TIPS - Table of Contents

Scheduling, at many child care centers, is often accomplished with little thought. This can be a deadly mistake from a budgeting perspective. Staffing costs (wages, payroll taxes and benefits) are the largest expense in a center's budget. Therefore, it makes good financial sense for the center director to get a firm handle on how staff is scheduled. The purpose of this tip sheet is to help child care center directors focus on the many facets of staffing, and to help them decide which will work best for their programs.

Steps For Controlling Staff Costs Include:
Setting policies
Counting children
Building a staffing schedule around the number of
children enrolled Setting Policies: (Policy = Budget & Budget = Policy)
Policies dictate how a center operates and greatly influences the ultimate profit-or-loss in a center's budget. It is important for a director to consider the factors that relate to staffing, in an effort to create policies that make good fiscal sense. Scheduling teaching talent

• Schedule at least one experienced teacher, in each age group, to fill time slots at the beginning and end of the day
  • Parents make judgements about the center based on the few moments they spend there when dropping off and picking up children.
  • Parents who see high quality teaching during opening and closing times will be more confident about what happens the rest of the day.
    

Continuity of care

• Determine how many "common groups" you will need to accommodate children during opening and closing times.
  • "Common groups" are combined classrooms, ex. 2 and 3 year old children blended into a group, and 4 and 5 year old children blended into a second group.
  • Combined groupings occur at the beginning and end of the day when fewer children are present.
• Carefully consider how many different teachers a child will be with during the day in order to maximize groups and to schedule staff efficiently.

Consider a policy that allows for staff to overlap by 15 or 20 minutes in order to improve communication. Centers that have adopted this policy report fewer incidents of staff telling parents "I don't know what happened to your child; that must have happened before I came in today."

Most centers must staff only for the number of children they have at a given time. However, if a center can afford a floater, or a full time substitute, the director can then assign this person to work when and where needed, in an effort to improve the quality of care.

Staff planning time

• Building in planning time, in addition to breaks, for lead teaching staff, will encourage quality programming.
• During planning time staff can:
  • Research curriculum ideas
  • Pull together teaching units
  • Call parents
  • Handle routine classroom paperwork
• Lead staff can be instrumental in scheduling planning time
  • They know exactly when they are overstaffed
  • They are able to take advantage of even small amounts of overstaffed time for planning

No matter what policies are ultimately adopted, be sure they are articulated in the policy handbook given out to staff and parents.  Counting children in order to staff a center effectively, it is important to have a clear picture of the number of children who are present at any one time. The number of children in care in fall may differ greatly from those in care during the middle of summer, or in the dead of winter. It is recommended that several times a year a director spend one week counting the number of children in care

• Starting at the beginning of the day, at fifteen minute intervals, count how many children are present in each age group
• It is best if the center director does the counts. When staff are asked to report the number of children in their rooms during times of the day, the reported numbers may greatly differ from actual counts due to estimating by busy teachers, or skewed teacher perceptions. "I may have had only 8 children today, but it sure felt like 18 children all day!"
  
  

After all the children have arrived for the day, continue to take count every half hour until you enter a transition period (when "pm" children arrive, or children begin to leave the center). Resume counting every fifteen minutes until the transition period ends or it is the end of the day and the center closes its doors.

The numbers you generate by counting children should present a clear picture of when to schedule staff to begin and end their shifts.

Consider using a staffing chart similar to the one below. It may be used for taking counts of children, as well as for scheduling staff shifts.

Key: B = Break P = Planning
The second time slot in each of the above cases represents the half hour, ex. [7] [7] is really 7 AM and 7:30 AM and so on.

Building a Schedule Scheduling school age staff (S/A teacher)

• Staffing needs will be different during the 38 weeks of school than from the 14 weeks of summer
• Staffing patterns will look different during those two time periods
  
  

All staff should get a break during the day, and lead teaching staff should get a paid planning period (See the staff scheduling chart)

Schedule a qualified person at the beginning and end of the day for each age grouping

• They will handle parent concerns and questions more effectively
• They are able to present an organized view of the day for parents
  
  

It is recommended that 2 teachers be in the building at all times

• This increases personal security for staff and children
• This is critical in times of unforeseen emergency situations
  
  

Consider hiring staff for split shifts (a staff person works four hours in the morning, leaves, and returns to work the last four hours at the end of the day).

• This schedule works well for many people
• This helps achieve the need for a qualified person at the beginning and end of the day
  
  

Try to avoid being over staffed in the infant room

• "Extra hands" are helpful for portions of the day, but not all day long
• Don"t overstaff during the times when several infants are sleeping
  
  

Flexibility in staff scheduling is important and can be achieved

• Ask staff to try switching shifts with a colleague
• Use substitutes which have been planned for in the budget
  

Avoiding the Pitfalls"I was hired as the afternoon teacher" or "I was hired for the 7 - 3 time slot. Why Are you are changing my hours?"

• Avoid having staff feel they have a lock on a particular position or hours
• Tell staff in the interview, as well as in the written job description, that hours and positions may vary from season to season as the number of children in the center changes
  
  

"What do you mean you only have 3 children at 7:00 AM when I have scheduled five staff people?"

• Avoid being overstaffed by periodically counting the children in care
• Do not rely on staff to self report the numbers to you
  
  

"I am too busy to take a careful look at staffing"

• Directors who are too busy to consider staffing patterns can delegate the project to a responsible staff person
• Involving staff can help foster a feeling of ownership to the process of studying staffing patterns
  
  

"I think I have a pretty good gut feeling on how many staff I need"

• Staff costs consume the majority of a center's expenses and require careful attention to meet bottom line budget projections
• Assign the task of studying staffing patterns to a responsible staff person
• Compare the findings to the "gut feelings" and determine if they are on target

Taking the time to build a staff scheduling process is a major step in assuring budget bottom lines remain in the black!

WCCIP • 2109 S. Stoughton Road, Madison WI 53716 • Ph 800.366.3556 • Fx 608.224.6178
These tip sheets developed by WCCIP, March 1998 with funding from the WI Dept. of WFD, Office of Child Care, and DHFS