The Childcare Management Blog

Before the pandemic, the bus was considered a safe option for transporting children to childcare. After the pandemic, carpooling seems less risky. According to a Cars.com survey taken between July 22, 2020, and August 4, 2020, nearly half of respondents said their kids took the bus before the pandemic. After COVID-19 came on the scene, it dropped to slightly less than a third. Carpooling, on the other hand, increased from nine percent to 11 percent.

Many parents struggle to pay for childcare. It has long been a cliche that parents need childcare so they can work. Yet, a substantial part of earnings is spent on that very childcare — up to 10 percent or more of the average parent's household income. 

In a perfect world, nothing would ever happen to the children you care for. Parents would drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon while the kids had a peaceful, educational day.

Administrative tasks are often repetitive and time-consuming. They add little value and can be the source of errors. The easier they are to perform, the more time your staff has for the important things in business — your customers.

Retaining great staff requires motivation from the top. Make your staff feel like you care about them, and they will stick with you through thick and thin.

Parents are trusting you with a precious family member who will be going through many milestones and changes that the parents won't see. They want to know that you are ready to take care of everything and able to help them relive some of those experiences.

Many childcare facilities relied on printed rosters, binders, and other manual methods of keeping attendance in the past. These days, when social distancing is required and cleanliness has reached new heights, the old ways won't work.

2020 may be over, but the challenges of COVID-19 remain. One significant change, the release of a vaccine, is not currently available to childcare employees, essential workers though they are. Only those who are 65 years of age or older or those who have a serious underlying medical condition are receiving the first round of available vaccines.

After months of waiting, the US Congress is finally moving on additional pandemic relief for small businesses, including childcare. $10 billion in Child Care Development Block Grant Funds (CCDBG) has been approved to reduce family copays and tuition plus other childcare provider expenses related to COVID-19 restrictions.

There have always been workers whose schedules are not your typical 9 to 5. They cobble together childcare by relying on a non-working spouse, family, or neighbors to take care of the kiddos when daycare isn't open.