I will be starting a new daycare center in about 8 mo. How do I sfatt it.?

Question

This new center will accomadate 45 children, it will be open from 6:30am-6:30pm. Some ideas I had would be 4- 10 hr days. Or maybe 3- 12 hr days for employees. See what works best for them. Any one have a easy solution for sheduling staff. I need 2 staff per room, and there will be 4 age group rooms. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I would have 1 person go in to open, have a 2nd come in when more kids come in. ..  there is nothing wrong with them being in the same room for a little while (socialize them).

After breakfast split them up in thier rooms (unless they are eating in their rooms)

For the staff for the rooms I suggest 1 full time person per room.. this should be the person that plans the day , crafts, walks, is over all responsible for the kids and should get paid a little more. The 2nd person for the room could be split up between 2or 3 people. Changing when the kids are taking thier nap or eating.

The person who is full time could be responsible for the schedule for the room, it would have to be approved by you.

I would also consider hiring 1 person to cook and clean up after the  meals, and make the menu.

I would say for the most part the schedule would depend on when the kids arrive and leave. Dont over schedule, there is no reason to have 2 people in the 2 yr olds room if there are only 3 kids in there. So saying you are going to have a set schedule is not practical... it would depend on the times the kids are there.

Having 1 main person per room, and they can do thier rooms schedule will be easier... this is also the person that is responsible for the kids and the room, that way if some thing happens you wont have to go from person to person to find out.

Answer 2

First spell better, (just kidding, I'm sure it is a typo, but you put sfatt instead of staff) At a daycare here, in the morning and afternoons highschool students can work at the daycare, so if you have an emlpyee who doesn't want/can't work until school starts or righ around their (say they have kids) that way you have staff! I like the idea of having small hours, its easer for the teacher, but harder on the kids, kids really need stability and having up to 8 different (if they each worked 3 hours each) teachers throughout the day it will be totally crazy, you could just plain be "open to your available hours" or something, good luck!

Answer 3

You need to stagger your staff so you have coverage when you need it.  In NJ, you can't have someone under 18 alone with the kids.  They can work for you, but an adult must be there, too.  So high school kids can help fill in in the PM hours, but you still have to have adult staff.  You'll also need 2 people to open and two people to close.

2 staff: 6:30 to 3

1 staff: 7:30 to 4

2 staff: 8 to 4:30

1 staff: 8:30 to 5

1 staff: 9 to 5:30

1 staff: 9:30 to 6

I would have one floater and 2 or three afternoon part-timers.  You could probably get away with two if you, as the director, were there to fill in in a pinch.  There's also a half hour gap at the end of the day; either someone would need to stay late, or you would need to stay with the high schooler at the end of the day.  OR one of your part timers would need to be 18.

With 45 kids, you also need either a head teacher or a consulting head teacher in conjunction with a group teacher (at least that's the way it works in NJ.)  A head teacher has to be certified with 2 years experience (or a Master's...there's different ways to be a head teacher, but the first one is what most people have.)

Edit: I was assuming that you would be having two staff memebers in each classroom when I gave the schedule above.  After I thought about it, I realized that with only 45 kids your older classes would probably be staffed by only one teacher.  In NJ, 3's are 1:10 and 4's are 1:12.  So with just 3's and 4's you could have up to 22 kids (in separate groups) with only 2 staff members.  I would also strongly recommend against having staff work longer days but only 3 or 4 days a week.  Child care is very demanding and I really think the kids would just end up playing rather than the teacher doing constructive activities with the children--she'd be too tired!  And unless you had them work open to close three days a week, you'd still have a gap (10 hours four days a week would still leave a 2 hour gap in your day.)  I also think if a staff member works 12 hours that you may need to give them 2 half hour breaks.....ususally daycares shuffle breaks so they can cover each other while the kids are napping (the naptime ratio changes---it's 1:20 for kids over 2)

Answer 4

Have 2 steady teachers and 1 person that comes in as a floater to cover lunches, have your staff take there lunch once the children are settled, the less change for the children the better for the care givers, Your mornings before 7:30 will not be that busy for the most part, so you could have 1/2 the staff come in at 7:30 instead of 6: and the staff that comes in late leaves late. But always remember love all the children as your own and treat your staff as you would want to be treated ... Good luck