THanks - how do you have that worded in your contract .. how much of a deposit do you require when new clients sign on. I have had 2 now screw me out of their last payments. One being a child with major behavioural issues (like so bad the school would not release him to me and called the local police department. I refused to take him home with me even when the mother asked him to be released into my custody). She never paid me for the days before that I had watched him. And the 3rd kid to leave on a Friday (flex days), the mother never paid me for that Friday or the following Monday on which he never showed up. I never heard or saw from the mother again!