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TRAINING THE NEW DIRECTOR

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I saw an interesting statistic in the other day.  According to the email I received, a survey of over 500 managers conducted by a major hiring platform revealed that, on a scale of 1-10 with ten (10) being highest and one (1) being the lowest, the majority of survey respondents rated their technology skills at a five (5); this was not a surprise. Between email and child care center management systems, the average child care center and assistant center director have about have to log into at least five different portals a day in order to accomplish their daily tasks.  This does not include using files from legacy software like Excel and Word. However, a good portion of the work done by a center director is still accomplished with paper. This includes enrollment forms and CACFP work.   In a recent outing, we were tasked with providing technology training for the newly hired center director of a center of about 50 children.  She was 73 years old and had tons of experience as a director be
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ARE YOU LEAVING HELP ON THE TABLE?

Getting someone "work ready" for a job in preschool is not what it used to be. Ten years ago, fingerprinting and training prerequisites were not a "thing" in order to start work in a child care center.   Today, it can take days or even a couple of weeks to get some fingerprinted, have their physical and TB taken, and meet the initial training requirements to work in child care. Though all of these added requirements are a great thing for the quality of child care, they add a layer of pressure to meet ratio requirements. Meanwhile, one of your staff is out for a few days, another one just quit, and you have to scramble to make ratio so that you are not in violation.  As a center owner or director, you definitely want to hire good people for your program.  But, what if someone who's motivated and wants a job has replied to one of your Indeed posts or is referred to you? Do you just tell the person "We're not hiring anymore, check back with us later?"
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WHEN IT COMES TO CHILDCARE STAFFING, ARE YOU A RELIC?

As I skimmed job through posts on Indeed and a few other job boards looking for ideas to help a client create a job posting that would stand out, I immediately noted the differences between postings that seemed attractive and those that seemed to be advertising for a job in... a prison. "Comply with state child care licensing rules.." "Adhere to protocol and procedures.."  "Ensure maximum enrollment and cost control.." some listings read. While others had bullet points like "Come work in a fun, reward-oriented, and flexible team environment." Reading between the lines, I imagined both child care centers that seemed to be in financial straits or bogged down with compliance violations as well as centers that seemed to be in need of staff but were committed to working it out and building a better place for the long term. Being middle-aged myself now, I frequently have to evaluate whether I've adapted to the current reality of working in the Unit
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OUR FAVORITE PAYMENT PROCESSING SOLUTION

Electronic payments are the preferred method of paying tuition in today's early education industry. With this preference, a number of options for processing payments have emerged for early education providers. From "set and forget" subscription service providers that have their processing system embedded in popular software to POS systems, to old school credit card, to payment apps such as Venmo and Cash app, there are a variety of ways that early education providers can collect their tuition electronically. Because we are a platform that offers custom solutions as well as our standard solutions Skweeble and Enrollsmart, we have chosen Square as a our preferred payments processor for the following reasons: Instant processing - You don't have to wait 24-48 hours to have your payment settled. It is available immediately.  This is important when you need cash flow to make payroll, pay a bill, or groceries.  Customized reporting - If you need to have customized reports
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UNRESOLVED MISSED PUNCHES CAN COST CASH FLOW 💸💸

Whether your center is using KinderConnect or a private system like Brightwheel or Procare to track attendance, unresolved missed punches can be costly.  The impact is both for subsidy accounting and CACFP accounting purposes.  For KinderConnect, the impact is obvious: Incomplete transactions are not paid in the normal remittance cycle. The center will need to submit a payment resolution request to the subsidy payment unit. This will delay remittance for the services provided and will have a negative cash flow effect.   For the CACFP, the impact can be more subtle and can have a longer term impact when point of service meal records and classroom attendance are compared to attendance housed in  KinderConnect or the private attendance tracking system. In KinderConnect, missed punches must be corrected and then approved by the sponsor (parent/guardian) or their approved delegate. Missed punches in KinderConnect are classified as "pending" until they have been approved by the spo
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RECURRING INVOICES OR NAH🤷‍♂️?

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been helping one of our clients select from one of two popular child care management software packages. I attended video meetings with her as she met with the onboarding representatives from both platforms eager to have her business. I put together the family data for her to upload into their system and I went through the motions of listening to the onboarding specialists; trying to gather key information that may have changed since I helped with the last implementations of these platforms.   The Executive Director of the non-for-profit is excited about selecting one of these platforms because it has an associated curriculum. However, I'm not so optimistic that her current staff will adapt well to it. From my observation, they are doing well with handing out daily telegrams on paper and I feel doubtful that they will be consistent in sending out daily reports. The billing features of these platforms are explained as simple, but the Executive
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GOT STICKY NOTES?

In a preschool setting, the phone is very important; perhaps more important than in most businesses due to the fact that the center is responsible for young humans incapable of caring for themselves. Calls from prospective parents, current parents, employees, prospective employees, schools, regulators, vendors, and others keep the phone busy. While meeting with a client recently, the phone rang several times and she had to stop and take notes and pass messages to her staff.  She also had sticky notes all over the edge of her desk. In a typical preschool, there is no electronic call handling system and, if there is one, it is not connected to a centralized task management or database system. There are often notes and stickies left for staff members or written in a paper notebook or kept in a file on a single computer.  Message logging and staff communication are critical in a preschool environment and are even an evaluated component of many preschool quality measures . As I looked at a
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