07/09/2026
A note to parents who have children in child care, from a child care provider:
Our goal as child care providers is to partner with you to give your child the best experience and the highest quality of care we possibly can.
And part of providing that quality care means having policies.
Those policies are not there to make your life harder. They help our days run smoothly, protect the children in our care, and help us continue providing dependable child care for your family.
Here are a few examples:
• Cutoff drop-off times
Drop-off is one of the busiest parts of our morning. We are greeting children, helping with transitions, talking with parents, serving breakfast, changing diapers, and getting everyone settled.
Having a cutoff time allows us to get through that busy transition and then be fully present with the children.
Once everyone arrives, we can settle into our routine without repeatedly stopping the day for another drop-off.
• Illness policies
Yes, many illness policies are required by licensing, but they are also there to protect everyone in the program.
Children share toys, touch everything, and put just about everything in their mouths. Germs can spread through a child care program incredibly fast.
When we call and ask you to pick up a sick child, it is never because we enjoy making that phone call.
We are trying to protect the other children, their families, and ourselves.
Because if your provider becomes sick and has to close, suddenly every family in the program is without child care. We know what a hardship that can be.
• Late payment fees
Child care providers love what we do, but this is also how we make our living.
Food, supplies, insurance, utilities, licensing expenses, equipment, taxes, and all the other costs of operating a child care program add up quickly.
We depend on tuition being paid on time just like you depend on your paycheck arriving on time.
Having clear payment policies helps us keep our businesses financially healthy so we can continue providing care.
• Late pickup fees
Most child care providers already work very long days.
We may open an hour before you start work and stay open an hour after you get off so you have time to commute.
By closing time, we are ready to see our own families, make dinner, attend our kids’ activities, run errands, or simply finish our own day.
Having a closing time and late pickup policy helps protect those boundaries and allows us to come back the next morning ready to care for your children again.
The policies in your child care program are not meant to make things difficult for your family.
They are there to help the program run smoothly, keep everyone safe, and make child care sustainable for the provider.
When families understand the reasons behind our policies and we communicate openly with one another, it helps us work together and gives children a more consistent, positive experience.
Because parents and child care providers really are a team.
Parents need dependable child care so they can go to work knowing their children are safe, loved, and cared for.
Providers want families to feel confident that their children are in a place where they are known, supported, and cared for well.
At the end of the day, we really do have the same goal:
To give your child the very best child care experience we possibly can. 💜
