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dayspamagazine.com/freeinfo dayspamagazine.com • january 2018 • [ 71 ] © GETTY IMAGES First, decide the age below which your spa will simply not take a customer. Policies and procedures vary from business to business, and the cutoff point may be as high as 18 or as low as 8. Next, decide if there are any treatments from which children under a certain age should be excluded. Almost all spas schedule treatments with a same-gender therapist. As much as you want to be sensitive to gender issues, this is a point that simply must yield to concerns about liability. Another threshold question is whether a parent should be required to accompany a minor throughout the service. Again, this may be age-specifi c: It might be wholly appropriate for a parent to accompany a 9- or 10-year-old during the child's spa experience, but the same might not be true for a 15- or 16-year-old. Irrespective, I think it's wise for spas to require a parent to accompany any minor to their fi rst appointment at least. At that time the parent can sign an authorization form allowing the minor to receive services, as well as accepting responsibility for the cost of those services. Further, the parent can initial checkboxes that specify which services can be received. A dollar limit on ancillary purchases such as makeup or body lotion can also be established. In addition to parental permission forms, many spas now ask adults to fi ll out Spa owners may be required to give clients a privacy policy that describes how the spa uses, stores and protects their sensitive information. a health intake questionnaire on behalf of minor clients. Keep in mind that there may be stringent laws requiring the facility to keep such information confi dential. Also, the spa owner may be obliged to give the client a privacy policy describing how the spa uses, stores and protects their sensitive information, and whether it requires its employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement regarding that information. The law varies fairly dramatically from state to state, so when creating a policy for the treatment of minors, and drawing up a health intake form, always seek the advice of a local attorney familiar with state law in these areas. u