playing around in the snow, we will not go out.
Make sure your child is dressed for the weather. I don't like to keep a whole group inside because one child has no shoes or jacket. I do not have extra clothes for your child. I do not have a supply of hats or mitts.
You may choose to leave an extra pair of snow pants, a hat and mitts at my house in the winter.
Please leave a labelled sunscreen and mosquito spray at my house for your child if you wish these to be used in the summer. I will apply them as needed. I will not apply these to your child unless you have provided them.
If your child is too ill to play outside, they are too ill to be at my dayhome.
Please do not bring toys, books or other play items from home, even just to show the other children. These personal items can cause other kids to become jealous. Everything in my dayhome is for sharing.
A lovey toy such as a stuffed animal or blanket is permitted, but will only be given to your child at sleep time. Soothers (pacifiers) are permitted, but will only be given to your child at sleep times.
I will take no responsibility for lost, stolen or broken items brought from home. If your child removes clothing (such as socks or slippers) and we can't find them at the end of the day, they will be left and returned to you when found.
If your child takes toys from my house, please return them. Sometimes a child will hide a toy in their pocket and forget about it. I appreciate your teaching your child that these items don't belong to them and must be returned.
While parents are welcome to visit anytime while your child is here, I encourage you to call first. We may be out for a walk or other planned or impromptu outing and I would not want to waste your time. I usually have children sleeping in the office (near my front door) so if you drop in unexpectedly, you will probably wake them.
If you need to pick your child up early please let me know so I can have your child awake and ready. If you arrive unexpectedly during a snack or meal time it will take a few minutes to clean up your child. If you arrive during nap time other children may be disturbed and awakened. If I know you are coming, I may change sleeping arrangements for that day.
I provide all meals, drinks and snacks with the exception of infant formula and baby food. Once a child is eating "table food", they will all receive the same meals, with the younger ones having smaller pieces cut, ground up, or mashed for them.
I don't serve any "junk food" including ice cream, cookies, cake, popsicles, chips, candies, home baked goodies etc. I leave that up to you to give your child at home, if you choose to. I will sometimes send home a treat (for Halloween etc.) but if you chose not to give it to your child, they need not know about it.
If you wish to bring in something special for your child, please be sure to bring enough for everyone. I will not serve any "treaty" type foods to kids without their parent's permission, so advance notice is appreciated. I do not encourage bringing in a birthday cake for your child. It would be unfortunate if some children had cakes and others did not. We will honour your child on her birthday in other ways (eg.with a crown, singing to her, letting her go first).
I will not provide special foods to your child if she is a picky eater. There will be at least two or three foods served at every meal and snack, so if they choose not to eat something, they still have something else to eat. I encourage them to try foods they don't like, but don't force them. They will not get more of a favourite food item until they have eaten everything else on their plate (or at least most of the other items). For example they don't get more macaroni unless they eat vegetables first. They get child-sized portions, and may have seconds of many foods. They will not necessarily be given as much as they want, but will be given an appropriate amount for their age and size.
I do not serve "organic" or other special diet foods, even if brought from home. I do not have room to store special foods, and it causes problems with other children who see them receiving something different.
If you drop your child off after a scheduled meal or snack time you must feed him before he arrives. It is difficult to serve a missed meal to a child, as we have likely moved on to other activities. Likewise, if your child is picked up early, and misses a meal or snack, you should be prepared for a hungry child. I do not send food "to go".
Morning snack 9:45 to 10:15
Lunch 11:30 to 12:15
Afternoon snack 3:00 to 3:30
Meal times indicate a range of time in which we do our best to eat. With little ones, times cannot be exact.
Please let me know if your child is allergic to any foods. I will sometimes accept a child into my care with some allergies or intolerance, but reserve the right to refuse to accept a child with allergies. *At this time I am not accepting any children with severe food allergies.*