Childcare Center Economics: Ratios, Enrolment, Tuition & Staffing Costs
Work out licensed capacity by room, staff every room to ratio with ROUNDUP, turn part-time enrolment into FTE and occupancy, price tuition across a private and subsidy mix, cost open-to-close shifts, find the cost per child and margin by room, forecast enrolment from the waitlist and test break-even occupancy and a new room: 8 graded labs on a fictional early learning center.
The first lesson is free — no account needed.
About this course
A childcare center economics course that runs one fictional early learning center, Maple Sprout Early Learning Center, in a spreadsheet, for daycare and preschool owners and directors, people planning to open a center and early childhood students. You work out the licensed capacity of every room from floor space and group size, staff each room to its staff-to-child ratio with ROUNDUP, turn full-time and part-time children into FTE and occupancy, split tuition into private-pay and subsidy revenue, turn opening hours and ratios into whole shifts and a monthly staff cost, build the cost per child and the margin of every room, forecast six months of enrolment from the waitlist, and find break-even occupancy and whether a new preschool room pays for itself. Fictional center with illustrative ratios, rates and wages. Licensing rules differ by country, state and city. Not legal or financial advice. The first lab is free.
Lessons
- Licensed Capacity by Room and Age GroupFree
- Staff-to-Child Ratios and Staff Needed per Room Pro
- Enrolment and Occupancy in Full-Time Equivalents Pro
- Tuition Pricing by Age and the Subsidy Mix Pro
- Staffing Cost and Open-to-Close Schedule Coverage Pro
- Cost per Child per Month and Margin by Room Pro
- Waitlist Conversion and the Enrolment Forecast Pro
- Break-even Occupancy and the Expansion Decision Pro