Don't most in home providers have back up arrangements? If my provider is going to be gone for more than 1-2 days, she sends us to another licensed provider in the neighborhood. They are friends and have an arrangement where they backstop each other like this.

My current in-home provider takes a week vacation and up to 5 personal days per year - she does not ask that we pay her for these. She does get paid for federal holidays (evidently Columbus Day is included which is news as of today.)

I previously used an in-home provider and she took 2 wks paid vacation and holidays. She even took Inauguration Day in 2009, mirroring the school districts, which I think is a load of BS because only those working in DC have the day off.