Effective Parent Fee Policies

The article, "State-of-the-Art Thinking on Parent Fee Policies," in The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations, includes many suggestions for developing effective policies.  For example:

*  Don't set policies you won't enforce.  It is easy to write tough policies to deal with all your problems.  However, policies accomplish their purpose only if they are enforced by real people in real life.  The cleverest late pick-up policy is worthless if you lack the commitment to enforce it, or if you only enforce it intermittently....

*  No small print, no surprises.  Parents won't be influenced by policies they aren't aware of.  At intake, carefully review in person your key policies on withdrawals, absences, late pick-ups, and late payments so parents clearly know in advance what the rules are....

*  Watch the tone.  In writing policies it is natural to slip into a negative, legalistic tone.  This often leads to policies that are far from family friendly....Don't lecture or moralize.  Show respect for parents, assume their intentions are good, and their perspective into account....

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