The Best Enrollment Strategies for New Seasons in Child Care
- Dani Christine
- Aug 2, 2024
- 4 min read
Here's Why Your Child Care Program's Calendar Matters and How to Manage Re-enrollment
Most child care businesses operate as privately-owned entities that provide services for children under the age of five all year-round. Some even extend to school-age programs for before and after school services or summer camp.
It can be easy to get caught up in the current day operations of the business and forget about the importance of forecasting. Your program may be full now in the Summer, but what will your enrollment look like in the Fall once most of your four and five-year-olds are off to kindergarten?
I made the mistake of not recognizing this pattern of highs and lows for about three years until I finally figured out a strategy to prepare.
Remember to Always Monitor Your Current FTE Enrollment
No matter how big or small your program is, you need to implement a tracking system to keep your current full time equivalent (FTE) enrollment top of mind.
FTE enrollment serves as a critical metric to gauge the capacity and utilization of your child care program. Understanding FTE enrollment is essential for effective planning, staffing, and budgeting.
Attendance Tracking
If you're running a smaller program or in-home day care, you should be no stranger to simply taking attendance on paper each day. You probably have a sign in log for parents or a weekly attendance sheet that you check off boxes for when children show up.
Paying attention to patterns on these attendance records and comparing them to the previous week, month, quarter, or year is going to help you notice your highs and lows.
Child Care Management Softwares
Center-based programs and larger child care companies typically invest in softwares to track attendance. Smaller-sized programs can (and probably should) use software as well.
These softwares are great for:
Viewing who is currently in attendance in real time
Noticing how many children are absent and documenting the reasons why
Quickly generating reports to see attendance patterns for any given time period.
The Impact of Seasonal Changes on Enrollment
Seasonal changes, such as the start of a new school year or the transition between summer and fall, can significantly impact your child care program's enrollment. Families' schedules and needs often shift during these times, leading to potential fluctuations in attendance. Understanding these patterns and planning accordingly can help you maintain stable enrollment levels throughout the year.
Strategies for Managing Re-enrollment and Preparing for New Seasons
Conduct Regular Current Enrollment Reviews
Regularly review your enrollment numbers to identify trends and patterns. Analyze past enrollment data, identify seasonal trends, and forecast future enrollment based on historical data and upcoming transitions.
While there are a few options of paid softwares specifically designed for child care that you can use to generate reports or see this data digitally, you could also simply create a spreadsheet yourself.
The benefit of creating a spreadsheet is that it's free, but a challenge may be that you would need to stay on top of keeping it updated as children flow in and out of your program. Honestly, this shouldn't be too much of an issue because that's the whole point - to stay on top of your enrollment! Create a routine for yourself of updating the spreadsheet frequently.
In my programs, while we do use child care management softwares to keep up with current enrollment, attendance and parent communication, we do not use it for forecasting. To plan for the future, we do use our own spreadsheets and trackers that I created myself.
Need help creating a tracker for your program? Book a consultation with me and I'll walk you through it.
Implement a Re-Enrollment Strategy
Develop a re-enrollment strategy to secure commitments from existing families for the upcoming season. Set clear re-enrollment deadlines, offer incentives for early re-enrollment, and communicate the benefits of continuing with your program.
As a year-round program, you may be wondering why you would put your families and the staff through the tedious work of registering and paperwork all over again when the child is planning to stay. Below is a list of a few great reasons why the extra work is worth it.
Reduces the risk of surprises regarding families withdrawing their child unexpectedly
You get updated information about the child and family including emergency contacts, new home addresses, health conditions, etc.
It's a great time to implement new policies and inform families on new procedures
Offers an opportunity to increase your tuition rates - which is needed!
Communicate with Parents Early and Often
Keep parents informed about upcoming changes, re-enrollment deadlines, and available program options. Send regular updates via newsletters, emails, or parent meetings to ensure families are aware of important dates and procedures.
In my programs, our "academic school year" is from September through June. Then, we run our "summer program" in July and August.
We begin registration for our summer program in February giving our current families priority by allowing them to request a slot first. A few weeks later, we begin open enrollment for any remaining unsecured slots in March.
For the academic school year, we begin registration in late Spring. Again, we give currently enrolled families priority and then open it up to new ones a few weeks later.
Conclusion
Managing re-enrollment and preparing for new seasons in child care is crucial for maintaining consistent enrollment and ensuring the long-term success of your program.
By understanding the impact of seasonal changes on enrollment, conducting regular enrollment reviews, communicating effectively with parents, offering flexible scheduling options, and implementing a re-enrollment strategy, you can proactively address enrollment fluctuations and provide stability for your child care business throughout the year.
Good info. Thank you