Creating a Home Daycare Contract

One of the most important things you need when starting a daycare is, in my opinion, to have a solid home daycare contract and policy handbook (or one combined one) because it outlines all your rules, policies, and expectations for parents.  It helps you find clients that match the type of business you want to run.

If you don’t have a home daycare contract you’re leaving your business open to a whole world of headaches and issues.

Creating a Home Daycare Contract

Your contract dictates how you want to run your business and helps you find parents that will mesh with the type of care you are looking to provide.  Obviously, it also protects you and your business, like in cases when a parent skips out on payment or drops off a sick child, by creating a binding agreement between you and your clients. This is why it’s very important to put a lot of time and thought into creating a home daycare contract.

There are many things you want to consider when creating your home daycare contract:

• What hours will you work? Will those be open hours or will you have contracted hours for each family?
• How do you want to be paid? Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly? I always recommend requiring payment in advance of care, this prevents not getting paid for services provided and daycare hoppers.
• Are you charging late fees for late payments or late pick-ups?
• Will you open on holidays? Taking vacation time? Closed with pay or without pay? What about vacations your clients take? Will you require notice? Payment? (yes!)
• What symptoms/illnesses will you not allow children to arrive with or will you send children home for? How long do parents have to pick up after you call? Will the be allowed back the next day or do you require 24 hours of symptom-free before returning? {Very important!!!}
• Will you require two weeks’ notice from families planning to leave? 4 weeks?

My contract is about six pages long, seven if you count my authorizations form (permissions to transport/leave premises, apply sunscreen, take photos…) and I only have the one contract.  It covers the agreement basics (hours, pay, authorized pick up people, medical release) as well as all my policies, from late pick-ups to potty training. Some providers have this split, they have a home daycare contract that strictly deals with the financial/hours side of it and then anther handbook with all their policies.  Personally, I felt like all my parents were ignoring my handbook and focusing on the contract so I ended up explaining policies over and over.  That is why I just decided to combine it into one big contract/handbook.  Either way you chose to do it is equally binding if you require a signature acknowledging they read and understood, do whatever you feel comfortable with.

My contract contains the following sections (currently anyway, I update it occasionally):

• Terms (all my contracts expire December 31 and have to be renewed yearly, also includes a brief overview of termination policy and trial period)
• Contracted Hours (hours agreed upon for each day)
• Payment Rate (payment amount, due dates of, no refunds for unused days)
• Payment Schedule (payment due dates and late fee info)
• Late Pick-Up Fees
• Returned Check Fees (after 2 NSF I only accept money orders)
• Hours of Operation (explanation of contracted hours & fees if parents need to extend hours)
• Holiday & Vacation Closures
• Weather & Other Closures
• Absences
• Illness
• Medication
• Medical Emergencies
• Arrival and Departure (no letting kids outside alone, no lingering at drop off when child is upset , etc)
• Authorized Pick up
• Discipline Policy
• House Rules (no running, food/drinks only at the table, no shoes inside, etc)
• General Information and Rules (calling/texting hours, open-door policy, no nice clothing rule [we get dirty!], abuse/neglect required reporting info, household includes a dog, etc)
• Supplies (blanket, wipes, diapers, etc)
• Potty Training Policy & Procedures
• Birthday/Holiday Parties
• Meals
• Nap/Rest Time
• Trial Adjustment Period
• Termination
• Confidentiality
• Acknowledgment of Agreement (aka signatures)

My most in-depth policy section is my illness section.  This one seems to be the one that gets tested the most so I wanted to make sure parents knew from the beginning what my policies are.  I always go over this section, in detail, with prospective parents.  I include what symptoms I will exclude for, length of time required before returning after being sent home, policy for how long parents have to come pick up a sick child, what happens if they don’t (emergency contacts & I terminate), medication administration, and more.  Illness is one thing I don’t negotiate on, it affects the health of all the children in my care as well as my family.

Vacation is another big one to me and one I often see new providers not including.  Many providers skip including this or say “I shouldn’t take time off” but in reality, this is a busy job, most of us are working 10 hour days, 5 days a week, with no real breaks.  You will need time off, you will need a break.  Don’t feel bad taking a vacation, your clients don’t feel bad when they take time off! I always sit down with Hubby at the beginning of the year and we hammer out when and where we want to go on vacation, then I send out a letter to all my daycare families with all my closed dates for the year (vacation and holidays) so they know well in advance.  I also remind them one month and one week prior.

There are many sample home daycare contracts out there and many of them are a great start but don’t feel limited by them, add and delete whatever you want. Check out all the sample forms and contracts at The Daycare Lady or check out my full contract template in the Where Imagination Grows shop!

It’s your business and you can run it how you want.  If a parent wants to negotiate or has issues with it then in my opinion it’s a sign they are not a good fit for your program and you both need to continue looking for someone that is a better fit.

What was a priority in your home daycare contract?

Find more in my How to Run a Home Daycare Series:
Avoiding Burnout for the Daycare Provider
Tips for Interviewing Clients
Pros & Cons of Starting a Home Daycare

Looking for more post about running a daycare? Check out my daycare page to learn about starting or running an in-home daycare or shop my collection of ebooks and daycare forms in my store.