ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Late fees, I believe, have become a necessary component of running a good program. I remind parents that children are upset to see all their friends leave and they have to return to the classroom, in their coats, and sit in a chair waiting for their parents! It's very hard on children! and it's hard on staff. We have to be off to a lunch group, or escort a child to the bus. I have found that I have to be consistent in giving out the late fee (5 min grace, $5 every 5 minutes thereafter). There are people who are consistently late and don't care or think about how this affects others, because this behavior continues. I don't agree with Nora that it's negative to charge fees, etc....the negativity is caused by the irresponsibility of the parent who is picking up late!

Sometimes, enough is enough! It is clearly posted on our door that classes are over at 11:30 but no late fees will be charged until 12:00. It is a flat fee of $5 after 12. I certainly think that a 30 minute grace period is sufficient.
Parents really need to learn some responsible behavior---especially in front of their child. Besides,children become upset when their friends have long since left the building and nobody has come to pick them up.

At our program, our policy reads, $10 for every part of ten minutes. The teachers sign the children into the late book and parents sign them out, initialing the time and are billed. My assistant director, who is on salary, always stays and one teacher that gets paid overtime through payroll. We chose the every part of ten minutes so that we don't disput the exact minute. It also means that parents don't fly into our parking lot because a minute or two won't change their fee. By placing the charge on their account we also have a record to show parents how often it is happening.

I agree completely! The last thing we want to do as child care providers/teachers is to set up a climate of stress that will effect the children. I believe that being proactive in our approach with policies, having parents as well as staff sign contracts, and billing for additional services, such as late fees, is the best, overall approach.

I think the "standard" late policies are very negative for all the reasons stated. Instead, I staff the classroom up to 30 minutes after the classroom "closes" at 5:30 pm. A teacher is paid their reg salary to be there. They know someone is there, not an angry teacher/director waiting for them. If they are consistantly late, we call that a "late plan" and charge them $4 per day. This has worked very well for us the past years.

In my experience, families are late regardless of what time a program closes. What I have seen work, is consistency in the late policy. If there is a fee, after a second/third warning apply it consistently. Also, I have met with families to explain our staffing challenges as well as to remind them that teachers also have families they have to get home to or their own children that must be picked up. When you communicate your policies with families respectfully and expect compliance, thankfully, issues seem to resolve themself. : )

I see both sides of this argument, but I want to share two creative ways to deal with the situation. At a center in TX, we had a closing time and a "grace period" for parents before late fees were assessed. Parents that arrived consistenly during the center's 15 minute grace period received positive feedback- the director of the center brainstormed with these parents on a different pick up plan. Just having someone with a willingness to listen and not blame changed behavior!
When I was a family child care provider, I made a point to talking with each family every evening. The families loved this time to visit about their child. In my handbook, I suggested that parents strive to be at my home no later than 10 minutes prior to closing, so we could have our daily visit. This approach really worked, and if parents were "late," it was not past my closing time. In 5 years, I never collected a late pickup fee.

Many other articles in ExchangeEveryDay emphasize the importance of relationships. The lateness issue needs a parallel construct!

At our center, we chose not to have a punitive financial response to parents who are arrive late (they would gladly pay it), but rather to establish a relationship that includes dialog about caring for the staff and their needs -- appealing to our families to remember that staff also have families waiting for them. Any family can have a travel glitch, but we point out the math of that -- if every one of our 31 families was late just once each month -- that would mean that two staff had to stay beyond their hours every single day.

We encourage families to buddy up so that there is always a Plan B.

We talk about how children feel when they are left waiting, worried and uncomfortable as they notice all of their friends leaving.

And if all this fails, as the director, I send the teachers home and wait with the child. When they arrive, I explain to the family that it is so important that the teachers be able to leave on time so that they can be with their own families and come back refreshed in the morning, and therefore I have sent them home ... and very politely state that we need them to arrive on time. Somehow, with all of this, we have very, very few issues.

Just as parents would be extremely upset if the Center opened 15 minutes late nearly every day due to staff being caught in traffic--our employees are extremely upset when parents chronically pick up their children late. In our Center, the employees hate to be the closing staff members because it means your day ends at the parents' whims. We've tried Jim's suggestions of extending the Center's hours and scheduling staff members to stay a little later--however, our experience has been that parents continue to push the clock. We used to close at 5:30. We changed it to 6:00. Now parents stroll in at 6:15. It's the classic "give an inch, take a mile." In many instances, parents opt to pay the late fees rather than make arrangements to arrive on time. We are "that stupid center" who charges the ridiculous $50 fine for the late pick up. It's done automatically by our management software system that monitors billing & attendance. That removes the bias in charging the fees as well as eliminates the quibbling over the time. All parents are aware that the time on the timeclock is the time that counts and that the charge will appear on their bill automatically. Believe me, parents will creatively problem solve when their wallets are in jeopardy. Our policy is about respect--respect that our staff members have lives, families, and commitments outside of work. Respect that parents deserve to know what the policies are ahead of time, the penalties for breaking them, and the importance of planning for alternate pick up people.

As I do sympathize with our parents who find themselves late, I support my staff as well. In our center, parents are not charged a late fee unless they are repeat offenders. If you know you have an hour commute to your child care facility, a back-up person is needed. Whether it be a relative, neighbor or one of our families, that person will pick up their child before closing. We hook up families with friends in their child's class, if needed. This way, our staff cann get to their evening class or sometimes to a second job.
The late fee is never randomly handed out...and this policy is discussed at the time of enrollment when we are learning about our new family- their commute is part of the conversation so that they feel supported.