Claim OwnershipThe Child Care Business Podcast
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© 2024 The Child Care Business Podcast
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This podcast, brought to you by Procare Solutions, is all about giving child care, preschool, daycare, afterschool and other early education professionals a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies and inspiration they can use to thrive. You’ll hear from a variety of child care thought leaders, including educators, owners and industry experts, on ways to innovate to meet the needs of the children you serve. From practical tips for managing operations to uplifting stories of transformation and triumph, this podcast will be chock-full of insights you can use to fully realize the potential of your child care business.
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Procare Solutions recently released our 2024 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends Report, which provides a comprehensive look at the current state of the child care industry’s use of technology as well as challenges that early childhood education programs must adapt to, and overcome, to thrive. But the findings detailed in this report go deeper than software. In compiling this data, the goal was to better understand the obstacles being faced by child care providers. To provide more context to the findings, we partnered with experts in several areas of early childhood education. Listen in as these experts — Beth Cannon, Caroline Jens, Prerna Richards as well as Kathy Ligon and Kathe Petchel of HINGE Early Education Advisors — discuss topics including enrollment strategies, curriculum and much more! This podcast was recorded during a recent webinar in which all were panelists.
Technology scares people, and that's true for child care employees."Easing them into it helps, and really slowing it down and teaching them," says LaToya Riggins, vice president of professional development of CRAFT by Better Futures. Proper training and guidance is key, and so is showing employees how they'll benefit from using technology ... and that you're ready to help them."Don't be afraid. Technology is a beautiful thing when used correctly. Give it a chance," she says. In this podcast, LaToya shares her tips for how to get your staff on board with using technology in their classrooms and for running other parts of the business, including using QR codes for check-ins and getting rid of paper documentation that is prone to errors and takes so much time to complete manually. One such tip is to break staff into small groups so nobody gets lost or is afraid to answer questions. And she has a lot more to share."One thing about technology is that it's very forgiving. Everything has an undo button," she says. To reach LaToya, email her at lriggins@betterfuturesdc.com or visit www.betterfuturesdc.com!
Tuition collection can be a breeze when families can easily pay you on time and with their preferred method of payment. And for today’s parents, their preferred method overwhelmingly is digital, whether through autopay from their checking accounts or by debit cards and credit cards. The perks of accepting digital payments at your child care program are many, for both you and them! In this podcast, you'll learn more how your center will benefit with streamlined financial processes, and how families can reap the benefits of using their credit cards, such as flights or cashback offers!
A tour of your child care center should be your Super Bowl, says Molly Hichens. Are you doing enough to wow families who tour your daycare or preschool?Molly is a second-generation owner at Bright Beginnings Preschool, which has three locations in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is about to celebrate 40 years in business! She’s also an accomplished child care consultant and speaker. And when it comes to giving tours to prospective families, she has a lot of great ideas to share, including: Setting specific days and times to give toursMake the tour posh (her centers bake cookies and offer Perrier water!)Ensure the person giving the tour knows current waitlist numbers and move-up dates for children in the roomHighlight what makes your center special, such as a great curriculumAnd more!Molly's areas of expertise include leadership, intergenerational workplaces, business expansion and increasing revenue while streamlining systems. Visit mollyhichens.com to learn how she helps child care businesses stand out from the crowd!
Beginning September 30, 2023, states could be forced to deal with the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding, which will lead to a mass disruption in the child care landscape. The $24 billion that went to child cares was part of a pandemic program, and has been the largest investment in child care in history. Without that funding, 3.2 million children could lose spots in child cares and more than 70,000 centers could close, according to a Century Foundation report.In this podcast, Cindy Lehnhoff, the director of the National Child Care Association, explains what's happening and what measures are being taken to save at least some of the funding. She also discusses the consequences of losing the funding — on centers, staffing, families and the economy — and what some states are doing. Learn more about the NCCA and its work.
AJ Crabill has strong opinions about early childhood education and he's quick to dispel any notion that it should start around preschool. He is a champion of ECE, and his education experience includes chairing the Kansas City School Board and serving as the deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency where he helped spearhead statewide incentives for school districts to expand their pre-K offerings outcomes statewide. He's now a conservator with the DeSoto Independent School District and he coaches school systems nationwide to get clear about what they want for their students. In this podcast, he talks about why ECE needs to begin WAY earlier than many believe and about the the importance of supporting families and students to help children accelerate when they start kindergarten.To learn more about AJ and the work he's doing, or to contact him, visit www.ajc7.com.
The child care industry is at a crossroads. Many programs are resisting technology to help educate the children in their care and simplify running their businesses. That's why Procare Solutions surveyed over 100,000 stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of their child care management software usage, as well as other technologies in place for their business operations. The results of the survey comprise the 2023 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends Report. In this episode, Procare Solutions Chief Product Officer Jon Pollock gives his insight into the report. He also discusses solutions to challenges that respondents cited including finding and keeping staff as well as with curriculum — challenges that exist across the child care industry, in programs large and small. To learn more about the report, join Jon on March 2 for a free live webinar and have your questions ready! Save your spot here.
