My policy for sick days if that if I am open you pay ~ if your child is too 'sick to attend group care according to public health guidelines' you stay home and you still pay because you are paying for your space within my program and that is how my fees are set.

There are several ways to look at this when setting your fees and policies

A) you figure out how much annual revenue you need to make per space in your program to cover your expenses and still have a viable income and you divide that # by 52 weeks and this is the WEEKLY FEE charged to clients ... you pay that fee regardless of the program being open or closed for Stats, your X days of vacation, their sick days or your X sick days (define how many are 'included' in this fee) and so forth cause they are paying for the 'space' within the program.

B) you figure out how much revenue you need to make to cover your expenses and still have a viable income and you divide that # the 260 work days in a year minus any days you want to allow them NOT to pay you for whatever reason and this is the DAILY FEE charged to clients ... and if the program 'is closed' two days in a week than they only pay 3x daily fee that week or if their child is absent and you have allotted them 10 sick days were they do not pay than they do not pay until the 11th day and than they pay regardless? It is your job than to 'budget' for these lower paid weeks by putting the EXTRA income you earn from clients because you are charging them a higher daily rate each week.

Fact remains EITHER WAY clients end up paying you the same because you need the SAME INCOME to be viable in both scenarios .... so they pay you a higher daily rate and do not pay for closures or they pay a lower consistent weekly fee and they pay regardless .... at the end of the year if both clients do not 'exceed' time off.

So for example I have two fee options

A) is $160 a week and this fee requires payment for the following 'no program' days 10 stats, 10 vacation days for me and 10 personal/sick days for me ~ clients pay for any additional time THEY take off from the program to hold their space ie child's sickness, family vacation or inclement weather where they choose not to travel in it.

B) is $34.60 a day for $173 a week and this fee plan requires payment for all 10 stats but if the program is closed for any other reason their fees are lowered by $34.60 each day it is closed in that week ~ clients still pay for any time THEY take off from the program to hold their space sickness, vacation or inclement weather where they choose not to travel in it. Clients who I have on this payment plan it is MY job to put aside 8% of their weekly fee into my savings to cover for those weeks when their payment 'drops' due to a closure!

If I wanted to allow the FAMILIES time off unpaid for their vacation or sick days those rates would just go up obviously to accommodate for the lost revenue

Bottom line with childcare budgeting is our income is CAPPED by the government rules and regulations ..... unlike other self employed people like a 'hairdresser' for example who can earn as much as they are able to squeeze in per day .... so for example lets say normally they can cut/color 8 clients a day and earn $800 a day or $4000 a week but they know next week they are going to be closed for a STAT they can instead book in 10 clients a day that week to make up for the lost day and they still earn $4000 despite only working 4 days ~ we do not have that option ... we are only allowed to care for X amount of children per day as per our province rules ... therefore our FEES have to be more rigid and reflective of that limitation to our income!