Fees for early drop off/late pick up

RaeAnt · April 2012

Does anyone's preschool imposed fees for every minute early your child is dropped off or every minute picked up after the time? I can understand a 5-10 minute rule, but how in the world can every person who has a child at a preschool drop off at EXACTLY a specific time or pick up as well? What, you stand outside with your kid until you hear a chime and then you can let them go inside or if you happen to be the end of the group of parents putting you there but not actually picking up til a minute or so after the time you get charged?

I have never heard of doing this and think it's insane! How is it even managed?

AgrippaRidesAgain · April 2012

Our preschool has a late fee, but it's not imposed until there is a significant problem with the parents being late. According to the director, they have only enforced it once, when the parents were half an hour late on more than one occasion.

LoCarb · April 2012

JennMM:
Ours has a late fee for picking up a child past closing time. It's like $1 a minute.

This. I have been 5 min late before and called to let them know. It was excused b/c it was a 1st time offense. They do have problems w/ repeat offenders and a friendly reminder email gets sent out once a qtr.about their policy.

angelakh · April 2012

Before care at DD's preschool is free starting at 7:30 until school starts at 8:15. They take the kids to aftercare about 15 - 20 mins after school is dismissed if they have not been picked up. Aftercare is $3.50 an hour or any part of an hour. DD is in a traditional preschool and not daycare.

jlw2505 · April 2012

My daycare based preschool and also the PreK at the elementary are open from 6:45am until 6pm. You have standard drop off pick up times but you are only charged if you arrive after the 6pm closing time. I have no clue what they charge or how it works as I have honestly never paid attention since I always get my kids between 4-5 and the only time I have been later was due to snow and horrible roads, etc. No charge if you are early as they just don't open the doors. And yes, it is common for places like daycares to charge extra if they are taking care of your child longer than contracted to do so. How it works varies from place to place - I have a seen a $1 a min and also $10 for every 15 mins late type of things when we were looking.

brightning · April 2012

Ours charges $1/min after the first 15 minutes. It is not a revenue thing at all, it's just to encourage parents to be on time because the teacher has things to do after school. We do our best to arrive right on time every day. If we're running early, I might stop and get the mail on the way to school or do a fancier hairdo.

FWIW, this type of a policy has been around for a long time. My siblings' school also charged $1/min almost 20 yrs ago.

kada626 · April 2012

Our preschool asks that we arrive no earlier than 5-10mins before class. Usually what happens is the parents/kids can enter the building and wait in the front lobby/hall area. Right at class time, the teacher opens the door and the kids enter. All 20 kids are expected to go in at the same time and hang up their coats/backpacks,etc.

At class end, the same thing. You can arrive 5-10mins before if you want, sign your name, and wait. The teacher comes out & recaps 5mins to the end and then she calls a few kids out at a time. It doesn't take long because she recognizes the parents.

I know our preschool may impose a $1/minute penalty if you are always late. Seems reasonable to me. It's no different than ballet class or gymastics. It starts on time and is over on time.

Pesky · April 2012

Ours also has a late fee for pick up that is a $1 a minute. The latest pickup is 6:30 for the older ages and it is because they have staff coverage for only a certain amount of time and then the staff clean and go home. To watch kids longer is an extra cost so I get the late fee to motivate parents to pick up kids on time. We don't have a problem with early as our center opens at 6 am. But if the times don't work for you, I'd find somewhere else. But not unusual at all.

queenofkings76 · April 2012

Ours is $1/minute. We've never been late but I can understand why. The teachers have a life and want to get home to their families as well.

livinitup · April 2012

RaeAnt:

Does anyone's preschool imposed fees for every minute early your child is dropped off or every minute picked up after the time? I can understand a 5-10 minute rule, but how in the world can every person who has a child at a preschool drop off at EXACTLY a specific time or pick up as well? What, you stand outside with your kid until you hear a chime and then you can let them go inside or if you happen to be the end of the group of parents putting you there but not actually picking up til a minute or so after the time you get charged?

