---
name: childcare_center_operations
description: Run a licensed childcare center day to day: enrollment and waitlist records holding subsidy and private pay families in one view, classroom ratios and group size checked against the state license at every schedule change with a bundled checker, staff credential and background check files kept audit ready, incident and medication logs written the way inspectors read them, and billing reconciled to signed attendance under the current state payment basis. Use when opening or running a center, building a staffing schedule, merging rooms, placing a substitute, preparing for a licensing inspection, setting up child or staff files, logging medication or an incident, or closing a month of subsidy and tuition billing.
---

# Childcare Center Operations

## Purpose

Run the center on records that agree with each other. Enrollment says who may attend, attendance says who did, the schedule says who supervised them at a lawful ratio, the logs say what happened, and billing charges only for what those records prove. When the five agree, an inspection is a sampling exercise. When they drift apart, every problem shows up in all five at once.

There is no national ratio, fee, or retention table in the United States. Federal rules at 45 CFR 98.41 and 98.43 set the floor for health and safety topics, background checks, and inspections, and each state sets its own ratios, group sizes, qualifications, and record rules. This skill ships a method and a checker that take the center's own state table as input. It never substitutes a national number for the license on the wall.

## Workflow

### 1. Build the license table first

- Read the center's state license and the rule behind it and write down, per age category: ratio, max group size, age cutoffs in months, who counts in ratio, the mixed age method (youngest wins or pro rata), nap rules, and any stricter program rule that also applies, such as Head Start at 45 CFR 1302.21, where the stricter of state and program wins.
- Enter that table into `assets/schedule.example.json` format and keep the filled file with the license. Use the NAEYC best practice table in `references/licensing-and-ratios.md` only as a yardstick for judging a schedule, never as the staffing authority.
- Record the state's mixed age method in writing. If it is unclear, use youngest wins until the licensing agency answers in writing.

### 2. Run enrollment and the waitlist from one ledger

- Keep one enrollment ledger, one row per child: classroom, age category, authorized schedule, and funding source, with subsidy and private pay in the same view. Fields and split funding rules are in `references/billing-and-subsidy.md`.
- Log every waitlist entry with date, date of birth, requested start and schedule, and funding source. Offer a released seat to the first family that fits the age category and schedule. Log the offer, the answer, and the date.
- Build the child file before the first day, in the order in `assets/file-index.md`: enrollment form, contacts and authorized pickup list, health and immunization record or allowed exemption, care plan if any, and current funding authorization. Release a child to no one who is not on that child's pickup list.

### 3. Check ratios at every schedule change

- Build each schedule block as a room entry: children by age category present in that block, and staff actually in ratio in that room in that block. Count only people the state counts, present in the room and cleared for it. Breaks, office work, and kitchen time come out of the count.
- Run `python3 scripts/ratio_check.py schedule.json` for the full day, including merged early drop off, lunch and break blocks, nap where the state rule differs, late pickup, and any transport or field trip block.
- Fix every FAIL by changing staffing, group assignment, or timing, then rerun until the center verdict is PASS. File the dated, initialled print with the schedule. A ratio that only works on the posted morning schedule and dips at lunch is a failed schedule.
- Place substitutes from the staff file, not from availability alone: the file must clear the person for that room's ages, background check, and medication duties before the shift starts.

### 4. Keep staff files audit ready

- One file per staff member, in the order in `assets/file-index.md`: role and rooms cleared for, background check, qualifications, training, and current pediatric first aid and CPR.
- The background check record must show each component at 45 CFR 98.43(b): FBI fingerprint check, National Sex Offender Registry search, and state criminal, state sex offender, and state child abuse and neglect registry searches in the current state and each state lived in during the preceding 5 years, plus the eligibility determination and its date.
- The training record must cover the health and safety topics at 45 CFR 98.41, including safe sleep, medication administration with parental consent, food and allergy emergencies, shaken baby and abusive head trauma prevention, emergency preparedness, and recognition and reporting of child abuse and neglect.
- Put the background recheck date (at least once per 5 year period under the federal framing, or sooner if the state requires it) and the CPR expiry date on one tickler the day each clears. Audit ready means no sampled file needs a story.

