When Bad Weather Closes Your Business

Bad weather and natural events such as a tornado, hurricane, snowstorm, flood or earthquake can have an adverse impact on your family child care business.

They can damage your home and property that may force you to close down your business or a day or more.

Does your contract or policies address these situations?

Your paramount concern is the safety of children. You should always consider whether to close your business when the weather makes it too dangerous for parents to get to your home or for children to stay in your home.

Telling parents you will be closed in anticipation of a storm or asking parents to pick up their children early because of the approach of bad weather may be the right decision to keep children safe. Since you are liable for injuries to children while they are in your care you want to make sure your home is a safe place at all times.

Your policies should spell out whether or not parents will be expected to pay for days that are you are closed because of bad weather. It's up to you whether or not to charge in these situations. In general, I would say that it's reasonable to charge when closed for a day or two, but not for much longer. Discuss how you will handle the approach of bad weather with parents when they enroll their children and review your policy annually.

If a parent suffers financial hardship because of bad weather, it may be difficult for her to pay for child care for a short time. Some child care providers will forgive some or all payment until the parent can get back on her feet. Whether or not you have anticipated such situations in your contract or policies, you always have the option of relaxing your rules in an emergency.

Tax Consequences

If you forgive payments by parents because of bad weather, this is not a business deduction. You would report less income at tax time. If a power outage causes you to lose food stored in your refrigerator or freezer, or if a storm causes damage to your property and home that is not covered by insurance, you can use the casualty loss rules to deduct the business portion of these expenses.

A modified version of this article was first produced by Think Small. For additional family child care business publications, contact Think Small's publishing division, Redleaf Press, at 800-423-8309 or visit www.redleafpress.org.

Image credit: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/11/12/west-st-paul-picks-up-after-weak-twister

For more information on how to treat casualty losses on your tax return, see my Family Child Care Tax Workbook and Organizer.