Question for daycare providers

[Sergeants Mom]

I have recently opened a daycare in my home. I went for months w/ barely any phone calls and now I am swamped w/ families wanting me to care for their children.
I currently have;
1 year old full-time
3 year old full-time
5 year old before and after school
7 year old before and after school
Plus my own daughter who is 3 years old.

I have a family who wants me to take on their 1 year old girl full time and their 5 year old before and after school.

My question is; I live in Ontario and what is the law for un-licenced daycares. I understand you can have up to 5 children in your care at a time, plus your own. But does that # only count for the full time children in your care?

I would really like to take these other 2 children on, but that would give me 7 children in total (including my own.)

[sunnydays]

No, you cannot take the two more children on unless some of them are part-time and not coming every day. By that I mean, you cannot ever have more then 5 daycare children in your home at any one time. So, even though you would have three before and after schoolers, you would have 6 daycare kids at once during the before and after school period (unless any of them never overlap in time, as in, one of the younger ones only comes during school hours....not likely). It's a pain, but it is the law. I hope it clears it up for you. That is why many providers don't do before and after care...it takes up a space and you make less money.

[KingstonMom]

The law is that at any given time, you CANNOT have more than 5 children, (not including your own).
The only way you could accomodate this family is by terming one of your existing dckids.

Sucks I know

[Sergeants Mom]

Thank you both for your input.
This is exactly what I thought, but I wanted to clear it up first.
Being new at this, I jumped on the opportunity to take on the before and after schoolers w/out thinking through the fact that they are taking up space for full timers. Live and learn I guess!

[playfelt]

Consider in March/April letting the parent know that you will not be taking school age children come the end of June so that she has time to book them into summer camps or consider her alternatives. Then advertise for replacement children for the end of June. That way you get one year olds that will be 15 months plus come September and ready to join in the daycare programming as compared to waiting and getting one year olds for Sept. Over time the parents you have may start maternity leaves and that is where school age can fit in since the mom can bring the child at 9 and pick up right after nap before the school age returns.

[Momof4]

I just wanted to add one more thing. The law states that you cannot have more than 5 children under the age of 10 at any one time. It doesn't matter how many adults are running the daycare. But this does not include your own children.

[Skysue]

No, you cannot take the two more children on unless some of them are part-time and not coming every day. By that I mean, you cannot ever have more then 5 daycare children in your home at any one time. So, even though you would have three before and after schoolers, you would have 6 daycare kids at once during the before and after school period (unless any of them never overlap in time, as in, one of the younger ones only comes during school hours....not likely). It's a pain, but it is the law. I hope it clears it up for you. That is why many providers don't do before and after care...it takes up a space and you make less money.

Yes but she can take on one more the full timer!

[playfelt]

Just looked at her numbers again and yes there is room for one more full time child to make 5 daycare children but you would have to tell the mom that she needs to find alternate care for the school age child.