MD parents: You're going to want to do everything you can to keep your kid's spot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I know which daycare you are talking about. We can work from home till end of July, and possibly longer. I want to keep our spot, and I DO REALLY want to send my child back to daycare once it is opened to all non-essential personnel. The question is I am conflicted of keeping child at home with us not learning much/drive us crazy(virtual distance learning not working) or risking my child by sending her back to daycare.

I understand the priority system because of limited space, but I hear that they are not guaranteed a spot unless you keep on paying full tuition which increase the possibility & I am not sending back my child definitely not in June or July. We may or high chance not sending our child back till we feel comfortable & forced to head back to work in office. I don't feel like paying full tuition & we are not well off, money is tight. We are frustrated.

You're frustrated because what they are doing is not legal, it's extortion. There are other ways to pick families without resorting to economic discrimination. The lottery system is widely used in educational settings. It could be a need-based selection, in which for example a single parent called back to work and needing childcare might be prioritized over someone else. Etc, etc...

Choosing the ones who paid while receiving no service is not only wrong, but potentially actionable. They would be ones most likely to be able to afford sitters or nannies anyway...

Explain to me how you would prioritize. They are giving essential workers priority, but beyond that, how would you do it? You’re choosing a single parent, but there are many other categories of people who could argue for priority.

In fact, if you prioritize based on a non-monetary basis, you really do risk ACTUALLY discriminating against people. But you seem exceptionally ignorant of the law, so I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.

+1. Whatever you think of what is more "fair," a daycare has a much greater chance of successfully being sued for prioritizing single parents or somehow otherwise trying to determine who "needs" the case the most than giving it to people who have paid in full while school has been out.

[Anonymous]

Does this go for Preschools within Private K-8 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The payment scam OP is describing is ILLEGAL.

OP is obviously an unethical daycare owner trying to get as much money out of people as possible.

Yeah I doubt some parent is on here crying chicken little and that everyone needs to keep paying some money. I’m a parent and know I won’t be sending my toddler back for the foreseeable future so we withdrew and I’ll keep working at home. If I need to, I’ll hire a nanny or find a nanny share. It’s not zero risk but lower than a center setting. I don’t think there’s a huge demand for center care right now.

I feel bad for owners of centers, but it’s not on families to keep their business afloat. A lot of industries are being decimated right now.

[Anonymous]

Our daycare center is opening in mid June. They’re dealing with the capacity restrictions by splitting each class into two groups, with each group coming only every other day. Everyone pays 80% tuition. Not ideal for anyone but I don’t have another obvious solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daycare center is opening in mid June. They’re dealing with the capacity restrictions by splitting each class into two groups, with each group coming only every other day. Everyone pays 80% tuition. Not ideal for anyone but I don’t have another obvious solution.

PP here. Sorry, should have mentioned this is in Va, not Md. Just wanted to share in case it’s useful information to anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The payment scam OP is describing is ILLEGAL.

OP is obviously an unethical daycare owner trying to get as much money out of people as possible.

Yeah I doubt some parent is on here crying chicken little and that everyone needs to keep paying some money. I’m a parent and know I won’t be sending my toddler back for the foreseeable future so we withdrew and I’ll keep working at home. If I need to, I’ll hire a nanny or find a nanny share. It’s not zero risk but lower than a center setting. I don’t think there’s a huge demand for center care right now.

I feel bad for owners of centers, but it’s not on families to keep their business afloat. A lot of industries are being decimated right now.

I made a number of posts supporting what the daycare is doing. Not only do I not own a daycare, I’ve made essentially the same decisions you have.

I’ve pulled my kid because I don’t see is going back any time soon and I am willing to deal with finding a spot or alternative option when the time comes.

But that doesn’t remotely mean I fault the owners. It’s absolutely reasonable to prioritize folks who have paid through this time, and if someone wants to make sure they have a spot, they may need to pay. It’s not unfair, it’s definitely not illegal, and it is the only way a daycare will survive.