Child care centers are seeing five generations of employees working together: traditionalists, boomers, generation X, millennials and now generation Z, who are ages 10 to 24 years old. As this group becomes a larger part of the workforce, it’s important to understand how they’re different from other age groups, says Kathe Petchel. She has been in early childhood education for more than 30 years, both as a teacher and a center owner, and is an expert on hiring and training staff, as well as staff development and onboarding. Kathe also is the head of business development at Hinge Advisors.In this podcast, Kathe walks us through several key things that center owners and directors must understand about the newest generation in the workplace, including:What makes them differentWhat key factors must they navigate that are different from other generationsTheir strengths and fearsBrands they like and why that is relevantTheir needs especially post-CovidBest team members to pair them withUnique characteristics to leverageHow to find them and how to keep themLearn more about Kathe here and she can be reached at kpetchel@hingeadvisors.com!
Ty’Heim Clark, perhaps better known as Mr. Ty, is the founder of The Childcare Whisperer, a consulting business that works with child care center directors to help them meet their goals and take their centers to the next level.His experience in early childhood education started when he was a child and he helped his mother at her child care center. Since then, he has worked as a pre-kindergarten teacher, an assistant center director, director of curriculum and he has managed centers with enrollments ranging from 80 to 200 children.In this podcast, he shares five tips to improve your success as a child care center director, including how to lead when it's difficult to find staff.You can find out more about Ty on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. His website is www.thechildcarewhisperer.com and his email address is admin@thechildcarewhisperer.com.
As child care centers struggle to find and keep good teachers and other staff, building resilience is key. In this podcast, Donna Skea joins us from Quebec to share some tips on doing just that! Donna is the founder of The Infinite Educator, which provides workshops on all aspects of early childhood education, including on building resiliency in the childcare workforce, which is what she’ll be discussing with us today. She also is an early childhood education professor at Vanier College.Listen as Donna talks about getting back to the basics of why we love child care and early childhood educationand the importance of building community and offering professional development, as well as more!Check Donna's Facebook page if you'd like to learn more about her services, as well as her page on LinkedIn! You also can email her at donna@theinfiniteeducator.ca.
Aliya Johnson-Roberts, an education and business consultant who leads Consulting with AJR, is the executive director of the Bustleton Learning Center and Pratt Street Learning Center in Philadelphia, serving more than 250 children.Her mother was an in-home child care provider, and Aliya went into the fashion industry before realizing her passion is early childhood education.Aliya has a master’s degree in early childhood education and educational leadership from Arcadia University and is a PhD candidate in educational leadership. And she’s preparing to expand Bustleton’s Learning Center’s services to include kindergarten through the third grade. In this podcast, Aliya shares some useful tips to help prepare your child care center for back-to-school season, which is something we traditionally think of as happening in a school setting like elementary school and in older grades. But it's vital for child care providers too!Learn more about Aliya's consulting business at consultingwithajr.com and search her name on the social media channels you follow!
In this podcast, Jacob Stewart, director of state government relations at the Early Care and Education Consortium, describes what individual states are doing to combat staffing shortages in child care. Massachusetts, for example, launched a general, statewide workforce bonus for which child care providers are eligible to receive $4,000 per new employee hired and retained for 60 days. Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania have offered multiple bonuses ranging between $300 and $1,200 per worker. Other states are offering wage enhancements, internship programs, a refundable tax credit, financial support to obtain credentials that are state required as well as enabling employees to leverage their experience to move up career ladders and more! These findings are part of a data-packed report his organization recently put out titled "The Child Care Workforce Shortage: Solutions from Around the Country." As of February 2022, two-thirds of providers reported a staffing shortage that affected their ability to serve families; of those, 52% were forced to serve fewer children while 37% had a longer waiting list, according to the report.Read the full report here! Listen as Jacob delves into the findings of this report ... and he describes negotiations that are happening for legislation that could help the child care industry despite the demise of the Build Back Better plan.
Chanie Wilschanski is known as the "school culture doctor" because she can diagnose the root cause of the struggle in a child care center in less that 10 minutes. She's an early childhood leadership coach and the CEO of Schools of Excellence, and in this podcast she discusses what she sees in those 10 minutes and much more." You need to understand where you're spending your time," Chanie says. "And then you can hit your goals."She talks about making sure you're setting appropriate expectations for your staff while maintaining high standards and staying true to your values.Chanie also describes how to connect with your teachers, which is so vital as early childhood education leaders struggle to find and retain staff, as well as the importance of taking care of yourself.Her goals are:Not to teach you what to think, but how to thinkNot to show you what you’re lacking, but remind you that everything you need is inside youInstead of showing you 50 steps, the next one step that gives you a winLearn more about Chanie's work at her Schools of Excellence website and you can find her own podcast series here!
