day care waitlist policies- is this normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you communicate with the people before sending them your money? Did you hand it to them in person and have a discussion about it? If not then lesson learned.

OP- yes I did, but it seems like the director has changed since then. Its a smaller center and they still have a sign up front saying they have vacancies (just reopened after COVID closure) so I assume they are just a bit disorganized and struggling for income right now. They were my first choice due to location, but I might just need to have more back up options!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't keep the spot open for 6 mos. In 6 mos some of the the infants in that room will age up to the next room. So I know that there is an opening on x date and your registration fee reserved that spot. We have lots of families who want spots so if things change for the first family then we can offer the spot to the next family. It is not necessary to charge tons of money to parents up front to run the business successfully.

this would be my thought. If you know you want the spot in March in a infant room, the daycare should know if they have babies aging up in Feb/March or not til July and be able to tell you that. I can see them asking for the first month as a deposit to then hold that spot that’s guaranteed to you. But to pay for several months is absurd.

I assume based on the wording that they don't have any children moving up in March but I think they are keeping things open because someone might leave (since people often do in DC, either because their work moved or they moved to the suburbs or they got into a nanny share or whatever). If they knew a child was moving up in March they would have of course told OP that they would have a spot in March.

[Anonymous]

Totally normal, unfortunately. I paid $100-$150/daycare 11 over a decade ago when I was pregnant with my oldest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you communicate with the people before sending them your money? Did you hand it to them in person and have a discussion about it? If not then lesson learned.

OP- yes I did, but it seems like the director has changed since then. Its a smaller center and they still have a sign up front saying they have vacancies (just reopened after COVID closure) so I assume they are just a bit disorganized and struggling for income right now. They were my first choice due to location, but I might just need to have more back up options!

They may have vacancies now but not in the infant room, so it doesn't help you anyway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't keep the spot open for 6 mos. In 6 mos some of the the infants in that room will age up to the next room. So I know that there is an opening on x date and your registration fee reserved that spot. We have lots of families who want spots so if things change for the first family then we can offer the spot to the next family. It is not necessary to charge tons of money to parents up front to run the business successfully.

this would be my thought. If you know you want the spot in March in a infant room, the daycare should know if they have babies aging up in Feb/March or not til July and be able to tell you that. I can see them asking for the first month as a deposit to then hold that spot that’s guaranteed to you. But to pay for several months is absurd.

I assume based on the wording that they don't have any children moving up in March but I think they are keeping things open because someone might leave (since people often do in DC, either because their work moved or they moved to the suburbs or they got into a nanny share or whatever). If they knew a child was moving up in March they would have of course told OP that they would have a spot in March.

It's not that simple. There may be a family on the waist ahead of OP who wants a February slot but doesn't want to pay ahead. If that person doesn't get a slot in Feb, then they will be ahead of OP for the March slot.

Op, the only way to really get a sense is to buddy up to the person managing the waitlist to find out when babies are aging up and who is ahead of you on the waitlist. If you 100% need a March slot then you can pay to hold a slot early. If you have flexibility then you can roll the dice to see what opens up in March. It's a super frustrating process and IME they don't necessarily respect the waitlist so the slots go to the people the daycare likes. You want to be one of those people.

[Anonymous]

I hated that policy when I was looking. even worse, when I asked places where I was on the wait list, they wouldn't tell me. so I can give you $150 and you can't tell me if I'm 2nd on the waitlist or 22nd?

after getting duped and paying to be on two waitlists (btw, my son is 18 months and I haven't heard from either of those places), I stopped getting on waitlists for places that had a fee. so dumb

[Anonymous]

Yes this is normal. They will also try to balance the age and genders of babies starting each month. WAY too much will change between now and March 2023 - there is no way they can predict that far out. Starting in December / January, call to check in and confirm you are still serious about March. Ask what dates kids start - any day? First day of the month?

You can ask now for very explicit description of if when and how spots are offered each month. There will be a certain number of people ahead of you, but each month there will people who don’t get a spot for their desired start date and they find something else and drop off the list. There will also be people who don’t get in and choose to wait and thus bump you later.

Once you know their schedule, you will know when to call each month to understand how the March start date is shaping up. It’s not a strict wait list or you would need to take a spot as soon as it opens. Think of each month as it’s own mini list and that people from prior months can choose to join your list and have priority over you.

If this is Bright Horizons, my oldest actually started at a different BH location for 3 months until a spot opened up at our preferred location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't keep the spot open for 6 mos. In 6 mos some of the the infants in that room will age up to the next room. So I know that there is an opening on x date and your registration fee reserved that spot. We have lots of families who want spots so if things change for the first family then we can offer the spot to the next family. It is not necessary to charge tons of money to parents up front to run the business successfully.

this would be my thought. If you know you want the spot in March in a infant room, the daycare should know if they have babies aging up in Feb/March or not til July and be able to tell you that. I can see them asking for the first month as a deposit to then hold that spot that’s guaranteed to you. But to pay for several months is absurd.

I assume based on the wording that they don't have any children moving up in March but I think they are keeping things open because someone might leave (since people often do in DC, either because their work moved or they moved to the suburbs or they got into a nanny share or whatever). If they knew a child was moving up in March they would have of course told OP that they would have a spot in March.

It's not that simple. There may be a family on the waist ahead of OP who wants a February slot but doesn't want to pay ahead. If that person doesn't get a slot in Feb, then they will be ahead of OP for the March slot.

Op, the only way to really get a sense is to buddy up to the person managing the waitlist to find out when babies are aging up and who is ahead of you on the waitlist. If you 100% need a March slot then you can pay to hold a slot early. If you have flexibility then you can roll the dice to see what opens up in March. It's a super frustrating process and IME they don't necessarily respect the waitlist so the slots go to the people the daycare likes. You want to be one of those people.

This is true. I had my husband call and chat with them. He is much more patient and charming than me. I was stressed and scared and that comes off as desperate or rude. I think the young underpaid women were also somehow more sympathetic to my husband than me.
It also helps if you know another family already at the center and have them check in for you - assuming they are nice / polite and the Director likes them. If you have a friend who is “that mom” who is super controlling, asks a million questions, and complains about everything- DO not have them ask on your behalf. Centers expect first time moms to be a little nervous and high maintenance, but there is a limit to their patience and if they have too many high maintenance parents they might not want one more.

[Anonymous]

The fees are big here to just get on some wait lists, that is crazy. But it's not crazy for them to tell you that they have a spot now, and you can have it if you want to pay for it, or go back on the wait list. It is not standard to let a spot stay vacant without pay for months.

[Anonymous]

We paid a similar amount to be on a waitlist, and they told us that it was unlikely a spot would open up. A couple of months before our desired start date, I emailed just to let them know we were still interested. The center responded that there were spots available for our start date and they were posted on the website.

So to your point, I don’t understand the point of the waitlist fee. It seems like they were not going to contact us. This is a well respected daycare in upper NW.