What your post ignores is that no one is forced to do this. You and I (and I am sure others) have decided they aren’t willing to pay. And that’s fine. A daycare owner will have to deal with that and hope enough people come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. I’m not a daycare owner; I’m simply a parent who received this guidance from the school and wanted to pass it along, because it’s the first I’d heard of this. I expect other schools will do the same because I frankly don’t know of any other way to prioritize families, when you’re in a position where you can’t accommodate everyone.

It absolutely sucks, but I honestly don’t know another way.

Did they say this when school closed? That if you paid in full you would get priority when they reopen? If so it makes sense. If not there’s going to be a major situation.

DP but how would they have known this then?

What they said is that paying full tuition would ensure your spot when they reopen. I don’t think SO many people paid full tuition that this wasn’t a reasonable statement.

There is a $0 tuition option, but they were very clear that this only reserved your spot for that month. Nothing else was guaranteed.

Then there are intermediary tuition options that give you access to various distance learning options. These people are prioritized, but lower than essential personnel and full-tuition paying families.

Okay, so that's very clear. At first it sounded like you were at one of the places where they stopped charging but then asked people to voluntarily donate their monthly fees in whole or in part if they could. If one of those places then says "Hey, we're in a bind trying to figure out who gets to come back, so we're going to give it to the people who chose to donate the most to us while we were closed, even though they were never asked to pay to hold their spot or told that they amount they paid has anything to do with who gets a spot," that's a different story.

Is it though? The daycare is in a bind. It can't accommodate all its families. What is a fair way to allocate spots?

It sure seems the it would be reasonable for them to say that, as a thank you/tangible benefit, they would give spots to those who had been making voluntary payments all along. I don't think that is unfair. People who make all sorts of donations to causes/businesses get perks. I don't see why this is different.

Unfair and illegal are two different things, but I also don't see how that would be illegal. It seems a perfectly reasonable solution to deal with a perfectly imperfect situation.

Well, it's definitely very different from a situation where you know in advance that you have to keep paying to hold your spot, as opposed to being explicitly told "you don't need to pay, but we'd appreciate it if you can afford to contribute a little something" and then later on hearing "whoops, you were making hard decisions about your family's finances but it was secretly a test, and everyone who could comfortably afford to keep paying gets to stay!"

I would think if you have to cut families it's probably best to just do some kind of random number generator thing, luck of the draw. It still really, really sucks for the families who lose their spots, but at least it's not unfair and would result in less hard feelings.

"Family A, I know you have been paying full cost for the last 4 months. We really appreciate it. But sorry, our random number generator selected Family B, who hasn't paid a dime in the past 4 months, for the final open spot we have. Sorry, we have to cut you loose - thanks for your donation!"

That isn't unfair?

We must have really different definitions of fairness.

Do folks really think that it's fair to say that only the richest families deserve to go back to daycare, and those who can't afford to make thousands of dollars of voluntary donations to their daycare during months when their own paycheck may have been cut dramatically due to furloughs or fewer hours or lower wages or loss of self-employment income don't?

You think it's unfair to tell people who could afford to make huge donations that their wealth and generosity doesn't make them and their kids better and more deserving than everyone else. I think it's unfair to tell the richest families (who can probably afford a nanny if they lose the spot) that they get to keep their daycare, while the families who earn less and donated less or none get kicked out and probably have no option for child care besides one of the parents quitting their job.

I don't understand this logic. I don't mean to be uncharitable in interpreting your meaning, but -- you do get that there are people too poor (or in some donut hole, where they can't afford and don't qualify for subsidy) to afford daycare? Or, even if there are subsidized slots, there are many who can't find a place.

Do you think those kids are less good and less deserving to yours?

It's still a line, just drawn in a different place. If you want to criticize the existence of the line, you can't just count when it inconveniences you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just heard from our preschool in MoCo that, even when childcare centers are cleared to open (TBD on date obviously) they will be restricted to 50% capacity for some period of time. The school said they don't know how long that will be, but that's what they are hearing from the state.

