A center is not lucrative? Really? Infants are $1500.00 a month. 1500.00 times 8 is $12,000 a month just for one infant room. My center has two infant rooms which is then $24,000 a month. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem paying a pretty penny for the right center but I do see them as lucrative. But I am sure there are a lot of things to pay for that I don't know about.
Kristine
an infant or infant/toddler center can be much more expensive to operate which was why they can be in such short supply/high demand in some regions.
the biggest factor can be how a state regulates care. in the state my kids received it in the ratio for teacher to child for kids under 18 months was 1 to 4, at age 18 months it increased to 1 to 6 and did'nt increase again until a child hit age 3 (then a single teacher could have up to 12 kids). so it cost 3 times as much in staffing for the infants and most toddlers (and figure that's not just salary-it's all the associated employee costs). infant centers also are much more strongly regulated as to the maximum number they can have in one "room"-in some states it's only 12 until the child hits 27 monhts, and you can't co-mingle kids in different age groups (unlike older daycare where you might have older 2's, 3's and 4's broken into different groups but housed in the same "room"). the insurance is also insanely higher, as are the qualifications for staffing (at least in the state i worked in-there a preschool could hire so long as someone was in the process of taking ece classes, an infant/toddler center employee had to have already completed so many units).
the center my kids used to go to has one of the only infant/toddler programs in that area and for years they have looked at closing it down in favor of just doing the preschool set. i think they've only kept it because they know they would lose out on those kids automaticaly transitioning into their preschool (and they'de lose the preschool sibs of the i/t's if the parents had to find alternate care) but the dollars and cents made sense-they charge only a few hundred less a month for full time preschool (includes before and after care for the same hours the i/t center operates) so you figure if while they would "lose" 24 students at say $36,000 per month, they could turn around and covert the space to house 5-12 child each "preschool" classes that would reap $72,000 per month with as much as a 2/3'rds reduction in staffing.
i don't know what it's like in other regions-but the ones that were around us did'nt hold spots (unless you were willing to pay the tuition for all those months), required a new application and registration fee 2 times per year-for the summer program and the traditional school year months (around $500 in fees associated with that), required either 20 hours per year in parent volunteer time or a waiving fee of $200-you provided EVERYTHING (wipes, tissues, diapers, your own feeding utensils/bowls/sippy cups/bottles...)-AND (this was the killer for many parents) mirrored the school calendar, so any minimum days for the school, the center closed early, any holidays or teacher in services days (even though the i/t teachers did'nt participate) the center was closed, and all school breaks (3 weeks at christmas, 1 week in the spring, and 2 weeks following the end of the school year/2 weeks preceding the start of the school year when summer session was'nt offered)-they were closed
oh-and they offered nothing other than full time slots-even if you only needed part time, you had to pay as though your child was going to be there monday-friday from 7 am-6 pm
i honestly pay less now in private school tuition for BOTH of my kids than i paid over 10 years ago for i/t care
