Contracts & Policies Questions and Answers: Part IV

This is Part IV of my answers to questions raised during a recent webinar “Early Childhood Education Program Contracts & Policies 101: How to Establish and Maintain Effective Business Relationships with Parents.”Here is Part I,  Part II,  Part III and Part V.You can listen to the webinar for free and download the power point and handouts from the webinar sponsor Early Childhood Investigations (scroll way down on the page)CustodyQ: "How do I address the issue of caring for a child whose parents were never married? The parents have not established legal documentation regarding custody.  Who has the legal jurisdiction regarding matters of the child?"A: Biological parents have full rights to their child until the court takes them away. Some states do grant the mother the rights when the parents have never married. Unless one parent shows you a state law giving rights to one parent, you should assume that both parents have full rights. Therefore, either parent can pick up the child.TerminationQ: “What happens if a parent does not pay, and you terminate care? Do you have to give them a refund for the last two weeks?”A: Child care programs should be careful before they terminate an agreement with parents. If you terminate care you must follow the terms of your contract. If your contract requires you to give a two-week notice, then you must give it. However, you can still offer care for this two week period. If the parent has already paid you for this period, you can keep the money if the parent doesn’t show up. If you terminate immediately and the parent has paid you in advance, refund the advance payment, minus the money the parent owes you. I always recommend that child care programs put in their contract, “program/provider may terminate at will.” If you do terminate immediately you must refund any money paid in advance.Q: “Why would I only want to give a two-week notice when they are wanting to leave?  My policy states a ninety-day notice. That gives me time to fill the spot.”A: You are free to set whatever notice period you want. Ninety days is probably the longest you should put in your contract. Longer than that might seem unreasonable to a judge.Q: “Our contract last year indicated that a family who pulled their children without providing 30 days notice to the school will forfeit 20 days of tuition.  This family pulled their child without notice following an incident between their child and another preschooler who pulled their child’s hair.  They had paid in advance for the year and were refunded all but 20 days of tuition as per the contract.  These parents are now demanding the 20 days tuition returned (involving legal counsel) as the school did not provide a safe environment for their child and they were forced to leave.”A: Parents should expect that there will occasionally be incidents with other children that their child care program cannot prevent. In your case, it doesn’t seem reasonable for the parent to demand a refund when the contract clearly states they should not.Enforcing AgreementsQ: “How do I get parents to pay after they leave the center?”A: I get calls every week from child care programs about parents who leave owing money. The only sure way to avoid this is follow two rules. First, require parents to pay for child care in advance (at least one week). Second require parents to pay for the last two weeks of care in advance (assuming the parent must give a two-week notice before leaving). If you haven’t followed these rules, then your next step is to send the parent a letter demanding payment and threatening to take them to court if they don’t pay. After that, you must file a lawsuit in your local small claims court.Q: “Part of my program is First 5 funded and there is a lot of paper work required. How do you get parents to turn in the papers when asked to do so?”A: When enforcing any of your contract terms or policies, you must have a consequence for the parent not follow your rules. So, you can tell parents there is a fine for every day they are late with their paperwork, or you can terminate them from care if they continue to be non cooperative.Q: “How do you suggest we start upholding policies if we’ve let them slide in the past? Give a written note stating that as of (date) the policy will be enforced?”A: Yes. Tell them you just attended a webinar in which contracts were discussed and you are now going to enforce your rules effective immediately or within a few days.Q: “When you have a family that does not pay you the full amount due, what are the steps you can take?”A: You have three choices. First, you can let it go and not worry about the parent paying you in full. Second, you can tell the parent there are consequences for not paying you in full (fines or termination). Third, you can quit your job. There are no other choices.Q: “We have never pursued anyone who left without giving a two weeks notice in court because it seemed like too much trouble.  Are we making a mistake?”A: You should win your case in court, but sometimes judges side with parents for no good reason. Therefore, there’s no guarantee you will win. You may want to go to court once to determine if it is worth your time. The only way to avoid court is to require parents to pay in advance.Q: “If parents have problem paying fees, how do I get the late fee from them?”A: Tell them you will not provide care until the late fees are paid.Tom Copeland – www.tomcopelandblog.comImage credit: https://freesvg.org/1540798457 To learn more, read my book Family Child Care Contracts and Policies.