Right now, they're serving essential personnel, but they put together a priority system for figuring out how to allocate the spots, once they are able to open for non-essential worker families. First priority is essential worker families whose kids have been attending, and then it goes by how much tuition you have been paying. At our school, there are multiple tuition options, so they are prioritizing those who have been paying more tuition. It sucks, but is probably the only way to really do it.

So this is just a head's up that you may be getting something similar from your school, so I'd suggest paying some level of tuition, to optimize your position on any priority list that your school might institute.

We all know this is you, Josh Oboler, you shady MF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just heard from our preschool in MoCo that, even when childcare centers are cleared to open (TBD on date obviously) they will be restricted to 50% capacity for some period of time. The school said they don't know how long that will be, but that's what they are hearing from the state.

Right now, they're serving essential personnel, but they put together a priority system for figuring out how to allocate the spots, once they are able to open for non-essential worker families. First priority is essential worker families whose kids have been attending, and then it goes by how much tuition you have been paying. At our school, there are multiple tuition options, so they are prioritizing those who have been paying more tuition. It sucks, but is probably the only way to really do it.

So this is just a head's up that you may be getting something similar from your school, so I'd suggest paying some level of tuition, to optimize your position on any priority list that your school might institute.

We all know this is you, Josh Oboler, you shady MF.

Who is that? Very random post to revive a weeks old thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daycare center is opening in mid June. They’re dealing with the capacity restrictions by splitting each class into two groups, with each group coming only every other day. Everyone pays 80% tuition. Not ideal for anyone but I don’t have another obvious solution.

Far from ideal but at least they are trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just heard from our preschool in MoCo that, even when childcare centers are cleared to open (TBD on date obviously) they will be restricted to 50% capacity for some period of time. The school said they don't know how long that will be, but that's what they are hearing from the state.

Right now, they're serving essential personnel, but they put together a priority system for figuring out how to allocate the spots, once they are able to open for non-essential worker families. First priority is essential worker families whose kids have been attending, and then it goes by how much tuition you have been paying. At our school, there are multiple tuition options, so they are prioritizing those who have been paying more tuition. It sucks, but is probably the only way to really do it.

So this is just a head's up that you may be getting something similar from your school, so I'd suggest paying some level of tuition, to optimize your position on any priority list that your school might institute.

We all know this is you, Josh Oboler, you shady MF.

Who is that? Very random post to revive a weeks old thread.

He owns a bunch of Montessori schools and took parents tuition on top of receiving PPP funds. So is double dipping.

[Anonymous]

this going to apply to everyone in the region.

Our federal daycare in downtown DC just told us that we’ve had 100+ additions to the waitlist in recent weeks. Despite that we have no clear date on reopening, partial or otherwise. We will remain open because we have a federal agency support (ie, no rent required).

But I can imagine a ton of private daycare facilities will go out of business. If you still have a spot, do NOT give it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this going to apply to everyone in the region.

Our federal daycare in downtown DC just told us that we’ve had 100+ additions to the waitlist in recent weeks. Despite that we have no clear date on reopening, partial or otherwise. We will remain open because we have a federal agency support (ie, no rent required).

But I can imagine a ton of private daycare facilities will go out of business. If you still have a spot, do NOT give it up.

+1

Daycares are cutting current families to meet the distancing rules. Very few are letting kids off waitlists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this going to apply to everyone in the region.

Our federal daycare in downtown DC just told us that we’ve had 100+ additions to the waitlist in recent weeks. Despite that we have no clear date on reopening, partial or otherwise. We will remain open because we have a federal agency support (ie, no rent required).

But I can imagine a ton of private daycare facilities will go out of business. If you still have a spot, do NOT give it up.

+1

Daycares are cutting current families to meet the distancing rules. Very few are letting kids off waitlists.

No doubt that is true for some, but I have heard of at least two centers in MoCo with open spots available, including for infants, as they are reopening. Lots of families are not sending their children back right now.

[Anonymous]

We just managed to get into a daycare with a long waitlist. Many current families as well as those on the waitlist had decided to make other arrangements.