What do you do in these circumstances?

[bright sparks]

Everyone has different policies for this kind of thing, but here's my issue. I would not allow any child to attend daycare if they had a fever, even if there were no other symptoms, so how could I expect parents to pay me when my kids are sick whether I gave them the option to send their child or not. If I still decided to open my daycare even though members of my family had a fever, and I gave parents the option to come or not, how could I expect them to pay for the day when all they were doing was keeping their child home to prevent the high risk of catching whatever virus or illness my family members had. Would you allow a parent to send their child with a high fever?

My policy of having someone 24 hours symptom free before returning to care can't be one sided IMO. It's hypocritical to say you can't send your child with a fever as it puts others at risk but you still have to pay, but then if its your family member who has sick you give them the option but either way they still have to pay. I personally think you should have closed. I Understand the financial hardship of continuously closing for sickness and also the aggravated parents always needing to take time off but now the healthy kids who came because their parents didn't mind, may start the whole cycle again. This is why it's so important to have very specific policies for this kind of thing so it's never a question in your mind on how to deal with it.

I think you should credit the parent as if they can't send a sick child to your house, then you can't accept a child into your home if your own kids are sick. The fact that you gave her the option to stay at home in my mind is irrelevant. It was great to give a heads up to the parents but the cause of her having to stay at home was not in any way her fault. My policy clearly states that a parent pays for all days off that they chose to take off and they don't pay for any that I am closed. You gave the option to her but the sickness policy can't be one sided and you really shouldn't have opened in the first place.