Contracts & Policies Questions and Answers: Part V

This is Part V of my answers to questions raised during a recent webinar “Early Childhood Education Program Contracts & Policies 101: How to Establish and Maintain Effective Business Relationships with Parents.”

You can listen to the webinar for free and download the power point and handouts from the webinar sponsor Early Childhood Investigations (scroll way down on the page)

Pickup

Q: "A parent picks up her child on a bike. Would I be liable if they get hurt when going home?"

A: Probably. You are a mandated reporter of child neglect. This sounds like a situation where the child is in danger. If you fail to convince the parent to use another transportation option, or you fail to report this to child protection or the police, you could lose your license. In addition, you could get sued for failing to take reasonable steps to protect the child.

Q: “What should I do if the parent is within walking distance to the program but I clearly know she has been drinking and is impaired?”

A: You have a duty to keep the child safe and report to the proper authorities if the child is in danger. Clearly, it is unsafe for a child to be left alone with a parent who is impaired. Therefore, you should report this to child protection. To try and prevent this from happening, tell parents you must report such situations and discuss alternative plans.

Q: “I have a dad that picks up three children on a motorcycle with no helmets!”

A: If state law requires helmets then the dad is breaking the law and you should report this to the police. Even without a helmet law you should tell the parent that you will report them to the police because it is unsafe for the children. Establish a transportation policy that allows you to call others in such situations who can transport the children safely.

Q: “I called the police and then reported a no car seat pick up. The police response was: I can ticket them and there will be a court date, but usually we don’t do  much with this situation.  What’s my recourse?”

A: Tell the parent you will call the police every time they fail to use an appropriate car seat. Failure to do so means you are not doing your job as a mandated reporter. You can also tell the parent that you will terminate them if it happens again. Your program is running a risk of a lawsuit if this continues.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Q: “Can we charge higher rates for special needs children?”

A: No. If you determine that the only way you can provide reasonable accommodation for a child is to hire another person and the parent volunteers to pay this extra cost to your program, you can accept their money. But you can’t ask the parent to pay more.

Q: “Can you tell a family of a child with a disability that we cannot accommodate their special needs in our school?  For instance, we have a classroom that has children with special needs in it. However, we feel that by accepting additional students it would put the room in jeopardy of not being able to meet their needs. In this situation, can we say no to this family?”

A: It’s complicated. When considering enrolling children with a disability you must always come up with a solution for providing reasonable accommodation. In your case, this might mean hiring an additional staff person or integrating the children into other classrooms. If the solution involves a “significant difficulty or expense” to your program, then you can say no to the family. I would guess that additional staff may solve this problem. If so, you need to find out what the cost would be before determining that this is a significant expense to your program.

Tom Copeland – www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/contract-signing-hand-signature-4085336/ 

To learn more, read my book Family Child Care Contracts and Policies.