I have never heard of doing this and think it's insane! How is it even managed?

Insane, isn't that a bit dramatic? I mean, what would you do if a parent showed-up 20 minutes after closing time? Or a half hour late, all the time? Nothing? Yell at them? Kick them out? Financial pentalies are pretty standard.

I'm sure you can imagine that this isn't being imposed by the minute when a great big group of parents arrive to pick-up. It's really just for folks who abuse the open/close rules of the center.

And at preschool it takes a short 5-minute window for folks to line-up and drop-off kids. It's pretty quick. And just enough ebb and flow for folks to be slightly early or slightly late without issue. Afterall, it's only 20is kids. It doesn't take much time. And yes, you kinda just wait until the start-time when you are early. Haven't you ever been early to a meeting, and just waited to get seated/started?

roxy_jj · April 2012

Ours has a late pick-up fee of $1/minute. There is no fee for early drop-off, they aren't usually there much earlier than the time school starts.

Rink08 · April 2012

Ours has before and after care which is $7/hr. DS1 is in an afternoon class so he can only go to the aftercare. If the parents aren't there for dismissal, the teacher will take the child to aftercare room once the other kids are picked up.

I was running late after an appointment once and there were parents still putting their kids in their cars when I pulled in. By the time that I got into the school, DS1 was already in aftercare so I had to pay the $7 (which wasn't really a big deal because I thought that I was running later and expected to pay). They bill you at the end of the week so you don't have to pay it right then.

MirandaHobbes · April 2012

We have a fee for early or late. The late I understand, and I think they have a 5-10 minute grace period for first time offenders, or if you call. My husband's bus was running late once and he called to say he'd be 15 minutes late and no one batted an eye.

The early fee did skeeve me a little.. when possible I try to get out the door early to get to work earlier.. I've bent the rule on occasion and no one cared. I've come as early as 15 minutes early and no one cared. If I habitually came 30 minutes early I think they'd ask me to change my schedule.

RaeAnt · April 2012

livinitup:
RaeAnt:

Does anyone's preschool imposed fees for every minute early your child is dropped off or every minute picked up after the time? I can understand a 5-10 minute rule, but how in the world can every person who has a child at a preschool drop off at EXACTLY a specific time or pick up as well? What, you stand outside with your kid until you hear a chime and then you can let them go inside or if you happen to be the end of the group of parents putting you there but not actually picking up til a minute or so after the time you get charged?

I have never heard of doing this and think it's insane! How is it even managed?

Insane, isn't that a bit dramatic? I mean, what would you do if a parent showed-up 20 minutes after closing time? Or a half hour late, all the time? Nothing? Yell at them? Kick them out? Financial pentalies are pretty standard.

I'm sure you can imagine that this isn't being imposed by the minute when a great big group of parents arrive to pick-up. It's really just for folks who abuse the open/close rules of the center.

And at preschool it takes a short 5-minute window for folks to line-up and drop-off kids. It's pretty quick. And just enough ebb and flow for folks to be slightly early or slightly late without issue. Afterall, it's only 20is kids. It doesn't take much time. And yes, you kinda just wait until the start-time when you are early. Haven't you ever been early to a meeting, and just waited to get seated/started?

I understand for those habitually late especially to that extent. I'm talking to the minute like it states in the forms. For every minute prior or after their start and finish time you are charged. That's what is insane to me.

Only 20ish kids? Maybe for the preschools you know. I'm in TX and you're lucky if one class is that size. The one school actually listed 95 students! People are nuts down here with wait lists and standing in line at 4am to make sure their kid gets in a certain pre-school.

Heck, even friends in PA say there are fees, but not to this extent.

