Childcare contract template
The contract is six clauses, and five of them are about money. Put your terms in the fields and the agreement writes itself — then have a local attorney read it before anyone signs.
Fill in your terms; the clauses below rewrite themselves as you type.
- 1. Tuition
Tuition is $300.00 per week, due in advance on the first day of care each week. Tuition holds the place and is charged whether or not the child attends.
- 2. Deposit
A deposit of $300.00 holds the place and is applied to the final week of care, provided the notice in clause 5 is given.
- 3. Late collection
Collection after closing carries a grace period of 5 minutes, after which a fee of $1.00 per minute applies, charged to the following week's invoice.
- 4. Closures
The programme is closed on 8 days each year, published in advance. These days are paid and no credit is given.
- 5. Ending the agreement
Either party may end this agreement with 2 weeks' written notice. Tuition is payable through the notice period whether or not the child attends.
- 6. Signatures
Guardian ____________________ Date ________ · Provider ____________________ Date ________
Money terms, stated once
Tuition, deposit, late collection, closures, notice. Each one appears exactly once, in numbers, with the consequence attached. A contract that says the same thing twice in different words is a contract with an ambiguity in it.
The absence clause is the one families query most. Say plainly that tuition holds the place and is charged whether or not the child attends, because that is what it does — the teacher is in the room either way.
Licensing requirement
Not legal advice
This is a drafting aid. Childcare agreements touch consumer-protection law, deposit rules and, in some states, specific disclosure requirements. Have a local attorney review it before you use it, and again if you change the money terms.
Deposits and the final week
A deposit applied to the final week is the cleanest structure: it holds the place, it is not a penalty, and it disappears into ordinary tuition when the family leaves properly.
Tie it explicitly to the notice clause. A deposit that is forfeited on short notice is doing the work of a liquidated-damages term, and how enforceable that is depends on where you are — which is exactly the sentence an attorney is for.
Ending it, from either side
Two weeks is common, and symmetry matters — a contract that binds the family for a month and lets the programme end care tomorrow will read badly to anyone who checks.
Say what an immediate termination looks like and keep the list short and serious: a safety risk to other children, non-payment beyond a stated point, repeated late collection after warning. Anything vaguer becomes a dispute.
Signatures and what goes with them
The contract, the handbook acknowledgement and the enrolment packet are signed together and filed together. A programme that can produce all three, dated and signed, has answered most of the questions a dispute raises.
Give the family a copy at signing, not a promise of one. The copy in their kitchen drawer is what stops the argument.
Sources
- Child Care Licensing — Childcare.govfetched 2026-09-04