What is your situation? My daycare is open but they reiterated its for families that still Have to go in, like medical etc. I’m in schools, so we are “closed” but I’m finishing up my work and it will take a few more days. I had my little one go in Monday but that was his last day for who knows how long. Now I’m just trying my best with him and my older two (who are usually before care only) are at home with me.
I just don’t know when we will find out that schools inevitably will be closed until fall. That is my guess anyway. I hope we find out before next months payment is due.
We pay monthly and it’s more than my mortgage. Im paid through this month but not sure what to do when next month is due at the end of this month. I need direction from them but there’s so much unknown and they have business costs to handle. There were very few kids on Monday when I brought my little one.
We use a licensed in home daycare provider, so we write her a check or transfer her money at the beginning of each month. I won’t be asking for anything back from March, but if we stretch longer I won’t be making new payments. If school does stay closed for the rest of the year, I’ve already talked to her about hiring her to watch just our kids. I think she might feel more comfortable with that, health-wise, than watching kids from 4 different families. In one of the other daycare families, the dad was a pilot for Alaska airlines who was based in Seattle, and I know that was making her nervous.
I don’t have kids in daycare anymore. Aftercare closed Monday and said they won’t bill us. I pay weekly. DH and I are still getting paid, so I wouldn’t have minded paying something maybe not full price, but they are a larger chain, so they already made the call.
Our daycare is still open to anyone. We've kept the kids home though. We've already paid through March. If they stay open in April, I guess we'll have to see what they are asking for. We're planning to keep the kids home until school starts back up, and I'm not excited about continuing to pay daycare costs if they aren't going to daycare.
Our after care is closed, they emailed something about a credit for the missed weeks. But I kind of want them to keep the money. It's the Boys and Girls Club, so they need all the funding they can get and I'm still getting paid, so it's nothing outside my normal budget. Before care at school has said nothing about refunds or credits. I just plan to not pay for April until we know what's going on.
I have no idea yet on the daycare front. My aftercare for school is pay only when available and they are not available right now.
My daycare is not a large chain and I don't know if they can absorb the cost of not being open if they don't continue to charge us. I am going to the let the daycare make the call and accept it either way. I can afford it even if I think I am not required to pay. I don't want them to be permanently closed and loose all of our teachers if she can't afford to pay them without a check coming in.
The one daycare has a pandemic policy ( part of the university, so I guess) that if they are closed for more than 10 days you don’t pay. Aftercare, is a small business and emailed out some policy that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. So we will see.
Our daycare is asking that we pay, but when we return, they will take $200 a month off of your bill until your credit is used. I thought like it seemed like a good plan to spread their loss over time. I’m not sure what our family will do. I am a teacher and our youngest will be done with daycare by the end of May. She will be attending all day kindergarten next year, so we will not get to use our credit. I’m waiting until Friday to decide if we should officially pull her from the program.
Our aftercare is open but limited to 25 kids and could be closed by the school district at any notice. DD hasn't gone this week and I don't plan on sending her so I'm out $50 for the week since I only pay for mornings. I want to let the single family parents have first dibs or those parents who don't have the flex to bring their kid to work or WFH have those spots.
Ours is still requiring you to pay, but from what I can best understand about their confusing policy, for each week they're closed, you get a credit in a subsequent month. So They'll be closed for 3 weeks certainly right now. In April, they'll credit one week, another in May, another in June. If they close more, it would be credits in subsequent months.
As much as we're able to afford to do so, we're trying to keep payments going. I'm paying my cleaners weekly, but they're not coming. I'm sure we can't keep it up indefinitely, but if everyone stopped paying non-essential employees, the economy would come to a screeching halt and it will hurt things in the long run. For example, if daycare has to layoff all their employees, you've got a hell of a lot more people reliant on unemployment benefits, and when things get better and people are desperate to rehire? They're might end up having to pay a lot more for the same employees, making daycare costs go up.
Our aftercare is at the school. They will credit number of days in March that we already paid once they reopen (someday...) No April payments being made.
My brother’s daycare is a large center in a federal building. They closed this week and sent a note to parents that there would be no refunds and no pro-rating so they could continue to pay the teachers. He is freaking out. I think they’re ok with forgoing the two weeks of March childcare but I don’t know what’s going to happen in April.
Not daycare, but I just got an email that the school will be crediting lunch accounts for the missing 2 weeks in March (we have to order for the whole month in advance). They will also make up all of the missed (and paid for) after school activities.
I realized that I should also still be paying our regular babysitters who help us with pick ups and drop offs regularly, even though we aren’t having them come since all work travel has been cancelled. We don’t pay a set amount - just based on how many hours we need in any given week - but I’m going to come up with an estimate and Venmo then.
We were notified that daycare is being required to stay open by the state so that first responders kids can be taken care of. They also opened up to other people’s kids whose daycare has closed. At that time they had 3 spots open in the 3 year old room only. But tuition is still due so they can pay their staff.
But....wouldn’t all the new people’s daycare tuition make up for that?
I pay more than my mortgage each month.
I usually pull my my kids for the summer with with the exception of one week in June, one in July and one in Aug (weeks I have to work) Plus after the new school year begins, I will need them as a new a muon bc I do not think the new before care I was planning to have my soon to Be kindergartner will be a good fit. (It’s cheaper and more convenient.)
So knowing this dynamic....if schools close for good, would you pull your kids completely or would you still pay knowing that you’ll likely need them again in the future?
campermom everywhere here has wait lists, so there's no ability to pull a kid and then put them back in. So we have to stay in/keep paying.
I go back and forth on whether I'd still be sending my kids if they were open. I think we might if we weren't going to see or spend time with my parents/any older or immunocompromised people.
campermom everywhere here has wait lists, so there's no ability to pull a kid and then put them back in. So we have to stay in/keep paying.
I go back and forth on whether I'd still be sending my kids if they were open. I think we might if we weren't going to see or spend time with my parents/any older or immunocompromised people.
But my 2 youngest kids will be schools aged when we need them in summer/fall. My oldest will put himself on the bus next year and not need care. I’ll only be sending the 2 little ones for Before care during next school year and there are plenty of openings around for that. Just, they are patient bc they know my little guys behavioral needs. They are also th most structured which fits his needs.
I’m also very fortunate—My work will run out as soon as I write this last report in the next few days. I’m assuming that according to my negotiated agreement I will still be paid. So unlike a lot of working parent I will not be faced with the juggle (I so empathize with all of you who will be expected to sustain working AND parenting).
It sounds like you might want to pull them? I think that’s fine because they have taken in different kids to cover their tuition. You already pull in the summer and that has worked out well for you.
The compromise could be pull but pay 1 week per month like you do in summer. But if they have other tuition coming in and are not worried about a spot then I don’t think you have to.
Our aftercare has always had spots. The only issue I had with that company for spots was preschool. Daycare is another story but we could always re-enroll after summer. We did park district in the summer for the swimming.