### 5. Run the day on attendance and head counts

- Sign each child in and out daily with times, by the method the state accepts. Note absences and early pickups the same day.
- Take and initial head counts at every transition: room changes, playground in and out, vehicles on and off, and every room merge or split.
- Reconcile attendance to the roster weekly. Attending but not enrolled is an enrollment failure. Enrolled, billed, and never attending is a billing and safeguarding flag. Resolve both in writing.

### 6. Write incident and medication logs the way inspectors read them

- Incident entries state child, date, time, place, staff present, what was seen and heard in plain factual language, care given and by whom, when and how the family was told, whether the event was reportable to licensing and when that report was made, and the follow up. Full field list is in `references/files-and-logs.md`.
- Read the incident log monthly by room, hour, and type, and act on clusters. Note the action under the entries it came from.
- Medication runs only with written parent permission on file, the original labeled container, and a prescriber order where the state requires one. At each dose work the six checks: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time, right documentation. Measure with an oral syringe or calibrated cup, give first and sign second, log missed or refused doses as what happened, and correct errors with one line through, the correction, and initials.
- Keep emergency medication reachable by trained staff and out of children's reach, and other medication stored as the state requires.

### 7. Close the month on attendance, not the roster

- Lock attendance first. Then, for each child, match attended and billable days to the authorization and the funding source in the one ledger.
- Name the payment basis on the reconciliation sheet. Federal payment rules changed in 2026: the final rule released May 12, 2026 rescinded the 2024 requirement to pay subsidy providers by enrollment and prospectively, so states now choose the basis, including attendance based payment and absence thresholds. Read the current basis off the state agency notice filed in the billing binder. Never bill a copay, absence, or rate from memory.
- Split each bill so no day, hour, or copay is charged to two payers, investigate every variance where billed days exceed attended days without a basis, and file the packet together: invoice, attendance totals, absence list, authorizations, and reconciliation sheet. Sequence and a worked variance are in `references/billing-and-subsidy.md`.
- A full worked month, from a waitlist offer to a surprise inspection, is in `assets/worked-month.md`. Use it to train a new director or assistant director.

### 8. Prepare for inspection by sampling yourself

- Pull 3 child files, 2 staff files, 1 current medication, and 1 day of attendance at random each month and read them cold. Each sample must tell a complete story with no date gaps and no cross record contradictions.
- Check the posted license, the current ratio print, drill records, and the license binder at the front desk in the same pass.
- Fix findings the week they are found, log the fix and its date, and keep the sampling sheet. A small real finding fixed on paper beats a clean sheet nobody believes.

## Output Contract

For any operations task, deliver the applicable items:

- Ratio result: the checker output for the schedule as run, with every FAIL resolved and the rerun showing PASS, plus the license table and mixed age method used.
- Enrollment view: the ledger rows for the children in scope, subsidy and private pay together, with authorization dates and any expired or missing authorization flagged.
- File audit: per sampled child or staff file, complete or the exact missing item, its owner, and the date it will be filed.
- Log entries: incident or medication entries in the field order in `references/files-and-logs.md`, factual, signed, and with notification and reporting steps recorded.
- Billing packet: per payer, attendance totals, absence list with the named state payment basis applied, billable days, amount per child, and every variance explained in writing before the invoice goes out.

## Operating Rules

- The state license controls. Where this skill, a national table, and the state rule differ, follow the state rule and note the difference. Where a program rule such as Head Start is stricter, follow the stricter rule.
- Never staff, bill, or quote a family from a remembered ratio, rate, copay cap, absence allowance, or retention period. Each of those is read off a current source document filed in the center.
- No ratio, no room. A room that cannot be staffed at ratio for a block closes, merges only if the merged room passes the checker, or waits for a cleared substitute. Children are never left with a person the file does not clear for that room.
- Attendance is the billing source of truth. Roster billing with no attendance basis in writing is the one billing error this skill exists to prevent.
- Logs record what happened, including missed doses, late notifications, and failed counts. A corrected entry keeps the original visible under one line. A log with no problems in it is treated as incomplete, not excellent.
- Child and staff records stay confidential, on the premises or access controlled, and shared only with staff who need that exact information to keep a child safe that day.
- This skill is operations method, not legal advice. Licensing disputes, reportable incidents, employment eligibility calls, and subsidy appeals go to the licensing agency or qualified counsel with the center's records in hand.