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My daughter won first place today.  She was the first one in our family to get a cold this year.  Just the plain old common cold variety, thank goodness, but still sick nonetheless.  It has to happen, as it seems to every year.  And this makes me wonder.

Have you reviewed your daycare’s sick policies lately?

If you’ve made changes, have they been communicated to your parents lately?
This is the best time of year to review your sick policies.  We are just going into flu season so it still isn’t a major problem, but it’s top of mind with parents right now.  If you don’t have a sick policy yet, you still have time to get one created & communicated before the flu season gets out of hand.
Some points to think about when reviewing your policy for this year:

• Does it meet or exceed the state requirements?  Many states have been updating their rules this year so make sure you are still following at least what they require.  Due to swine flu (H1N1 virus), some states may have big changes.
• Make sure your rules are tough but not too tough.  You don’t want sick children at school spreading germs, but sending them home every time their nose runs will cause parents to complain (and rightly so).
• Do you have a place set up to care for sick children?  Kids can go downhill fast when a cold comes on. You will want to separate them from others, so make sure you have a cozy corner set up with warm blankets and something to do away from the other kids.
• Make sure to review with your staff what the rules are, like when children will need to be sent home and who is to be notified.  Also review with staff signs of illness, especially H1N1, the 2009 flu strain, and bronchitis.
• Send home a copy of the sick policies with parents.  I know it’s in the policy handbook and I’m sure every parent reads it cover to cover, but just to be sure send a new copy home.  It’s always better to keep parents over-informed than under-informed. This is just another great way to show your care and professionalism.
• If parents may need to have somebody other than themselves (i.e. grandparents, aunts, uncles, babysitters) to pick up sick children, now is the time to prepare.  You will need to get a signed release with the name of the person in the child’s records, and you should get a copy of the person’s driver’s license also.  This way you and your staff can be sure in a very stressful time.
• Consider having face masks on hand in both adult and kids sizes.  These can help keep germs from spreading when people cough and sneeze.
• Review with your staff when they will need to call in sick.  Also make sure you have a plan for replacing sick caregivers.
• Have a plan in place to clean and disinfect rooms and the entire facility.  If colds or flu start spreading fast through your center, you may need to clean your entire facility quickly to remove the germs.
• Think about how you would contact parents if you have to close your daycare.  State and local governments and most school districts have put thought into when they may need to close schools this year because of swine flu, you should do the same.  A couple of minutes of planning will go a long way in helping you out later.
• Consider if you and your staff are going to get flu and H1N1 vaccines this year.  They both should be available soon, but do have side effects.  If you are going to get them, now is the time. You should also think about if you will pay for these vaccines or not on behalf of your staff.  It may sound like a lot, but what is the cost of losing 2-3 care givers?

Obviously this is just a quick list of things you should be thinking about going into the cold and flu season.  With any luck we will get through this season just as well as we have all the others.
So who’s going to be the first one in your family to get sick?

Remember the TV show “Ally McBeal”? One of the characters in the show constantly apologized for being “snappish”. If your daycare staff is being snippy with your parents, what’s the real cost to you? I’m here to tell you it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars, all in just ten seconds time. That’s one thousand dollars per second, folks.

But first let me tell you the story that has caused me to write this today.

I agreed to help out one of my girlfriends by taking her new dog to the vet this morning for an operation. My friend is a nurse in the local pediatrics hospital and was called in last minute, and as I was working from home I agreed to help out. The vet”s office is 10 minutes from me, not a big deal.

My friend tells me I can drop her dog off any time after 8:45 in the morning. My family got a slow start today, and I spent a lot of time with my daughter’s daycare helping them tweak some holiday promotions. All in all, I didn’t get the dog to the vet”s office until 9:30.

This is where 5 seconds cost this office a lot of money. I walk in with the dog, not as the owner just a friend to the VERY snappish receptionist who tells me “Well, you were supposed to be here at 8:45! Hmph! You’re lucky we don’t have anything else planed or we would have to reschedule!”  I was miscommunicated to, sorry, but as it wasn’t a problem why bring it up?

Now I have a very negative feeling of this vet. I can assure you I won’t use them even though they are 30 minutes closer than my current vet and cheaper. Plus I’ve already told several other people about this and probably won’t stop any time soon. It is going to take a lot of work and praise for this veterinary office to recover from this episode of extreme snappishness.

In less than 10 seconds, this office lost all of my business and the business of many of the people I talk to. Easily thousands of dollars lost this year, and from any future profits they may have had. Ouch!

Is something like this happening at your daycare?

When parents drop of late or forget something, how is your staff responding? Are they friendly and helpful?… or snappy? Do you even know?

If the parents are doing something mildly annoying, but it’s not hurting anyone, probably nothing needs to even be said. If it’s becoming a problem, remind you staff how to politely offer the parent a gentle reminder and the reason why. “I just wanted to remind you we ask you to drop off kids before 9:00. This is because after 9, it becomes disruptive to the class and your child may miss something fun. It would be very helpful for all of us. Thanks.”

If the outcome changes because of the problem move on to solving the problem not rehashing what went wrong. Try your best not to blame but to solve the problem, that’s all that really matters. Nobody can do anything about the past now, the best you can do is make the future the best it can be. “I’m sorry but the kids have already left for the field trip, to get them back for lunch they had to leave at 9. If you want we can some fun activities set up here or you can meet up with the others at _______ and go from there.”

Spend some time working with your staff to make sure they are responding the way you hope they would. Let them know what you want and how you want problems dealt with. This little bit of extra effort can pay a huge dividend to you.

Although you might not lose your current parents over snippy responses I can assure you they will tell their friends and they won’t be jumping to come join you.

It doesn’t take one big thing to grow your daycare, it takes hundreds of small simple things, built one upon the other. The more you get right the bigger you’ll become.

Check out my family in this recent picture.  Can you pick out the one that doesn’t belong?  Yep, that’s my husband, die hard to his old team to the end.  Our family loves to dress up like this, and so do most kids, so have some fun with your local teams.

Check the schedule or the major sports teams in your town.  Find out when they are playing and what the major games may be. If you’re not sure, ask the dads of a couple of your kids, they’ll know.  Then plan a day or week around the team.

If your baseball team made the playoffs, have a baseball week with everyone wearing team colors on Friday.  You can have hot dogs and caramel corn (Cracker Jacks has peanuts) for lunch.

When your football team has a weekday game or major rivalry, have a football week.

Some great ideas of things you can do:

• Use the sport to teach math and words.  Use the game as a basis for the learning.
• Create art and projects around the game.  Think painting helmets or a hand print.
• Use this as a great time to teach fair play and sportsmanship.
• Teach the rules of the game.  Kids love to know how to play, so teach them.
• Contact your sports team’s PR office and see if they can send you some “autographed” photos of players or the mascot.  Most teams have piles of these they will happily send to you.
• If you live close to a major team, you might even consider a field trip to the stadium if you can set up a tour.

Activities like this are a great way to grow your center and your brand. Children love sports and teams.  They will get excited as they get ready for the week and the dressing up at the end of the week they will be bouncing off the walls with happiness.

The kids and their parents will tell friends and neighbors about the sports week.  Now you will be the daycare on everyone’s mind.  Plus all the art work and other projects come home and to the office.  Yes the kids love it, but it is also another great way to show off and remind parents why you are the best place for their kids to be.