Over the past 4 years that I have been running my daycare I have changed my rate a few times. I started out at $27 a day. I then increased it to $30 for children under 2 with those over 2 at $27. I then changed it to $28 and then to $30. I have always given plenty of notice and by plenty of notice I mean a year and a half lol. When I went to $28 I gave roughly 6 months notice. At that time I gave my notice to those same families stating that as of July 1, 2015 my rate would be $30. When I increased to $28 for existing families I increased my rate for any new families to $30.

I recently had a family who came back after a mat leave with the baby. I gave the same rate for the older sibling ($28 with a fee increase to $30 in July) and charged them the new rate of $30 for the baby. As of July I will have all kids at the new rate of $30. From there I will have to wait and see what those in my area do. I have started to see more and more increasing to $35 but I am sort of out of the way for most families and don't think I would be able to get any families if I went that high. Time will tell I guess.

As far as actually giving notice I just include the fee change in my new contract at the beginning of the year. Every January I sent out an updated contract (this year via email). I make note that there are fee changes so please read over new contract and let me know if there are any questions.

I think it is important to give as much notice as possible. I would not give less than 6 months notice. I couldn't imagine only giving 14 days. That barely gives them a chance to find new care if they can't afford the new rate. Just my opinion.