Daycare wait list fee insane NE DC- how many are worth paying for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in child care and we actually have to spend significant admin time processing applications, updating waitlists, giving tours, etc. so that is one of the reasons for the fee.

I've worked at a daycare and this is what they all say but it's not really true. Updating a waitlist takes minimal time (it's a list, folks -- you add people to it and then contact them when a spot opens up). Tours are generally given before a family decides if they want to do a waitlist, it's business development and just part of the cost of any customer facing business. Processing applications can be time intensive but at the place I worked, there was minimal processing just to get someone on the waitlist -- a few forms that went into a file. The labor intensive processing where you make sure you have all the the permissions you need, set up payment processing, and do onboarding, you only have to do once a child has a spot at the daycare. And that process is generally covered by an enrollment fee, anyway.

So if someone only ever gets on the waitlist and never gets a spot, they are really not costing you money. Daycares charge money for waitlists because it helps ensure that the families they enroll are financially comfortable enough to never pose a risk of non-payment. A family that can comfortably pay 1-2k in waitlist fees is more likely to be pay their bill, and pay it on time. It's 100% a financial screener.

[Anonymous]

Maybe we were just insanely lucky, but I was searching in the late fall for a place to start in January for my now 9-month old, and it wasn’t hard. A lot of the federal building day care centers had openings because of so many people working from home. Have you looked at the FCC daycare? When I took a tour, they were saying it wasn’t necessary to pay a waitlist fee — there would almost certainly be a spot. We chose a place closer to where we live and didn’t need to get on a waitlist there either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we were just insanely lucky, but I was searching in the late fall for a place to start in January for my now 9-month old, and it wasn’t hard. A lot of the federal building day care centers had openings because of so many people working from home. Have you looked at the FCC daycare? When I took a tour, they were saying it wasn’t necessary to pay a waitlist fee — there would almost certainly be a spot. We chose a place closer to where we live and didn’t need to get on a waitlist there either.

I am on wait-list at one of the FCC locations and with staff coming back or expected to in June there was no spot and had to pay a waiting fee.

Congratulations on your luck! I am sure something will work out but the hussle is real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in child care and we actually have to spend significant admin time processing applications, updating waitlists, giving tours, etc. so that is one of the reasons for the fee.

I've worked at a daycare and this is what they all say but it's not really true. Updating a waitlist takes minimal time (it's a list, folks -- you add people to it and then contact them when a spot opens up). Tours are generally given before a family decides if they want to do a waitlist, it's business development and just part of the cost of any customer facing business. Processing applications can be time intensive but at the place I worked, there was minimal processing just to get someone on the waitlist -- a few forms that went into a file. The labor intensive processing where you make sure you have all the the permissions you need, set up payment processing, and do onboarding, you only have to do once a child has a spot at the daycare. And that process is generally covered by an enrollment fee, anyway.

So if someone only ever gets on the waitlist and never gets a spot, they are really not costing you money. Daycares charge money for waitlists because it helps ensure that the families they enroll are financially comfortable enough to never pose a risk of non-payment. A family that can comfortably pay 1-2k in waitlist fees is more likely to be pay their bill, and pay it on time. It's 100% a financial screener.

Thanks for your insight. I would never pay $1-2k as wait-list deposit as most are non refundable. If you want to screen parents try credit scores and income proof. So far I am paying $100-$150/ waiting list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think, unfortunately, if you are geographically limited and absolutely need care starting at a particular date, you need to either 1) have a daycare that's basically given you a "yeah, with this much notice, you'll almost certainly get a spot" (we were able to find one like that, it was just super pricey) or 2) way more waitlists. Sadly, probably closer to 10.

Daycare is going to cost you, what, $2k a month? That means shelling out for 10 waitlist fees is equivalent to only two weeks of care. Sucks, but if you need care, you need care.

So I don't know what daycare is like in NE at this point, but I went through this about 6 years ago and what I found was that #2 gets you nowhere. I spent around a thousand in waitlist fees and I didn't get off one of those waitlists until my baby was 8 months old.

One winning strategy is to just accept that childcare is going to cost you more for the first year and line up a nanny share, and then get on waitlists for when your child ages out of the infant category. It is easier to find a spot for a 12 month old than a 3 mo old, because the the ratios are more favorable. Infant ratios are really hard for daycares, and they limit infants as much as they reasonably can do reduce staffing pinches.

Another option is to work the in-home daycare angle hard. This is really labor intensive BUT they don't tend to have those steep waitlist fees and if you find a good one, they will often be much more communicative with you about openings and when you might be able to get a spot (at least in my experience). But some of them are bad -- do your research and check their citation records and, whenever possible, see if you can talk to current or former families to learn about their experiences.

But yeah, people told me "eh, just get on waitlists for as many daycares as you actually like and surely you'll get in somewhere." It did not work out that way, and I spent a lot of time trying to get updates from places that were just never going to have spots for me. I also wasted time on a couple daycares that gave preference to certain employers and I was never going to get a spot there, but I was naive when I was first looking and didn't realize this until later. Like most of the daycares close to Union Station (which are convenient for a lot of families for obvious reasons) never open up spots because they give preference to DOJ or FTC employees and there are never other spaces available. Also some places never have places because they go to siblings. It's such a crapshoot. You could easily spend a couple grand on waitlist fees and never get a spot.

Thanks so much for your detailed feedback. Your strategies are super helpful and I will try them as well. I don't pay a waiting fee if my kid is not number one on the wait-list.