Sliding Fee Scale Basics

In her recently revised handbook, The Bottom Line for Children's Programs: What You Need to Know to Manage Your Money, Gwen Morgan (and Bess Emanuel) provide some basic insights on the mechanics and politics of sliding fee scales in early childhood programs:

"Many child care programs are trying to find ways for parents to pay what they can afford, on a sliding fee scale....  The basic thing to remember is that when parents pay what they can afford, rather than the cost, somebody else has to pay the difference between what the parent can pay and the cost of the service to the center....

"Sometimes sliding fees assume that the highest fee paid by a parent is the actual cost of the service.  Fees less than the full cost are like scholarship aid, helping the parents who cannot pay the full cost.  Some centers call them scholarship or tuition assistance.  Some not-for-profit programs have tried setting the top fee higher than the cost of service, in an effort to have the high-income parents subsidize the lower-income parents.  This 'Robin Hood' kind of fee schedule is not usually acceptable to parents.  The full cost of service is so great that, while there are some, very few parents would willingly pay even more to help out families with less ability to pay."

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