Handbook | littletreasures

Licensing Standars

Definitions

Full time childcare: Monday through Friday, at least 4 days per week, or more than 32 hours/ week.

Part time childcare: Between 2-3 contracted set days per week (same days per week, ex: MWF, TR)

Half day childcare: (7:30am - 12:00pm) or (12:00pm - 4:00pm)

Drop-off care: This type of care is on a as needed basis and is only available when space permits. This type of care is paid by the hour.

Little Treasures CDC has a permit through fairfax county and complies with all applicable licensing regulations and standards. These standards relate to the home, staff, health, safety procedures, nutrition, care giver to child ratios, and record keeping. We believe that these standards are in the best interest of the children. Our home is subject to inspection by state and city health, fire, and licensing officials.

If you will no longer be needing childcare services, one month advance notice needs to be given. Whenever possible even more notice is better. This helps us tremendously. Reason being, unlike childcare centers we can only take 5 children under the age of 5. So when we are full we are forced to say NO to all incoming requests for childcare. If we have advance notice of discontinuation of needed services then it is possible for us make future arrangements with new family’s inquiring about daycare for their child. This helps to keep our open spots fluctuation to a minimum, and helps us be able to focus more on being the best childcare providers we can be, instead of worrying about “the bills”, and putting food on the table.

Provider Opens and Closes when your child arrives and is picked up. Provider does not have set open & close hours. (Each family has specific, pre-arranged contracted drop off & pick up hours).

Early drop-offs/Late pick ups must be pre-arranged & approved IN advance. *Use common courtesy if you are running early or late. If you are unexpectedly 5 or 10-15mins early in the morning, Provider may not be available to let you in due to Providers personal family time. If you are running late /or will not be attending- or arriving later than your normal time, please notify me w/in 30mins of your normal drop off time so I may adjust my morning schedule accordingly.

Late Policy. If your child is picked up after their contracted pick-up time, there will be a late charge assessed of $1.00 for every one minute (unless prior arrangements have been made). Please be courteous and arrive on time. After hours is time with family and also for continuing education for the daycare.

Advanced Notices

Daycare Hours

Parent's Handbook

Termination Policy

Before care is permanent, a two week trial period will take effect to ensure this is the right fit for the child, the parent and the provider. Payment for this 2 week trial period is due up front. There are no refunds for money already paid. During this period, either party may terminate the contract without notice. After the first two weeks of enrollment, four (4) business weeks written notice from parent or provider is required to terminate the contract, with the exception of gross misconduct on part of the provider, parent, or child. This is grounds for immediate discontinuation of service. The 4 week notice period begins on the day the written notice is given to the provider and may not be backdated. Child may either attended/pay-4 full business weeks or must pay up through. If you are terminated by the provider with notice, payment is still required for 4 regular weeks of care. In cases of non-payment, legal action may be taken, and the parents will pay all legal fees incurred.

Provider Vacation Policy / Sick, Personal Days

We allot ourselves two weeks of vacation a year and 5 sick/personal days per calendar year. The dates of our vacation will be posted at least one month in advance. Regular payment rates apply for our vacations, parents vacations, weeks with holidays, and provider's sick/personal days. Note:Parents are responsible for finding back-up care for their children during provider vacations, holidays, and sick/personal days resulting in the daycare closing.

Payment Policy

Form of Payment: Payment made be made by cash, check or through childcarepay.com . Parent will receive invoiced through child care pay and may chose to sign up for reocuring payments through the website. A $1 fee is added for payment through childcarepay.com, this fee goes to the website for their services and not to the provider.

Option One: Payment is due in advance on Friday for the following week or on the first day of the week attending daycare. If payment is received after Tuesday of each week, a $20 late fee will be charged.

Option Two: Payment is due on the first business day of each month or on the first day of the month attending daycare. If received after the second business day of the month a $40 late fee will be charged. It must be understood that to hold your child's space, payment must be paid whether your child attends or not. Payment is based on contract, not attendance. Please let the provider know how you would like to be billed, otherwise, option one will be chosen for you.

