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Question if your LO is in daycare 10+ hours
Do the states you live in not have laws about how long your kids are in daycare? I'm just genuinely curious. Here, the law is 10 hours. Centers can get in big trouble if they keep kids longer than that. Sure, a day or two here or there is probably overlooked. But being there that long on a regular basis is just simply not allowed. I know both our old center and current center would kick you out if it happened often, and would also charge you extra for the days it did.
Not really sure how people in your situations deal with that, with long commutes and all. I was just surprised you didn't have to deal with similar laws.
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Re: Question if your LO is in daycare 10+ hours
When I was looking for daycare all of the centers had the 10 hour rule, but it was told it was policy not law. I go to VA a lot for work and it is a law there, which makes it difficult because traffic in the area is terrible. Most of my coworkers put their children in a daycare near the office since we are required to be at work 9 hours at least and the commute can easily be an hour each way even if you only live 15 miles away.
hmmmm - I don't know.
Our daycare is open 12 hours - 6:30-6:30.
A handful of kids are there the full time.
no law here. our center (that is a chain) is open from 7am-6:30pm. You get charged a fee if you pick up after 6:30 - but it's not b/c of a law, it's bc you are late and they want to discourage it.
it's never an issue for us.... people who have long commutes around here usually put their kids in daycare near their work to avoid that problem. Ours is near our home- but our hours are never that late - and if they were for some reason- my family is nearby and could pick them up.
I believe the limit is 12 hours, and I don't know if that's a law or a policy. I only heard about it recently from a cousin of mine who worked in daycares and was discussing 24-hour daycare centers with another cousin of ours. The 12-hour rule is hearsay from that convo - not anything I've looked into myself.
Honestly, I don't know how they could possibly put a 10-hour law into effect in the Baltimore/DC-Metro area. We're an area of the country known for hellacious, long commutes. It's just not feasible to expect that everyone can limit their day to 10-hours, nor is it feasible to expect that everyone has help in pick-up/drop-off of their children.
There is no law here that I'm aware of. The center I use is open from 6:30am - 6:30pm. The extended evening hours are a big reason I chose them, because when I was commuting and working until 5pm, if there was traffic sometimes getting home by 6pm was pushing it.
My son goes to a non-profit daycare (affiliated with the YMCA) so they are required by the state to have certain paperwork on file. I had to fill out a form that listed the normal hours my child would be there, and the instructions said to attach an additional sheet to "explain" if it more than 8 hours per day, but it didn't say anything about not exceeding 10 hours or anything. I remember thinking, who could work FT and have their kid there LESS than 8 hours per day? Seriously, when I was commuting I was lucky to have him dropped off and picked up within 10 hours. And even now that I'm at home, I still have to physically work for 8 hours (and yes my job is so inflexible that they watch us to the minute), so even now, with taking not even an extra second, he would be there over 8 hours.
My daughter goes to a Y Journeys daycare/preschool and I had to fill out paperwork stating what her anticipated hours were be, but don't recall seeing anything requiring an explanation for more than 8 hours. That's crazy that they'd require such a thing! What difference does it make?
I agree completely! I don't know if there is a law but my dc is open from 7am to 6pm.
We visited 6 different daycare centers and every.single.one informed us that there is PA law that states that a child cannot be in their care for more than 10 hours a day.
We had to leave two centers because they wouldn't work out with our commute. DS would have had to be there for 10.5 hours each day. They asked if one of us could change our hours so one could drop off and one could pick up... but we're unable to do so. We went to the first one because we didn't know about the 10 hour rule and we went to the second one because we thought the first place was full of poo. After the second, we shifted focus to centers closer to work and they all said the same thing.
The daycares are open for roughly 12 hours, but that's to accomodate different hours that parents work (e.g. I work from 7-4, but other people around me work 9-6).
http://pandce.****/index.cgi#general
For Maryland: COMAR 13A.16.04 Operational Requirements
.02 Enrollment and Attendance.
A. All children in care at any one time are counted as being in attendance for purposes of complying with the regulations governing capacity, group size, and staff/child ratios.
B. An operator may not enroll a child for more than 14 hours in a 24-hour period unless approved in advance by the office.
C. An operator may not admit an infant who is younger than 6 weeks old.
I am curious now. I found this PA code but cannot find anything at all about a 10 hour (or any) maximum.
https://www.pacode.com/secure/data/055/chapter3270/chap3270toc.html
Linked from https://www.dpw.state.pa.us/provider/earlylearning/childcareregulations/index.htm
What about people that work 12 hour shifts? Where to they take their children?
DS born Dec 10, 2013
Yeah, I couldn't find anything either. But the centers around me all insisted that it's a law, so oh well. The more we thought about it, we realized that it'd be better to have DS closer to our work anyway so it became a non-issue.
Since all of our doctors are close to where we work. So if DS would get sick or have an appointment, we're already nearby. If we used a center close to home, we'd have to drive all the way down there, pick him up, drive all the way back to near where we work, and then drive all the way back home afterward. No thanks.
http://pandce.****/index.cgi#general
A friend of mine is a nurse who works 12 hour shifts, but her husband works 8 hour shifts with a set schedule, so he picks their son up when he's done with work.
Not sure what a single parent or if both parents work 12 hours would do. Hope they know someone who can take care of the last few hours?
http://pandce.****/index.cgi#general
I was wondering that as well. The company I work for is the largest employer in the state and a lot of people work 12 hour shifts. I have no idea how a 10 hour daycare policy would work for them. I do not know if the state has any restrictions. Our daycare is open from 6:30 - 6:30. They have never mentioned limiting my daughter's day to 10 hours, although she is very, very, rarely there for more than 10.
Same here
There are a few daycares in my area that are open 24-hours, 7 days a week for people who do graveyard shifts.
I was curious so I googled & found my state (Texas) law. Still current according the DFPS website:
?746.3203 May I provide nighttime care to children at my child-care center?
Subchapter P, Nighttime Care
09/01/03
(a) Yes, you may care for children both during the day and night if we approve it. Even then, a child may only be in care for:
(1) No more than 16 hours within a 24-hour period on a daily basis; or
(2) No more than three consecutive 24-hour periods with a maximum of six 24-hour periods per month, as specified in ?745.383 of this title (relating to Can a licensed child day-care operation offer 24-hour care?).
(b) You cannot exceed these limits without getting a license for a residential child-care operation.
Ditto!