Family Child Care Contracts and Policies, Fourth Edition offers the most up-to-date tools for family child care providers to establish and enforce contracts and policies. Topics include, how to establish good business relationships with parents, what to look for before signing contracts with parents, what information is vital to include in contracts and policies, how to prevent conflicts with parents over contracts and policies, when and how to end a contract. Updates to the new Fourth Edition include offering and charging for part-time care and extended care rates and policies for child care during the summer months expanded advice for how to handle siblings and family discounts expanded advice on charging for vacation time how to handle parent objections to paying for care when a child stays home information on bad-weather policies advice on how to deal with parents visiting during program hours caring for children who aren’t immunized expanded advice for how to turn down a client updated information on comparing income to minimum wage expanded advice for how enforce polices that previously weren’t enforced

The most up-to-date and reliable record-keeping resource for home-based family child care providers

Create a warm and inviting place where children feel at home. Discover the many ways your home can provide comfortable places where children love to learn and love to be. Filled with no- and low-cost ideas, this book demonstrates many unique and practical possibilities for your home's indoor and outdoor spaces. Chapters are packed with colorful photographs and provide examples and tips for designing learning zones, selecting items, organizing materials, and more. Checklists, resources, and questions are included to help you evaluate your setting, implement changes, and create a place that feels like a second home to the children in your care.

START YOUR OWN CHILD-CARE SERVICE AND GET PAID TO CARE FOR KIDS As the number of working parents grows the number of children who need quality childcare grows along with it. That need is creating a tremendous entrepreneurial opportunity for people who love children and want to build a business caring for them. This guide has the latest trends, facts, and figures, along with an updated list of resources to help you create a stable and enriching environment for child development, as well as a sound and profitable business. Learn how to: Choose the type of child care program and services to offer Acquire the right licensing, permits, insurance protection, and state-specific child care licensing Analyze the market, asses the needs of the community, and match services to fit those needs Find the right location, or decide to operate from home Comply with safety regulations and child-care provisions of the Disabilities Act Consider zoning laws, space requirements, and legal determinations of offsite properties Calculate startup costs, get funded, manage finances, create a business plan, and account for the day-to-day operating costs Stay competitive in the market with low-cost marketing tactics Find, hire, and keep good employees

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.