Is this payment schedule normal?

[Anonymous]

We were accepted into a preschool that the school year runs Aug-June.
However we have to start paying for the school this April. Their payments run April-June.

They told us it’s due to ensuring families are committed. Just stressful because we are paying for a nanny now and we will be using the nanny until school starts.

Thanks for any info!

[Anonymous]

That's odd. Am I understanding this correctly, you are paying full tuition form April-August, when your child is not attending?

[Anonymous]

Pretty normal to put down a significant deposit on tuition in spring to keep a spot for next fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's odd. Am I understanding this correctly, you are paying full tuition form April-August, when your child is not attending?

Yes that is correct. Then the payments end in Jan. Therefore from
Jan- June you wouldn’t pay anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty normal to put down a significant deposit on tuition in spring to keep a spot for next fall.

In addition there is a 1500 deposit.

[Anonymous]

Is the preschool connected to a private school K-12? This seems more like a private school tuition payment plan and I have seen that those that have preschools sometimes structure the preschool payments this way. Our preschool which is an infant through preschool center simply has you pay by the month. There is no "school year" and it is not necessary to leave a deposit to secure a spot for the next school year if you are already enrolled there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's odd. Am I understanding this correctly, you are paying full tuition form April-August, when your child is not attending?

Yes that is correct. Then the payments end in Jan. Therefore from
Jan- June you wouldn’t pay anything.

That seems a little earlier than other academic year schools, at other places I have put down a deposit in spring, made the first payment in August, and been finished with payments by March. So it sounds like your school has pushed it up a few months.
Is it in DC or somewhere that has public pre-school? Sometimes those schools have to be more conservative or they end up under-enrolled and empty-handed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the preschool connected to a private school K-12? This seems more like a private school tuition payment plan and I have seen that those that have preschools sometimes structure the preschool payments this way. Our preschool which is an infant through preschool center simply has you pay by the month. There is no "school year" and it is not necessary to leave a deposit to secure a spot for the next school year if you are already enrolled there.

No this is a Montessori program on the hill. Serves 2-4 year olds.

[Anonymous]

Do you know if this is their normal payment schedule or are they doing it differently fearing a Covid surge in the fall might force closures or people to back out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's odd. Am I understanding this correctly, you are paying full tuition form April-August, when your child is not attending?

Yes that is correct. Then the payments end in Jan. Therefore from
Jan- June you wouldn’t pay anything.

Then it sounds normalish. You are basically pre-paying and that is to ensure that families are committed and don't pull out.

[Anonymous]

I would assume hat during normal times, the school does re-enrollment in January/February. They are probably trying to have you avoid double payments to them while ensuring that you won’t bail on them if you get a “better” school offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's odd. Am I understanding this correctly, you are paying full tuition form April-August, when your child is not attending?

Yes that is correct. Then the payments end in Jan. Therefore from
Jan- June you wouldn’t pay anything.

Then it sounds normalish. You are basically pre-paying and that is to ensure that families are committed and don't pull out.

Yeah we get it...just annoying since we are also paying for a nanny now until school starts so it is not ideal.