Temp6313048411121614 · April 2012

DS1's preschool started at 9:00, normally parents would line up in the hall outside the door around 8:50 or so. It ended at 12:00 and parents would line up for pick up around 11:45. Where he went it was kind of mess to get in and out of the room (for some reason the parents would always go in the room and just hang out right in front of the door so it was always crazy, you could be a 5 minutes late and they would never know. His class size was limited at 20 student per day (some went 5 days per week, other went MWT, other's just went TTH). I think they would only charge you if you were late and your kid was the last one to leave (so if there were still a ton of kids getting their backpacks and coats but it was a few minutes late there'd be no charge since they couldn't leave yet anyway).

Wally3 · April 2012

I work at a camp and we have a per 5 minute late fee. However, we only rarely apply it and especially not if a parent gets caught in traffic and calls and says they are running late. It is mostly there to discourage repeat offenders. Also, there is a winow of time to pick up not one precise time. Also, if the carline is still open nobody is considered late it is only once we close car line and take the children back to the office that they are late.

shellybird101 · April 2012

The daycare I work at rules are $6.00 fee if your child is dropped off early/picked up late. But this has to be a big diffference in time like 1-2hrs and without warning. And we also have a $25.00 fee for anyone that is here after daycare close which is 7:30(I work at a corprate daycare and our shifts are 7am-7pm. And a $25.00 fee if you drop your child off on a day not scheduled, with out warning. You have to remember daycares have to stay in ratio and if there are not enough teachers to children they could get in trouble with the state department. I hope that helps explain the fees alittle better.

speckledfrog · April 2012

RaeAnt:
I understand for those habitually late especially to that extent. I'm talking to the minute like it states in the forms. For every minute prior or after their start and finish time you are charged. That's what is insane to me.
Only 20ish kids? Maybe for the preschools you know. I'm in TX and you're lucky if one class is that size. The one school actually listed 95 students! People are nuts down here with wait lists and standing in line at 4am to make sure their kid gets in a certain pre-school.
Heck, even friends in PA say there are fees, but not to this extent.

Of course they have to state it to the minute. If they say they start charging after 5 minutes then people will start coming 5 minutes late to begin with and then when they were "really" late they'd be 5-10 minutes late.

Unless you plan on being late frequently I don't see why this is an issue. The preschool I worked for was $2 a minute. We meant business and we very seldom had repeat offenders. As other people have mentioned, we gave a pass to first time offenders or people who had valid reasons.

rsd12 · April 2012

My middle son's preschool has this policy. While I have never been late, we are always too early to pick him up ; ) and I would never make it too early in the morning. It seems like the policy was put in place to discourage parents from being too early/late...as I am sure there have been guardians that have abused this system. I did run into problems with picking up my oldest from preschool last spring, as my middle son started in a preschool run by the town for speech services. They also discourage parents from being late, but no fee... but were awesome about me always being 15-20 mins late for the last two and a half months of school. If you have any concerns just talk to them about it.. I am sure they would give you a warning first too.

Jena503 · April 2012

RaeAnt:
Only 20ish kids? Maybe for the preschools you know. I'm in TX and you're lucky if one class is that size. The one school actually listed 95 students! People are nuts down here with wait lists and standing in line at 4am to make sure their kid gets in a certain pre-school.
Heck, even friends in PA say there are fees, but not to this extent.

Well, they aren't all like that, even around here.

And yes, we have the $1/minute fee. I once got a warning letter that I'd get fined the next time I was late, but have never been fined. Last week I was 20 minutes late picking up the kids and they could have charged me $40! Yikes! (stuck on 290 behind an accident, finally got off the freeway and the the train crossing arm was down with no train! I was totally panicked and had called the school office and left a message. It took me 45min to make a 15min drive.)

But the main reason for late fees is because they are only licensed to stay open until a certain time and they are in violation if they are open late. So they have to be harsh at closing time. It's only fair that they have the same penalty if you pick-up mid-day as well.

Oh, and no, if you are there but waiting in line, you will not get fined for being late. Because you weren't late, you were there.

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