Turning Staffing Stability Into Increased Enrollment

When most child care programs think about growth, they focus on marketing: flyers, referrals, ads.
But the truth is, you can’t enroll your way into growth without staffing stability first.

If you’re constantly short-staffed, adding more families just adds more pressure — and risks damaging your reputation.
If you have a stable, flexible staffing foundation, you can open new rooms, increase enrollment, and grow your revenue confidently.

In this blog, we’ll walk through how to align your staffing stability with enrollment expansion — and how conscious workforce planning turns opportunity into sustainable growth.

Why Staffing Stability Comes Before Enrollment Growth

Parents don’t just choose a center based on a glossy brochure or a tour.
They choose — and stay with — centers where:

• Classrooms are well-staffed

• Children have consistent caregivers

• Teachers aren’t burned out or constantly rotating out

• Leadership has time to be present, not constantly pulled into classrooms

A strong staffing foundation builds the trust you need to increase enrollment without risking quality.

But stabilizing your staffing model doesn’t always mean rushing to hire full-time employees immediately.
Using flexible staffing solutions like Tandem allows centers to grow intentionally, not reactively.

Because Tandem is non-committal and used only as needed, centers can:

• Bring in credentialed, vetted workers to cover new classrooms or increased ratios

• Avoid the risk of overcommitting to full-time W-2 salaries too early

• Save time and money by skipping long onboarding processes — Tandem workers are already cleared and ready to go

• Get to know potential future permanent hires through real, in-classroom experience

This flexible approach lets centers match staffing growth to enrollment growth — scaling at a sustainable pace while protecting both quality and financial health.

(See more on staffing strategy foundations in Creating Reliable Schedules and Planning for Absences: How to Stay Ready for the Unexpected.)

Linking Staffing Planning to Enrollment Capacity

As you stabilize your workforce, the next step is conscious growth planning.
Specifically: staffing stability should trigger an active review of your open capacity.

Key questions to ask regularly:

• How many open spots do we currently have in each classroom?

• Do we have enough cleared staff to legally open more spots?

• Are there classrooms that could reopen or expand with the right staffing?

• Do we have floaters or flexible staff who could transition into lead teacher roles?

For a deeper walkthrough on assessing staffing vs. opportunity, revisit How to Determine Your Staffing Needs.

More staff = more room for children.
But only if you proactively connect staffing improvements to operational decisions.

How to Turn Stability into Strategic Enrollment Growth

Once you feel confident in your daily coverage and backup plans, here’s how to leverage that momentum into enrollment growth:

1. Reassess Classroom Configurations

Look at current ratios, class sizes, and licensing limits.

• Could you reopen a closed classroom with your current team (plus sub or floater support)
• Could you expand toddler or preschool rooms that have waitlists?

2. Rebuild Your Waitlist Pipeline

Even if you aren’t ready to open new spots today, start building your waitlist now.
As staffing opens up space, you’ll be ready to enroll immediately without scrambling to find families.

3. Staff Floaters to Flex with Growth

Floaters aren’t just for emergencies — they are growth enablers.
They allow you to take on a few extra enrollments without instantly overloading your core team.

(Learn more about using flexible staffing as a tool for growth in Using Substitutes Strategically to Prevent Burnout.)

4. Use Stability as a Marketing Message

When you are stable — talk about it.
Families are tired of hearing about staff shortages.
Position your center as a stable, nurturing, consistent choice — and highlight the strength of your team during tours, open houses, and social media posts.

Why Conscious Growth Matters

Growing enrollment without growing your staffing system leads to:

• Overburdened teachers

• Lower program quality

• Higher parent churn

• Faster burnout

Staffing stability gives you the foundation to grow consciously — balancing ratios, honoring your team’s capacity, and protecting the quality that built your center’s reputation in the first place.

(Delegating leadership roles can also help here — see You Don’t Need to Do It All – How to Delegate with Confidence in Your Program for strategies.)

🧸 Crib Notes

Like Cliff Notes, but for child care:

• Staffing stability is the foundation for sustainable enrollment growth.
• Proactively connect staffing improvements to open classroom capacity.
• Floaters and substitutes create flexibility to absorb new enrollments safely.
• Market your staffing strength to families — stability is a key differentiator today.