Four Key Ingredients of an Effective Contract

Here are the four key ingredients of an effective contract that will help family child care providers communicate clearly and reduce potential conflicts with parents:

1) Make your contract work for you. You can set whatever rules you want for your program. You can run a highly structured or unstructured program. You can use any curriculum you want or design your own. You are the boss of your own program. The only exception to this is that you cannot discriminate based on race, sex, religion, national origin, or disability. Your state may have additional rules against discrimination.

2) Create two separate documents: a contract and policies. Your contract is a legal document that spells out the hours and days you will provide care in exchange for money paid by the parent. Any change to a written contract must be in writing and signed by both parties. Your policies contain all the rules for how your program will operate (sick policy, meal policy, activities, behavior guidance, etc.). You can change your policies at will.

3) Adopt these two rules:

Client will pay at least one week in advance. Client will pay in advance for the last two weeks of care.

If you enforce these two rules, you will never have a parent leave your program owing you money. These two rules are reasonable and affordable; if the parent can’t pay this full amount in advance, you can allow parents to pay a little extra each week over time. For parents who receive state financial assistance, you may or may not be able to adopt these rules.

4) Enforce your rules with a consequence. Do not be hesitant to enforce your rules if a parent violates them. The way to enforce your rules is to give parents a consequence for not following them. If a parent is late, charge a late fee. If a parent refuses to pay you on time, give the parent a fair warning, then terminate if her behavior doesn’t change. Parents who are given clear rules to follow and understand the consequences of not following them are less likely to cause problems.

Of course, there is much more to be said about establishing an effective contract and policies with parents. For additional information, see my book Family Child Care Contracts and Policies.

Tom Copeland – www.tomcopelandblog.comAn earlier version of this article was produced by Resources for Child Caring (www.resourcesforchildcare.org).

 For additional family child care business publications, contact Resources for Child Caring publishing division, Redleaf Press, at 800-423-8309 or visit www.redleafpress.org.

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