The following paragraph only concerns part-time schedules. Unfortunately, we cannot switch around your child’s scheduled days of enrollment on an occasional or semi-occasional basis. In other words, your days contracted are your days and cannot be altered on a weekly basis. If you feel you need and/or want a more flexible schedule then you may want to consider adding days or going to full time. However, keep in mind you can also pay for extra days on an as needed basis for the cost of your current average daily amount (e.g. If you pay $130 per week each additional day would be $65 per).

Note: To figure out the monthly payment you do the following, (weekly amount × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months = monthly amount).

NSF Checks: Due to the inconvenience of NSF checks, a $50 fee will be charged for NSF checks.

Children's Vacation Sick Days

If your child will not be attending daycare due to illness or other, please let us know as soon as possible so the day's activities won't be held up waiting for your child to arrive. Also, we need to know how many children we need to prepare meals for. No discounts will be given for your child's absences due to illness or vacations. If your child will not be attending daycare for what ever reason, you are still required to pay.

Basic Needs of the child

Families are required to provide for the basic needs of the child. This includes making sure that the child is clean, has clothing, gets enough sleep, has nutritious food at home and is not subjected to abuse or neglect. Children are expected to come to daycare, just as they would to a center, clean and with all items needed for their care during the day.

We are required by law to report any suspected incidents of possible child abuse or neglect. Your child can be questioned by child protective services at any time without your consent.

Arrival and Departure

Please send your child clean, dressed (no pajamas, unless you don't mind your child wearing their pajamas all day), fed and ready for the day, as well as all of your child's necessary supplies needed for that day's care. Please do not send food i.e. (half eaten breakfasts, breakfast bars, candy, etc) or gum with the children. Please make your goodbye brief (no more than a couple minutes): the longer you prolong departure the harder it gets for both parent and especially for your child. Never leave without telling your child goodbye. Please be in control of your child during drop-off and pick-up times. No one other than the parent or person designated by you will be allowed to pick up your child without advanced written permission indicating the person's name and relationship to your child. If there is a court order keeping one parent away from the child, we must have a written note from the custodial parent in our file to that effect. Otherwise, we cannot prevent the non-custodial parent from picking up the child.

Supplies Needed at Daycare

Parents are required to supply the following:

Diapers, wipes, rash cream
2 sheets ( for those in cribs- mini crib sheets and those with mats regular crib sheet)
Blankets and pillow for nap
Sippy cups or bottles
Toothbrush (over 1 year olds)
Personal Towel
Seasonal Supplies (Example: Summer- sunscreen and swimming clothes)
2 sets of clothing in a storage bag (Furthermore we suggest that you write your child's name on the tags of their clothing (especially socks and underwear) in order to prevent any clothing mix-ups.)

Your child's crib sheet, blanket, and pillow should be taken home every Friday and washed and retuned to daycare the following Monday.

Note: Please periodically check your child's bin to make sure they still have all of their necessary items needed at daycare. It is the parent's responsibility to check periodically to see if or when your child needs more diapers, wipes, and cream, (not the providers). Further more, as the weather changes throughout the year, so do your child's items needed at daycare. We greatly appreciate your adherence to this subject, as it helps ours and the children's day run more smoothly to have all of his or her necessary belongings with them at daycare. This way we can care for your child in the best possible way.

Open Door Policy

Please feel free to come and go at anytime throughout the day to visit your child. However, please keep in mind that in doing so it can prove to be disruptive to the other children in our care. During times like these the other children have a hard time listening and following our directions. Furthermore, if you or any other part of your family i.e. (grandparents, etc) would like to come and visit or play with the child for an extended period of time, please take the child in question out of the daycare, to places such as your home, a park, or on a walk, etc, after which, feel free to bring the child back to daycare.

Daily Connect

For children 24 months and younger, we utilize an extremely informative mobile app called Daily Connect to keep parents up to date with their child's day. As soon as an event is saved, it is immediately synchronized on each parents account. Everybody has access to the information in real time. Additionally, at the end of each day parents recieve a detailed email listing the events of the day, such as, when your child was given a bottle (if applicable), what they ate and drank, when diapers were changed and what it was, their nap schedule, and any other pertinent information.

