I'm in the process of looking for day care for LO since I may be unexpectedly returning to work at the end of the month, rather than September when my maternity leave ends.
I'm looking at day cares in our area, and many of the larger facilities want you to fill out an application (with a $50.00 application fee) before they'll even let you tour the facility, or interview them or tell you if they even have spaces available. Is this a common thing??
honeydew / 7444 posts
Yes. This one preschool required a $100 application fee before we could find out the tuition fee.
For daycare centres, i think it's a bit unusual for them to require the fee before getting a tour. For the ones that required a fee, they allowed us to tour the facility first.
coconut / 8430 posts
What!? That seems crazy! How do you know if you want to send your kid there if you can't even see it without a tour or knowing the tuition rates!?
We toured all of the daycares in the area for free. We only paid the application fee to put our name on the waiting list.
GOLD / pomelo / 5737 posts
We are looking too and that hasn't been the experience for us. Even the priciest one we considered (almost $1700/mo after tax) didn't require a deposit unless we decided we wanted to go with them. We are looking for daycare for our 18 month old (well she will be next month when she starts.) Not sure if the age difference makes a difference.
pomegranate / 3113 posts
All the daycares in our area have application/waitlist fees, separate from the deposit you pay to hold your spot once you get one. At most of them, you can pay the application fee before or after your tour, but at the one we're sending LO to, you actually have to take the tour before they will let you onto the waitlist. Application fees ranged from $25 to $400 (crazy, right?) and are nonrefundable even if you don't get a spot or decide to send your child elsewhere.
GOLD / cantaloupe / 6581 posts
Yep. We spent over 200$ on deposits and application fees for our LO. It was ridiculous, but very common in our area.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
That is nuts!! I would be stalking parents in the parking lot for information before I blindly gave some $100.
pomegranate / 3411 posts
that sounds crazy to me, definitely common in Toronto. i was allowed to tour and get info over the phone about tuition etc.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
My dream center has a $50 application free usable towards tuition. But it's definitely not before even touring or knowing how much it is!
cantaloupe / 6171 posts
The centers we applied to all have application fees separate from deposits if they offer you a place off the waiting list, but I didn't have to pay them until after touring the center and getting all the tuition info from them. One of them didn't even provide the application until parents come tour the center.
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