“疫情期间，政府都下令居家避疫了，但幼儿园还在每月给我寄账单，这是要干嘛？”

Really depends on your situation: Near me daycare fills up super fast (normally) - so keeping a slot is worth a fair amount of money. While I think there will be openings on the other side of this (job loss and relocation) my guess is smaller daycares will probably fold if they don't get support.

We got an email from our daycare recently outlining "two" options: We can pay 50% tuition to retain our spot, or if we pay 100% tuition, the upcoming, undefined, tuition hike won't apply to us. They leave out the third option - not paying and losing our spot. So we're doing the risk/benefit on this: Last year they didn't raise rates (a few new centers opened, so they had more competition), but the year before rates went up 10%. If we pay 100% for a month and rates do go up 10%, we would save money. However, they might not raise rates next year and they could even go out of business. The center could stay closed for months, upping the savings from the 50% option. Additionally, we have no idea what the staffing situation will be like and could end up losing the teachers and supervisors we really like. Right now, we're leaning towards the 50% option.

Most of the comments I’m seeing here are from parents (customers), but to offer another opinion, I am a daycare provider. I teach a class of 22 Pre-K students (36-60 months) and I love each of them dearly.

Our families are, literally, our family. I live in New York, and watching this progress, our directors had no choice but to close down our Center last week. It really was a devastating situation. The two women who own/direct the program can’t get any grants because we shut down before we were mandated to by the government. They receive no unemployment, and neither do us teachers unless we get a grant. In order to keep our doors open and teachers on staff for when all of this is over, parents NEED to pay something. That is literally our only source of income, and if we don’t request it, we will close. Thankfully, my Center has discounted rates, but we still have to ask for something.

It hurts my heart hearing that some people think Centers are trying to gouge families in a difficult time. I do understand the frustration though! I’m a minimum wage worker without work too, and I know I’m trying to cut my own bills down if I can. I just want to offer another view that most daycares are trying to be flexible, keep people healthy, and remain open if possible.

Somewhat knowledgeable on this, I do know that many child cares work on contracts. They need to make sure the money keeps coming in to pay salaries, rent, insurance, utilities, taxes, etc, which combined run into thousands of dollars per month.

They can't just take walk-ins on a daily basis to make up for lost revenue from a family who went on vacation for a few weeks. There is a process and paperwork before a child can be accepted at a daycare and majority of people seek long term daycare. So, If not for the contracts, the family who went on vacation couldn't be assured that there would be a spot for their child when they returned.

With that said, this is definitely a situation beyond anyone's control and no one should have to pay. But will that force daycares to shut their doors if the government passes them by?.. the fact that there was a "small business development program" to promote creation and expansion of small "mom&pop" businesses but when I called was told the business had to be worth over 1 million dollars, shows that its possible true small businesses may be overlooked once again.

Sorry for the rambling, just wanted to give you insight as to why not to feel cheated if you still had to pay in the end.

The best advice I can give you is call the daycare and express your concern. That is your best first step. If nothing comes of it, try calling the local child care council, they should be able to help you even further.

Good luck.