Laura Delgado is the vice president of curriculum and professional development at Learning Beyond Paper, a leader in providing 100% digital curriculum. Laura is a former early learning teacher, center director and owner. She has a master’s degree in leadership in education and more than 25 years of experience in early childhood learning. In this podcast, she discusses why curriculum is so important for young learners, particularly babies through pre-kindergarten. She also describes why a curriculum that is easy to use is essential for teachers, many who do their lesson planning on Sunday nights on unpaid time as they ready for the week ahead because they don't have time during their work days.Laura also describes the challenges of relying on a paper curriculum. She says she's seen child care centers buy curriculum that is on an "approved list," often just to check a box as part of obtaining funding. "And when I would go into the classrooms, sometimes they couldn't find the curriculum," she says. "Sometimes it would be in a closet, on a shelf gathering dust."Learning Beyond Paper and Procare Solutions have partnered to offer the Procare Early Learning Powered by Learning Beyond Paper all-digital curriculum offering. The 52-week curriculum is embedded into Procare for easy use with 4,000 lesson plans for infants through pre-kindergarteners. To learn more, visit www.procaresoftware.com/curriculum!
We are live from the 2022 National Shared Services Technical Conference presented by Opportunities Exchange in Austin, Texas!In this podcast, we talk with Lisa Polk about leadership. She has 20 years’ experience as an early education teacher, director and owner. She works with Georgia Alliance for Quality Child Care and is an instructor for CDA credential and director training in addition to being an adjunct professor at Chattahoochee Technical College. She has a masters’ degree in early childhood education and is working toward her doctorate in education with an emphasis on teacher leadership. In this podcast, Lisa discusses: the need for consistent systemswhy you must make sure relationships with parents stay professionalthe importance of communicationhow to build a team and work toward the same goaland more!Reach Lisa at lisapolk@ymail.com, and learn more about her nonprofit Poly-Anna's Place on Facebook and on Instagram!
We are live from the 2022 National Shared Services Technical Conference presented by Opportunities Exchange in Austin, Texas!In this podcast, we talk with Gary Romano. Gary is the president and CEO of Civitas Strategies, LLC, where he works with nonprofit leaders and entrepreneurs. He’s also an author and has published two books. One is “Small But Mighty,” which helps entrepreneurs launch and grow nonprofit consultancies, and the other is “Lean Recruitment,” which describes how to cost-effectively recruit talent. Listen as Gary shares his expertise on the employee retention tax credit, including why it's so significant for those in the child care industry, the background on this credit, who is eligible and that providers can retroactively apply for the funds!To learn more about the services offered by Civitas Strategies to child care businesses, email Gary at gary@civstrat.com, or visit www.civstrat.com!
Karla Houghtalin is the program manager in early childhood business management at Southwest Human Development in Phoenix. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education, curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University. In this podcast, she shares what’s happening with shared services, a topic that is incredibly relevant in the child care industry today.Karla describes the genesis of the business initiative that began her organization's work in shared services, including the early pieces of putting it together. She talks about "the four pillars" of how child care providers can create a strong foundation to be a sustainable program. She says providers must know their worth, which includes making sure they're being paid promptly and fairly by parents.Karla says that automating child care businesses saves providers time and money, and has tips for how to help beyond automation. She also describes the role of business coaching in running a successful program, and shares advice for providers who live in places where a shared-services option isn't available.
Monique Reynolds is the vice president of business support services with Quality Care for Children in Atlanta. She has worked in leadership roles in the child care industry for more than 25 years and has an extensive knowledge of child care business management and early education.Monique previously owned and operated successful multi-site programs and her passion is helping child care business owners become successful and sustainable through shared services.When she describes this model, she said she's reminded of the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. When you think about child care businesses, it's the same concept. It's basically having a community of people who put tools and resources together to make each business sustainable with increased profitability, Monique says.In this podcast, she shares more about shared services and how they can help those in the child care industry.,
Carla Ward is an early childhood educator who founded Early Learning Foundations in 2008. She is a certified Wonder-based educator with a background in behavior management and she believes learning goes beyond the classroom. She also hosts her own podcast, “The Everything ECE Podcast.” She was born in South Africa and now lives in Ontario, Canada, and has been fascinated by the way people learn for as long as she can remember.In this podcast, Carla discusses how to lead a team … everything from leading staff meetings to supporting your team.In this podcast, she discusses: Why staff meetings should be held once a month, and not more frequently (and the perfect food to serve during them!)The importance of asking staff for their inputThe benefits of closing your center for an entire day, twice a year, for professional developmentDoing a yearly survey to learn the professional goals of your staff How a book study is beneficial (one book every three months)Why supervisors need to carve out time for themselvesAnd more!You can connect with Carla by visiting her website: www.elfoundations.com. And she's active on social media!Instagram: www.instagram.com/elfoundationsFacebook: www.facebook.com/elfoundations/Additional Resources:To get more insights on ways to succeed in your child care business, head over to our Resource Center at https://www.procaresoftware.com/resource-center/.Contact Us:Have an idea for a podcast or want to be a guest? Email us at ltwoodbury@procaresoftware.com.
Jacob Stewart, director of state government relations at the Early Care and Education Consortium, has been closely following the Build Back Better Act and its potential implications on the child care industry.In this podcast, he breaks down what could happen should this act (as it stood at the end of 2021) become law, as well as state implementation.
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