A fiduciary duty is a moral and legal obligation to the best interest of another party. Lawyers have this duty. Doctors have this duty. Certain financial advisers even have this duty. But educators do not. How could this be and how could this even be possible?
Many schools do not put kids first, but we have a simple solution to solve this problem. [Keep reading.]
Fiduciary Duty – noun; A moral obligation to act within the best interests of another party
Lack of this duty has become a real problem, and has created a culture where children (and people) are disrespected and diminished. It has, probably single-handedly, created the problem of school shootings that plague public schools in America. Politicians are arguing about guns, but not talking about the most basic virtue that’s missing from schools. (That’s a whole other rabbit hole we won’t get into with this article.)
The fiduciary duty is our PRIMARY principal out of the five for our operation. It’s undoubtedly the most important component to our entire daycare operation.
6 Myths That Cause the Problem:
- Decisions are made for the wrong reasons. If a daycare does not have a fiduciary duty there is NOTHING stopping them from setting kids in front of TVs, feeding them chocolate cupcakes instead of real food, and unwittingly poisoning them with toxic cleaning chemicals.
- It costs more money to have this duty. For example: Organic food costs more than conventional. Bleach costs less money and has a longer shelf life than the non-toxic and more powerful HCL (hypochlorous acid) which needs to be manufactured with a specialized electrolysis machine. No duty means a school can use any product legally allowed. (Which basically means anything.)
- It is inconvenient! The best example is with daycares who must do diaper changes. This is considered by parents and caregivers alike to be an “unpleasant” activity, so the child is rushed and roughed through it as fast as possible. Spraying bleach and fragrance chemicals into the air to sanitize and mask smells . Alternatively, a caregiver with a fiduciary duty will use the 7000 minutes of diaper changing (amount of time one child gets diaper changed in) as an opportunity to connect and deepen the relationship through this very personal and private procedure.
- A educator cannot love your child without a fiduciary duty. Love doesn’t need self-sacrifice or even altruism. At the very least it needs to put the needs of the other person first. As parents we all have this duty baked into the love of our child. If you want a place where your child is truly loved, then your providers need to have the same duties you do. (This idea about sharing parenting duties is another one of our key principles.)
- It is bad for student retention and is therefore “bad for business.” Beyond the increase in expenses and inconvenience, this legal duty can cause a direct loss of business. The best example of why it is bad for business is seen with bigbox daycare operations, and it takes a bit of mental exercise to quickly understand how the lack of a legal fiduciary duty is such a big obstacle to honest communication.
Imagine you move to a new city with your toddler (who was formerly enrolled peacefully at a McDaycare with no fiduciary duty) and enroll them in a small daycare operation. Your child is going through the correct developmental stages and is distressed when they get in entanglements with the other kids. The provider regularly discloses, “Your child is having a hard time playing with others.” They may recommend something you can do to help your child.
You think or may even say, “My child didn’t have this problem at the other daycare.” You then find another Big Box daycare and enroll your child there, suddenly your child is perfect. Zero difficulties.
The issue didn’t just evaporate. It was simply ignored. Smiling photos, texted to the parents, gives the impression that all appears well. But it isn’t. Your child may be suffering in deep sadness and you’d have no idea because “bad reports are bad for retention”.
In our experience, this is not true, daycare operations just need better tools to have the freedom to be transparent with parents.
- Having a fiduciary duty entails having uncomfortable conversations that hurts retention of students: Telling parents information that they may not want to hear is difficult. Especially if it involves how the parents can do their job better. An extreme example is with the parents who think corporal punishment is an acceptable parenting approach. Telling a parent that their parenting approach isn’t acceptable is a difficult and uncomfortable conversation. A fiduciary duty would force the caregiver to address the problem one way or another by either confronting the parent and/or reporting it to the authorities.
Not every example is as extreme as the above, but can include parenting recommendations on how to help your child have an easier drop-off, or be happier during the day. Advice given to parents from a legally obligated fiduciary is FIRST for the benefit of the child, not the convenience of the caregiver, so the information can be trusted.
The Simple Solution You Can Do
If you want your daycare to be legally transparent, honest, and love your child; then you can start by demanding they have a contractual fiduciary duty to your child. Your due diligence can begin with just asking to look at the contract. If you cannot find at least one a single line (let alone whole section) how they take responsibility for your child then you may want to keep looking.
Maybe we can help? We’re growing and may have a daycare near you with an opening! Check out our Locations.
Solution That We’re Doing
We’re not going to pretend to have the clout to influence policy makers to make a law requiring educators and caregivers to have a legal fiduciary duty. (Adrian doesn’t even want this) We figured out a way to make this work in the private market.
- Bake the fiduciary duty into the parent/provider contract required to enroll children in our care. By contractually obligating the caregiver to act within the best interests of the child, it becomes a legal responsibility via contract law. Violating it is breach of contract. When we do it, other daycares will follow wanting to emulate a successful operation.
- Educate parents about the virtues of a legal fiduciary duty with educators. The more parents are educated in this matter the more they will demand it with their schools.
- When parents WANT transparency, and open & honest communication they create demand for it. They don’t care if the operation looses an enrollment from a parent who can’t handle open honest communication. Parents deeply want their kids to be healthy, happy, and loved. As parents choose daycares that include a legal fiduciary duty, over those who do not; more daycares will include it in their contracts as supply attempts to reach demand.
- To existing schools and daycares, we will teach them how to implement this duty into their contract. Not only is it EASY, but it will earn them MORE income, and it will make their operation run SMOOTHER.
- Create more daycares that have a fiduciary duty. We’ve made investing in and building a daycare business like ours inexpensive and worthwhile for future caregivers to own and operate. By doing so we increase the supply of daycares with a fiduciary duty.
- Through leadership and market pressure, our successful efforts force other daycare operations to also have this fiduciary duty. Either you give parents what they want, or they enroll their children at places that give them what they want. In this case, they want transparent caregivers who love their children.
If you think all schools need to put kids first, share this article.
-from the founders
Rubria & Adrian Abascal
