child care contract in Kansas

[Rachel20]

My husband and I selected a "registered" family child care provider for our son. She presented herself as highly qualified and very professional. We had to pay the last two weeks of care in advance, plus each week in advance and an enrollment fee. We also signed a "contract" with her that says there are no money refunds. The problem is that the very first day we brought our son to her, she called me to come pick him up because he had been crying off and on and she supposedly couldn't calm him down. He was experiencing seperation anxiety, which is a developmentally normal stage to go through. Any experienced child care provider would know this and be able to handle the situation. In any case, the next day we brought him, she called me an hour and a half after I dropped him off to pick him up again, saying that he was "screaming" hysterically and she couldn't calm him down. She said she would give us the termination notice the next day but that since we paid for the last two weeks, we could still "try" to bring him for that time period, understanding that she would call us to pick him up if he was crying. An important factor to include is that she told me that her "support group" of other child care providers told her that she should put him in a room, close the door and let him cry. I immediately responded by saying that I would report that as abuse. She then said that she would never do that, but that's the advice she was given. Obviously, after hearing her say that, I was not about to bring him back to her. His safety and well-being are far more important than the fact that we already paid for the last two weeks. To make a long story short, we paid her over $700, got less than 6 hours of care and she refuses to give us any money back, per her "contract" which she very bluntly lets us know her Uncle, who is a lawyer, wrote. We had proposed a more than fair (to her) arrangement whereby we were only asking her to return less than half of the money we paid. She refused and is still hiding behind the "contract." We contacted our local TV station's "Call for Action" line, they tried to intervene on our behalf and she gave them the same speech she gave us and refused to compromise. At this point, we believe we should try small claims court, but I want to be sure we have a case...since we did sign the contract stating that there were no money refunds. We feel that we didn't get the service we paid for, and thus, should be entitled to at least the amount we proposed to her (less than half), if not the full amount.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time!

[Edited by Rachel20 on 03-20-2001 at 11:25 AM]