I am a new one who just came to Zurich 3 weeks ago. I have reserved a full time daycare position for my daughter. Last week, we started to have the acclimatization for my daughter. The process is that we can only put my daughter in the daycare for 1-2 hours per day and at least one parent needs to accompany her. They said we need to do this about 2 weeks and then can start the full day daycare. But during this time, we need to pay the whole tuition fee which is 130 CHF per day. Is this a normal process in Switzerland? Can we quit at the beginning? I am looking forward to your answers and suggestions. Thanks a lot.
Pretty much standard. You start your contract with them and you pay the full price even at the acclimatisation stage.
You could quit but your contract will probably say you have to cough up 1-3 months fees, then you'll find that most other daycare places have exactly the same conditions.
Its normal. I believe they can even charge more during the acclimatisation stage. But this is sort of negotiable. Not the price but the period. If your child is getting on well there, there is no reason not to leave her there. And if you live close by then you can also extend the daily duration or wait until the day care call and she needs collecting
As for cancelling the contract, the penalty will depend on the policy/contract documents given to you by the individual daycare. Certainly expect to pay 1-3 months fees and also you may lose your deposit if you paid one.
I did the acclimatisation phase with my children too. But i didn't have to pay the full day fees. We payed 20fr per hour. I was only there for the whole hours they were there the first 2 days which was just about 2/3 hours. The fourth day, they let me go for about 30 minutes then they kept increasing the time for which i was away. But they told me to be available incase it doesn't go well then they have to call me back.
There was a CHF 220 fee for each for the acclimatization period. It took about a week and a half with 5 total visits, each longer than the last. The first visit was 30 minutes, the last was from 09:00 until 14:00.
In Bern we did not have to pay the full price during the acclimatization; it was a much reduced price until they were in there fully for more than a few hours after 2 weeks or so.
I have visited many daycare centres, and the answer is that it depends. In the Zurich silvercoast region, I have only seen one that charges 400 CHF for the 2 week familiarization period and then the normal rate, all the other charge the full rate from day 1, even though day 1 means 30 minutes.
Neither kita we used charged a full rate for the settling in period. I don't remember how much, but it was not even close to a daily rate. The two week settling in period, though, is very standard. The price sounds fishy.... unfortunately in some neighborhoods there is such a big demand that they can require all sorts of crazy things.