Terminating care for a child....

saralynn2006 · #1 11-13-2012, 12:45 PM

I have had reoccurring issues with behavior of one of my preschool children (age 4), as well as reoccurring issues with his parents paying on time. I had a parent of another child (age 2) tell me today that their child had learned inappropriate language from the above child, and was very upset. The 2 yr old child had told their mom that they learned the word boob from the 4 year old. I did not hear the 4 year old say the word, but he has said inappropriate things before (it would not surprise me if he did say boob). I just don't know how to go about terminating care for this child. I have his pt conference on Friday evening and was going to bring it up then. I have not received my payment for the last 3 weeks of care, so I would also like to wait until I at least receive that as well as I am sure I will not see anything after I tell them about this incident. Any suggestions for this dilemma? I will be out over 300 dollars if she decides to up and leave without paying for the last weeks of care!

Caesar753 · #2 11-13-2012, 01:36 PM

Do you have a contract with this parent?

ozteach · #3 11-13-2012, 02:15 PM

I would not be comfortable terminating care for a child based on something another parent had told me about that child. You would need carefully documented evidence of problems and the strategies you have used to address these. If the problem is lack of payment rather than behaviour, this is a legal matter. You should have procedures in place to deal with this. I would raise the language issue (not such a big deal, a fairly mild word really) and I would discuss some plans for payment and consequences for lack of payment.

MissScrimmage · #4 11-13-2012, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozteach

I would not be comfortable terminating care for a child based on something another parent had told me about that child. You would need carefully documented evidence of problems and the strategies you have used to address these. If the problem is lack of payment rather than behaviour, this is a legal matter. You should have procedures in place to deal with this. I would raise the language issue (not such a big deal, a fairly mild word really) and I would discuss some plans for payment and consequences for lack of payment.

Excellent advice.

kpa1b2 · #5 11-13-2012, 05:44 PM

I would refer back to the payment policy & follow that.

As for the behavior issues, make sure you document what you saw him do & the consequences for his behavior.

saralynn2006 · #6 11-13-2012, 05:55 PM

This is not his first behavior problem. I have witnessed him talking inappropriately with a school age child I care for (telling her shes so beautiful that he can't stop looking at her, telling her that her hair smells good, etc.)....just things that a 4 year old shouldn't really be saying. He has also talked about his mother's bras, and even asked me out on a date!!!

I have not been as strict with his parent regarding paying as I should be

, but the behavior problems are the real issue here. I don't want these problems to continue escalating until more parents start to complain about it. I just don't really know how to go about solving this situation. I have never had to terminate care for anyone before, so I am just very nervous! I don't know if I should give the parent a final warning about pay and his behavior issues, or just terminate now. It has been ongoing since he started in July and just has gotten progressively worse.

EdEd · #7 11-13-2012, 06:16 PM

I think the best thing, if you'd be okay with it, would be to have a set of procedures in place that ended in termination, but with intermediate steps that the parent was informed of. For example, there might be a suspension, or there might be a warning - ideally 3 or more steps in place to warn the family and attempt corrective action. Certainly part of this process, if resources are available, would be coming up with a behavior plan, monitoring that plan, and trying a second round of strategies if the first didn't work out. As this process happens, the parents knows that you're moving in a bad direction which could result in termination at some point in a few months. This way the parent has warning, can help make things better, and you can say you've tried a number of things, and have run out of resources to address the situation.

Caesar753 · #8 11-13-2012, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdEd

I think the best thing, if you'd be okay with it, would be to have a set of procedures in place that ended in termination, but with intermediate steps that the parent was informed of. For example, there might be a suspension, or there might be a warning - ideally 3 or more steps in place to warn the family and attempt corrective action. Certainly part of this process, if resources are available, would be coming up with a behavior plan, monitoring that plan, and trying a second round of strategies if the first didn't work out. As this process happens, the parents knows that you're moving in a bad direction which could result in termination at some point in a few months. This way the parent has warning, can help make things better, and you can say you've tried a number of things, and have run out of resources to address the situation.

That's a lot of work to accommodate parents who aren't even paying for services.

Non-payment is enough to warrant termination of services, in my opinion, especially if this has been an ongoing issue. What does your contract with the parent say about payment?

EdEd · #9 11-13-2012, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caesar753

That's a lot of work to accommodate parents who aren't even paying for services.

Non-payment is enough to warrant termination of services, in my opinion, especially if this has been an ongoing issue. What does your contract with the parent say about payment?

I agree with you. As a private provider, I think you can always determine that the family isn't meeting your criteria and move to terminate. My comments were more related to a focus on making sure you've done everything possible for the family. As a business, you wouldn't owe that to the family, but from a more "mission-related" perspective I personally would feel inclined to try my best to help the child.

Tasha · #10 11-13-2012, 06:51 PM

The daycare I worked for had a policy for nonpayment that was pretty clear - payment was due on Tuesday and if it was not recived by Friday (with a late charge) the kids would not be admitted Monday morning. Since you have been having a payment problem, I would give them some notice to come completely up to date within a week or care will be terminated.

The behaviors you described don't sound that bad, really, just odd, but it is privare care, so you are really in control. Again, I would tell the parents that his behavior is not acceptable and they have 1-2 weeks to find alternate care (this depends on how hard it is to find child care in your area).