Before and after school care policy handbook

[Inspired by Reggio]

This is the going rate in my neighbourhood and town (some are doing $15/day) so to stay competitive this is the rate I have to charge.

Competitive is such a hard thing to determine in this industry not only for providers setting their fees but for clients seeking care and 'comparing' fees because we are often not comparing apples to apples but rather apples to a hammer

So are they all FEEDING them for that price though ~ and if so WHAT are they feeding them because I personally just cannot see how much budget would be left over from $9 after you've fed them and covered the cost of the heat/hydro/etc not to mention any materials they might use to entertain themselves with during that two hours ~ I have had school age kids in the past who would use several $$ worth of craft supplies daily cause that is all they wanted to do was sit and create at the table away from the 'babies' ... charging that little would make me wonder 'whats the point cause financially I am better off to have a full time child in care cause I am hear 'working' all day anyway what difference does it make' .... it also would depend on the 'demand' for the service ~ if there are lots of school age spaces so that providers are undercutting each other to get clients than they drive the cost of care down too sadly.

In my community some people charge only $20 a day for a full 10 hour day of childcare but the clients provide all the food and the providers do not do 'programming' with the kids so no additional expenses for that and so forth so their 'overhead' is very low and they are keeping most of that $$ at the end of the day and than there are others who charge $35 for that exact same service still making clients send the food and no programming and so forth ... and than there are those of use who are in the middle at around $30 or up to the $35 and spending a fortune on food / program supplies and so forth so at the end of the day we are making less than the $20 a day provider :roll:

This industry is challenging to say the least to 'budget' for because there are so many different priorities and some parents have no clue what they are 'paying' for when choosing childcare!

[TinyTots]

Hi MeMe,
I too am just starting out with B/A care and would really appreciate your help - can I get your PDF file with your policies and contract?
Thank you!