Closings

The following days we are CLOSED-

New Years Day
Martin Luther King Day
Presidents Day
Memorial Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veteran's Day
Halloween (closed at 4:00pm)
Thanksgiving Day
Day after Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day

Note: If the holiday falls on a Saturday daycare will be closed the Friday before. If the holiday falls on a Sunday daycare will be closed the Monday after.

Fees

Registration + Supply Fee. A registration and supply fee of $100 must be paid at the time of enrollment. This amount will be used to purchase supplies needed for your children while in my care, including crib, mattress, mats, high chair, child care equipment, toys, educational supplies, supplies used daily for the care of the children.

Yearly Supply Fee. A yearly supply fee of $50 will be invoiced on the anniversary month. This fee is used to help cover costs of new supplies for the children.

Illness

Please notify me if your child will be absent because of illness. If your child is home for more than 5 days she/he must bring a signed physician’s statement when returning to the program. If the child is absent, payment is still expected.

Please inform me of any contagious disease immediately. All families of children in my care will be notified. If your child becomes ill during care, you will be asked to pick up your child within 1 hour. If you cannot be reached, I will call one of the emergency numbers you have listed. Your child may return to child care when the child is no longer sick.

Daily Connect

Child's File

The Following needs to be done (supplied, read or signed) before enrollment and will be on each child's file.

Parent Handbook (read)
Parent-Provider Contract/Enrollment Application (complete/sign/date)
Permission to Administer Form (complete/sign/date)
Emergency Information(complete/sign/date)
Consent for Medical Treatment (complete/sign/date)
Receipt of Parent Notification (sign/date)
Immunization Records. Please provide a copy of updated immunization records each time your child has new immunization shots. Documentation of current immunizations is required in every child’s file.
Current Picture of child (supply)

Communication

So we can provide the best possible care, please feel free to communicate any needs, wants and/or concerns regarding your child. It is only through good parent/provider interaction that good quality nurturing care can be achieved.

Referrals

For past and present clients: a referral from a client is one of the biggest compliments we can receive. As a special thanks to you, we provide families a complimentary date night day care (3 hours care 6pm -9 pm) for each referred child that has successfully enrolled in our daycare.

Expectations of Parents/ Children

Go to sleep/rest independantly
All food and drinks must be kept in the kitchen/dinning area.
No playing in the bathroom.
No coloring on anything but paper.
Name calling and foul language or yelling is not allowed.
Take turns and share.
Help clean up.
Laugh, smile, play, and be happy.

Parents, please help make a smooth transition for your children by trying to follow the routines (especioally nap routines) at your home. As a provider it will be imposible to rock/ hold all the children the children at the same time.

During nap, each child is laid down in his/her crib or mat and nap music is turned on. The child does not have to sleep but needs to reast or play quietly in his/her mat or crib during rest time.

Contract/ Handbook Adherence

This is our home as well as our business, so please be respectful of our family and home by adhering to the policies and procedures outlined in the parent handbook. We realize this is a lot of information to absorb. Because of this, please keep your parent handbook accessible so you can periodically review our policies and procedures as necessary. We reserve the right to amend any portion of the Parent-Provider Contract/Enrollment Application, and Parent Handbook at any time. If and when we do make a change to the contract you will be given a copy.

It is important that you feel comfortable with our policies and procedures. If you do not understand something, have a concern, or you feel uncomfortable with one or more of our policies and/or procedures it is important that you express that to us before enrolling your child in our daycare. We are always open to suggestions and feel communication is a very important part of a quality daycare. If there are any problems or concerns in the future, we encourage you to talk to us about them. If a lengthy discussion is needed, a time that is convenient for both of us will be scheduled, as the other children still need our attention during business hours. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you and care for your little one. We look forward to a future of keeping your child smiling and safe.

Note: By signing the Parent-Provider Contract/Enrollment Application, it is understood that all of the policies and procedures of Little Treasures CDC are understood and agreed upon.