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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Does Anyone Have More Than One Employee?
Abigail 12:03 AM 02-16-2013
I'm a HOME daycare with a license for 12. I have 2 part time employees which I wouldn't need but going on maternity leave any day now, literally! With our child I need to have a second person here all day so I'm keeping them both on their same work schedules after my maternity leave 8-12 weeks later. Then I want to fill my other spots.

I have 7 enrolled now and mine makes 8 putting us needing 2 people at all times because of ages and ratios. I'm holding one spot for a pregnant mom enrolling in August even though she is due right after me she has summers off so it's nice not having two newborns in the house! That leaves me with 3/12 spots to fill.

Now with all the ages come summertime and 3 open spots I can enroll all the spots for ages 12-35 months (preference not to take older than 2 years old if I don't have too so they grow up here). Financially I would be doing extremely well but if one of my employees called in I would be screwed so come summertime before I go way over ratio (since my husband can watch our child to keep us within ratio if it happens after baby is born) but if I am way over and someone calls in I am screwed. So to solve this stressful issue I am thinking about hiring a third employee so part of the day it would be two employees working and not me just to give me the flex room for having a back up to call if someone needs time off or calls in.

Does any other larger home-daycare have a situation like this? Sorry I went into all details but looking for advice. As long as I can fill my spots with the right families I would love to have a 3 helper.

I think come summer I will have someone from 8-1 and my afternoon come 12-5:30 so they can overlap for the lunch and start of nap to get that transition time over in a timely manner. If I had a third person I would probably have them come in 9-12 because mornings are the busiest. What do you guys think for advice for scheduling employees or even financial advice? THANKS
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Starburst 01:00 AM 02-16-2013
The provider I used to work for had 3 regular assistants, a sub (me), and occational 'junior helpers' (at least 14 but under 18). She has a large family license (up to 14; if 2 are SAC); she has also been in business for over 30 years, is on the higher end of the tution rate for her area and she usually has a full daycare usually with to 20-25 kids enrolled (at different times) and a waiting list. There were a few times when she was over a child or 2 between pick up/drop off for like 15 minutes (afterschool) but she would have an assistant (or sub) take some of the older kids for a picnic at the park down the block until the other kids got picked up.

One of her regular assistants was her daughter and she would work during most of the morning and some of the afternoon- she helped with the children and administrative work (like food program and other paper work) and she also helped with the yearly preschool graduation (creating the program and teaching songs/dances) she usually left after nap time. She had another morning assistant who came in before who would teach preschool and help with the babies- she usually left at the begining of nap time. And she had another assistant who helped in the afternoons (after nap time until closing) with picking up after school kids, helping with homework, meal prep, and cleaning. I was a sub so I pretty much did what ever needed to be done and would fill in for whoever was out- I one time even watched 3 DCKs by myself when a family showed up on a fed holiday she was closed.

She also had some 'junior helpers' that were girls that aged out of the program (one was there until she was 14 and the provider could no longer legally take her as a daycare kid) they would mostly just read to the kids, help setting up/cleaning, or help directing activities. They could change wet diapers but not solid soiled diapers or potty training assistants and could not dicipline the children. Some of them were not even allowed to pick up or carry the babies/tots (or at least particularly heavy babies). The wouldn't be used to make the legal minimum ratio and were not left alone in charge of kids but if the provider and an assistant were present she or the assistant would supervise the JH in helping out. Some times the junior assistants would just come over to hang out after school (unpaid).

Last I heard her regular assistants got $12/hr, subs got $10/hr, and I think that 'junior helpers' got around minimum wage ($8-$9/hr)
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snbauser 05:39 AM 02-16-2013
When I was licensed for 12 I had 3 part time employees. I had them from 7:30-1, 12-5:30, and 9:15-12:15. That gave us 3 of us during the busiest time of the day (our center time, circle time, outside time, and getting lunch on the table). It also gave us some flexibility if someone needed time off or was out sick.
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Abigail 03:55 PM 02-16-2013
Originally Posted by snbauser:
When I was licensed for 12 I had 3 part time employees. I had them from 7:30-1, 12-5:30, and 9:15-12:15. That gave us 3 of us during the busiest time of the day (our center time, circle time, outside time, and getting lunch on the table). It also gave us some flexibility if someone needed time off or was out sick.
Did you work all day from open to close then? I was just writing another friend of mine asking her opinion of having my current morning doing 8-1 and my afternoon doing 12-5/5:30 so they overlap during lunch hour and start of nap. Then my third that I would hire would be for 9-noon to help with preschool/art/snack/outside time. If I had this though I would take off some mornings until we had full enrollment because I don't need more than 2 people but this would allow for summer flexibility for giving people time off during our only nice weather season.

How much did you pay these employees and did you have an employee handbook?
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Tags:assistant - backup, assistants, employees, large family
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