Why Not Include an Ending Date in Your Contract?
Could there be a problem including in your contract with parents, "This contract is from January 1, 20__ - December 31, 20__?" Or including any ending date in your contract?
Yes.
There are three potential conflicts you can avoid by not including an ending date in your contract.
First - Family child care providers can change the language in their contract at any time. You can sign a contract in February and raise your rates in July, or change your hours in October. This is true even if your contract has an ending date.
Sometimes parents think that you can't make a change in your contract before the ending date and might object when you do make a change. To change your written contract, you need the parent to sign off on the change.
If the parent refuses to sign your new contract, you must be prepared to terminate care.
Second - Here's a situation where having an ending date in your contract can hurt you. A family enrolls in your program and the contract states that it ends on December 31, 2018. Both parents sign it. In June, the parents get divorced and the father pays the mother child support. The mother signs a new contract in December. In March of 2019, the father stops paying child support and the mother can't afford to pay you anymore.
Since the father didn't sign the new contract, you can't enforce it against him. If the contract did not have an ending date, you could still sue the father for not paying you even if they are divorced.
Third - Your contract says it will end on December 31, 20__. You give the parents a new contract to sign in early December, but they don't sign it by the end of the month. Maybe you forgot or they did. In any case, in January your old contract has expired. This means it can't be enforced in court. If the parents now leave without giving you any notice, you can't collect because you don't have a written contract anymore.
Include a Starting Date
Instead of including an ending date in your contract, include a starting date: "This contract begins on ______________ (first day child is enrolled)."
You can always have parents resign their contract each year to help communicate your rules. But ending dates don't help you, and they can hurt you.
Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com
Image credit: https://www.picpedia.org/chalkboard/c/contract.html
For more information, see my book "Family Child Care Contracts & Policies."
