How to Determine Your Staffing Needs
Tandem
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Staffing a child care center isn’t just about filling classrooms — it’s about constantly balancing your enrollment, ratios, licensing requirements, and growth goals.
Done well, staffing isn’t just operational — it becomes a growth strategy.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to assess your staffing needs, not just for today, but for the opportunities ahead.
Why Staffing Needs Constant Reevaluation
Unlike many other industries, child care staffing can't be "set it and forget it."
Enrollment fluctuates. Staff members move on. Licensing ratios shift as children age up into new classrooms. That’s why a consistent, proactive review of your staffing vs. enrollment is crucial to staying ahead — and profitable.
Staffing reactively (only when you're in crisis) is costly. Staffing proactively lets you open new classrooms faster, increase revenue, and improve quality of care.
5 Key Factors to Analyze
When determining your staffing needs, we recommend focusing on these five core areas:
1. Total Licensed Capacity
Start by reviewing your center’s total licensed capacity. How many children are you legally allowed to serve at full enrollment? This gives you the upper limit of what your staffing should eventually support.
Tip: If you have rooms that aren’t fully open yet, remember that filling those spaces will require staff planning well in advance.
2. Required Ratios by Age Group
Staffing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Ratios differ depending on the age group you serve — and these ratios directly impact the number of staff you need per room.
Ratio examples:
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Infants (0–12 months): 1 staff member per 4 children
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Toddlers (1–3 years): 1 staff member per 5–6 children
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Preschool (3–5 years): 1 staff member per 8–10 children
Always reference your specific state’s licensing guidelines to ensure compliance.
3. Current Enrollment by Room
Take a detailed inventory:
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How many children are enrolled in each classroom?
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Are there waitlists or planned new enrollments that could increase numbers soon?
Knowing your current enrollment helps you assess whether your current staffing matches the demand — and whether you’re at risk of overloading your staff.
4. Current Active Staff
Review your current employee roster:
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How many lead teachers and assistants do you have?
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How many floating staff or substitutes are available for coverage?
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Are any employees out on extended leave or planning to exit soon?
Staff attrition is common in child care — proactive awareness helps you avoid being caught short-handed.
5. Open Classrooms or Spots
If you have open rooms or spots available for enrollment, you have growth potential — but you can’t enroll children without the staff to care for them.
Hiring proactively (even before spots are fully sold) is often smarter than waiting. You can use new hires as floaters or substitutes while building enrollment.
This approach prevents service bottlenecks and accelerates your ability to bring in new revenue.
(Learn more strategies for this proactive approach in our 5-Step Guide to Hiring and Retaining 5-Star Staff.)
A Simple Staffing Analysis Example
Imagine this:
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Your licensed capacity is 80 children.
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You currently have 62 children enrolled.
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Two classrooms are sitting empty.
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You have enough staff to cover the 62 children, but not to open the two empty rooms.
If you want to grow your enrollment, you don’t just wait for spots to fill first.
You hire now — carefully — starting with a floater or flexible teacher who can support multiple rooms.
As enrollment builds, you promote that floater into a lead role, keeping staffing ratios ahead of the curve.
Key Takeaways
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Run a staffing audit quarterly, not just in emergencies.
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Forecast enrollment changes and hire before you’re at a staffing breaking point.
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Use open classrooms as opportunity zones — and staff up thoughtfully to capture growth.
Strong staffing isn’t just about filling today’s need. It’s about setting yourself up for more sustainable enrollment, better staff morale, and stronger center profitability.
