What is considered Half-Day for Day Care?

[stellablue]

We are starting to look into the dreaded costs and details of putting an infant in day care

I am a teacher and I work until 3pm. We would want Day Care from 8:30-3:30.

I found a website of a local child care facility that charges by the day or by the half-day.

Does anyone know how many hours usually constitute a "day" fee and how many hours usually constitute a "half day" fee??

Thanks!

 

[brookmey]

When DD was in daycare 6 years ago, 1/2 day was 5 hours.

 

[NovemberBravo]

My daycare provider considered half day as less than 4 hours.

 

[tzolkin]

The places where I live have a set time (usually 11:30am), not a number of hours that are considere half days.

So if your child is there from 11:00 to 1:00 that is considered a "full" day. This ensures that even if your child is enrolled in the half-day PreK program (morning goes until 11 and afternoon starts at 12:30) at the public schools that you still wind up having to pay for full-day daycare

 

[stellablue]

When DD was in daycare 6 years ago, 1/2 day was 5 hours.

Thanks!

Day care is quite new to me. If you want an extra 1-2 hours after the 5 hours, do they bump you right up to full day fee or will they generally work with you and pro-rate the fee?

 

[stellablue]

Hmm...so it looks like it's different for each place.....I'm looking for an 8:30-3:30 type of schedule. Looks like that would still be full-day, huh?

Weird-looks the the Disboards are acting up-my posts keep showing up in the wrong order!

 

[Pigeon]

Dh is a teacher and when we were looking at daycares, anything more than 4 hours was full time.

 

[Kellydelly]

I believe anything over 4 hrs and you will be paying for fulltime.

 

[ferris198]

Son was in full then changed to half.
I continued to pay for full in case I needed it.

 

[MariDisney]

When my daughter was in daycare and preschool there was Full Day (9-3), Half Day (9-12), Before Care (7-9) and After Care (3-5). Each segment was priced separately and you could buy different amounts for different days as long as it stayed the same from week to week (you could change a certain number of times per year or quarter or something). So our schedule was something like:
M:9-5
T: 9-3
W:9-12
Th:9-5
F: 9-12

 

[Pigeon]

I also found very little flexibility. Daycares, whether a center or in-home, need to have certain slots filled to generate appropriate income. They are staffed or licensed for only a certain number of kids.

I had fantasies of being able to adust my hours to work part time, but what would have worked for my employer would have required me to still pay for full time daycare, so it was a no-go.

 

[clm10308]

When my kids were little, there was such a high demand for quality centers that would take infants that all of the centers I checked out did not take part time infants. I don't know if that is the same now. You might have better luck with home based.

 

[Luv2Scrap]

We are starting to look into the dreaded costs and details of putting our infant in day care

I am a teacher and I work until 3pm. We would want Day Care from 8:30-3:30.

I found a website of a local child care facility that charges by the day or by the half-day.

Does anyone know how many hours usually constitute a "day" fee and how many hours usually constitute a "half day" fee??

Thanks!

In our area half day is usually 5 hours or less. There are also many providers that charge hourly so you aren't paying for more than you are using (but they may have minimums). But a 7 hour shift is most certainly going to be a full day just about anywhere you go (I process child care assistance billing forms for my county).

 

[daisyduck123]

Hmm...so it looks like it's different for each place.....I'm looking for an 8:30-3:30 type of schedule. Looks like that would still be full-day, huh?

Weird-looks the the Disboards are acting up-my posts keep showing up in the wrong order!

8:30-3:30 as "half-day"?

I would not waste my time in searching. I'm not sure how anyone could think that would be just half a day. That's seven hours. I'm almost sure you will not find any daycare that would consider that half-day. Seems like almost a full-day to me.

 

[jrmasm]

Hmm...so it looks like it's different for each place.....I'm looking for an 8:30-3:30 type of schedule. Looks like that would still be full-day, huh?Weird-looks the the Disboards are acting up-my posts keep showing up in the wrong order!

Yes, that is full time.

 

[Christine]

When my daughter was in daycare and preschool there was Full Day (9-3), Half Day (9-12), Before Care (7-9) and After Care (3-5). Each segment was priced separately and you could buy different amounts for different days as long as it stayed the same from week to week (you could change a certain number of times per year or quarter or something).

This is exactly how my childrens' daycare schedule ran.

 

[zoemurr]

your child wouldn't be there a "full day" you would still be taking a full day spot as another child would not be there from 3:30-6 only.

The cost of running the center doesn't change 'cause your child leaves a few hours earlier than most.

Also, w/meetings, conferences, whatever (a quick run to the store) having that buffer of being able to arrive later will be nice.

I believe our daycare 1/2 day was 12 or 12:30.

Have you put your name on some waiting lists? Most centers take very few infants (siblings first) and it's difficult to get into a good one.

 

[Allison]

7 hours a day is not going to be considered half time anywhere.

 

[tzolkin]

Thanks!

Day care is quite new to me. If you want an extra 1-2 hours after the 5 hours, do they bump you right up to full day fee or will they generally work with you and pro-rate the fee?

Every daycare center in our area does not charge by the hours. They are either full or half day and there is a set price for the month. You pay the full price regardless of how many "school" days there are that month or how much time they actually watch your child.

I stayed at home with my kids until last year when my youngest was 4 and never even paid for a babysitter. I always knew daycare was very expensive (that's why I stayed home), but I hadn't really considered all the details. It was a bit difficult to pay hundreds of dollars for weeks that were school breaks, when we went on vacation, when he was sick, etc. But basically you are paying for the child's space at the center, not the actual time they are being watched.