Daycare contract: what a provider-family agreement should include

The fee section is the part of a daycare contract that gets quoted back to you, so it earns exact wording.

It states the tuition for each schedule and age group you offer, the billing cycle and the date payment is due, the payment methods you accept, and every charge beyond tuition — registration, supply or activity fees, deposit terms — so the full cost of a slot is on paper before the first day.

It also settles what happens when a payment is late, when a payment is returned, and whether closures, holidays and absences are billed or credited.

Two drafting habits keep billing out of the classroom: figures and dates written exactly, and one named owner for billing questions, so the classroom teacher never becomes the collections desk.

Absence terms deserve their own sentence because they are your decision to make, and subsidy families give them a second layer.

Under the federal Child Care and Development Fund rule at 45 CFR 98.45(m), a state may pay providers based on enrollment rather than attendance, or pay in full when a child attends at least 85% of authorized time, among other options — so the payment basis the subsidy agency in your state uses shapes which absence terms are worth writing down.

Confirm how your state's agency pays before you finalize the clause.

What the rates themselves should be is a separate piece of work — how to set daycare tuition rates covers the inputs.

The contract's job is narrower: state the amount, the date it is due, and what happens when it is not paid.

Hours live in two documents, and the contract is one of them.

Texas child care centers must keep written operational policies covering, among other topics, the hours, days and months of operation and procedures for the release of children (26 TAC 746.501) — that is the policy side.

The contract states the same facts for one family: the schedule that family is reserving, the drop-off and pickup windows that come with it, and the options and charges when the family needs more time than the schedule covers.

The daycare late pickup policy is the clause your closing staff will use, so write it as a procedure: the time pickup closes, the clock the fee runs on, the fee itself, and how the arrival time is documented.

A late pickup is not an abstract inconvenience — it is a staff member staying past the end of a shift, which is why the fee and the clock belong in the signed agreement rather than in a reminder after it has already happened.

The staff-facing half of the procedure lives separately: who checks the sign-in record, who stays with the child, and how the charge is collected are steps for your staff handbook, so the policy is applied the same way on every teacher's watch.

Fees and clocks are program terms, but state rules sit underneath them. Whether your state's child care licensing agency limits any fee a provider may charge an enrolled family, and what it expects the written policy to say, is a question to settle with that agency before you print the amount.

The termination clause is the one you write hoping never to use, and the one that decides whether a departure is orderly.

It states the notice each side gives — a window, in writing, with an effective date — that tuition is due through the last day of attendance, and what happens to a deposit or prepaid tuition when the agreement ends early.

Name the grounds on which your program may end the agreement immediately as well: the circumstances you define, such as nonpayment or conduct that puts children or staff at risk, written specifically enough that a director never has to improvise them in the hallway.

Notice is a staffing tool as much as a family term.

Enrollment is what your schedule and rooms are built on, so a written window is what turns a withdrawal into a hiring plan instead of an uncovered classroom — and the same window lets a family plan a move without guessing.

Whichever window you choose, brief your staff on it: the person at the front door should know what a family's notice sets in motion.

Keep the paper with the record.

Texas requires a child care center's signed enrollment agreement — the document that includes the operational policies — to be kept in the child's record (26 TAC 746.503), a habit worth copying whatever your state calls the document: signed contracts and any later amendments stay retrievable while the family is enrolled.

Ask your state child care licensing agency how long your state expects records kept after a child leaves.

The clauses below are a daycare contract template to adapt: bracketed placeholders where your terms go, deleted where they do not apply, and checked against your state's rules before a family signs.

Sample wording is a starting point, not legal language — whether a clause does what you intend in your state is a question for your attorney.

1. Payment terms. Tuition for [schedule] is [amount] per [billing period], due on [date]. Payments may be made by [methods]. Tuition is due for all enrolled days, including days the child does not attend, unless the program states otherwise in writing. A payment received more than [grace period] after the due date carries a [late fee]; a returned payment carries a [returned-payment fee].
2. Late pickup. The program's day ends at [pickup time]. If the child has not been picked up by [pickup time], a late pickup fee of [amount] per [interval] applies and is payable at pickup. The pickup time is recorded on the sign-in sheet.
3. Termination. Either the program or the family may end this agreement by giving [number] days' written notice. Tuition is due through the last day of attendance, and [deposit terms]. The program may end this agreement immediately if [grounds the program defines].
4. Operational policies. The family has received the program's written policies, covering [topics], which are part of this agreement. Material changes to those policies take effect on [effective date] after notice to the family. At Texas child care centers the signed enrollment agreement must include at least the required operational policies (26 TAC 746.503) — this clause is the work that requirement asks for.
5. Release of child. The child will be released only to a parent or a person listed on the authorized-pickup list the family provided at enrollment. Staff will ask for photo identification for any pickup they do not recognize.

Write the contract, the parent handbook and your enrollment paperwork as one project so the terms match across all three: the handbook carries the full written policies this agreement incorporates, and the two documents should never state different fees or pickup times.

If you are drafting your first agreements as part of opening a center, draft them alongside your licensing application, then confirm the policy and signature requirements with your licensing consultant before you print.

This page is employer information, not licensing or legal advice. What your state requires an enrollment agreement to contain, and whether families must sign one, is a question for your state child care licensing agency; whether your contract's terms are enforceable is a question for your attorney.