I give a grace period of 10 minutes on either side of 7:00/5:00. Living in Ottawa and not downtown the majority of my parents work in parliament or downtown and must buss to and from work (things happen, busses run late even if they were on time, traffic is bad, accidents happen) most parents plan for this and have aunts/uncles, grandparents ect on back up that will come and get them in those instances. I only give this grace period so that there is an understanding and give on my end too. I think of it as how often do children get dropped off after 7:00 and picked up an hour or more early before 5:00. When they are late after 10 minutes they are charged a $15 flat rate. If this happens more than 3 times they are terminated. Right after 5:00 they are texted and reminded of this rule (i'm almost always texted by them first and told that they are running late and their ETA, even still i charge if over 10 minutes). When they pick up late I do remind them that I have things to do and errands to run as well before stores close and emphasis that 5:00 is my pick up time and if thats not working for them (after 2 times of being late and charged the fee) then maybe they need to find a daycare that has longer opening hours, as they will be terminated if it happens again. I've only had to charge one parent one time for this fee and the fear of loosing their spot because they had to run and get milk before picking their child up, quickly got them not to do it again.