So, you can imagine the cost of living. It costs nothing, is readily available, and provides great encouragement. It interferes with programming, staffing, and the billing would be a nightmare.
Parents contract for a slot in our program.
Children requesting full time are given priority. Part time is also charged a little bit more because they often change the ratio of staff to kids. In addition we add up the number of days in the school year, multiply by the daily rate, and divide in to nine equal payments. That way parents can budget the same amount each month for their child care expenses. We have found that we have a lot fewer delinquent accounts since we changed to a set monthly fee.