Wednesday, July 19, 2006
An interesting note from Tom Copeland and the Redleaf Institute concerning holding fees charged to hold open a spot in a childcare. I do charge to hold a spot in my childcare business. In fact, there is a non-refundable weekly fee that is a percentage of the actual weekly rate to hold a spot and I also require a one week deposit that will be applied towards the first week of actual care. Too many times in the past, I have held spots for parents only to have them change their mind about attending after a child is born or school starts or a job begins or whatever reason for requesting a spot be held. You need to have the opinion and take the position that an opening in your child care business is a valuable commodity...
HOLDING FEES
Is it legal to charge a pregnant woman a fee to hold a spot for her infant when the mother goes back to work?
Providers are entitled to charge holding fees to parents in exchange for promising to hold open a spot in their program for a future date. You are not required to charge a holding fee. If you tell the parent that you don't charge a fee, then I believe that you should not promise to hold open a spot. If you are promising to hold a spot, then I strongly recommend that you do charge a fee. Some providers charge a flat rate ($100 or so) while other providers charge a percentage of their normal rate. It could be 50% or 100%.
What rate you set is up to you. In my opinion, any fee you charge should not be applied to the child care you deliver after the parent enrolls their child. The holding fee is to reimburse you for the cost of turning down other potential clients.
If you do charge a holding fee is this illegal discrimination against women who are pregnant or a violation of parental leave laws? No. Parental leave laws prevent discrimination against women (and men) who take time off to care for a new child. These laws do not apply to family child care providers because you are not the employer of the parent. If you are only charging holding fees to women, or to women who are pregnant, then this would be against the law. It's illegal to discriminate based on the sex of a parent or child. You can charge a holding fee for some parents and not others. But the reason to give some parents a break must not be because of sex, race, religion, color, national origin or disability.
Tom Copeland,
Director, Redleaf National Institute
