What Do You Charge For Part-Time Care?
Family child care providers often care for children on a part-time basis.
Some children may only come on Wednesday through Friday. School age children may only need care a few hours in the afternoon each day. Maybe you even provide care on an hourly basis for parents who have irregular schedules.
How you should think about the rates you charge to parents who aren’t enrolled on a full-time basis?
The general principle is this: The fewer hours of care parents need in a week, the higher your hourly rate should be.
Let’s assume your weekly rate (for 55 hours of care) is $170. That’s equal to $34 a day and $3.09 per hour. If a parent wants care for only three days a week, your daily rates should be higher than $34. Why? Because you are losing a full-time space and it’s hard to find another parent who would want care Monday through Tuesday only.
What should your part-time rate be? Some child care providers charge 50% more than their full-time daily rates ($34 x 50% = $17 + $34 = $51 per day, or $4.64 per hour). Other providers charge less than this. It’s up to you.If a parent wanted 10 hours of care during a week, your hourly rate should be a lot higher than your full-time hourly rate of $3.09. Perhaps it should be at least double, or $6.18 per hour. Again, you can set whatever rate you want.
When caring for part-time children, I recommend you should charge significantly more than your regular full-time daily or hourly rate. If the parent wants more flexibility in choosing different days or hours each week, I would charge even more.
It’s reasonable for parents to pay more for a varying schedule, unless they want to pay your full-time rate. If a parent wants access to your full-time schedule, they should pay for it. A varying schedule makes it extremely difficult for you to fill the times when the child is not in care and it’s requires more work on your part to juggle schedules.
Some providers welcome part-time children because they can make more money! They specialize in only caring for part-time children because it’s in high demand by parents.
By filling one full-time space with two (or more) part-time children, and charging more than a full-time rate, these providers end up with more income. It’s something to consider if you are having trouble filling full-time spaces.
How do your part-time care rates compare with your full-time rates?
Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.comImage credit: https://childcare.gov/
