The Role of a Childcare Director

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Hey guys. Welcome to the Child Care Director's chair. This is Erica Sakoshio. And today I wanted to talk to you about the role of a director. So you may be considering applying for a child care director position. So I want to help you get a good understanding of what some of the things might be that fall onto your plate. Now, of course they're going to vary depending on the size of your program and the state in which you're doing business, but this should give you a good overall view of some of the things that might be on your job duties. The first thing is you are the head of the program, so you're the leader. So that means the staff are going to come to you with problems, concerns, challenges, or even successes that they have that they want to share with you or ideas that they have that they think could could help make the program be better. If you have experience in problem solving as a teacher for your classroom of 10 or 12, or if you're a pre K teacher, maybe 20, you have to look at the size of the program that you are applying for. Meaning that if you're going to a large program, you might want to make sure, do you have the skill set to go from working with a group of 12 people or 20 people to over a hundred? Or does it make more sense to kind of start at a small or mid sized program to really get your feel as who you are and your identity as a director? Because it does take a little bit of time like anything else. If you look back at when you first started teaching to the teacher that you are now, there certainly was a roadmap in some type of growth or progression during that process. It's not any different in the role of director. You're the authority in your program. So you really have to know your field, not only the field of education. And if you're coming up as a teacher, as many directors do, you probably have a really good understanding around education, early childhood, what needs to happen in a classroom, the supports, the director. You wish you had all of those things, right? So, but are you authority on the other aspects of your job? So we're going to roll into what those might look like. So first of all, enrollments. Are you responsible for enrollments? Have you done tours before? Have you had the opportunity to run family type.

Opportunities like open house or graduation? Have you been in charge of running those types of things? If you have it and you've only participated that, that might be an area that I would try to focus on because a lot of Times as a director, you're the one in front of speaking for your program. The second thing is compliance. You're going to be in charge to make sure that your program stays in compliance. Do you know who your state worker is? Have you looked at childcare regulations? Those are very important pieces that you need to, to know about. And if this is your first time tuning in, we do have another video on this channel that is how feel really comfortable about a state compliance visit. So you might want to check that out if you don't have experience with that. The office. So you may not have an office administrator who answers the phones and sets up the tours for you. So do you have experience in that? Because that is something that could come up as part of your job responsibilities. Do you have a phone script at your program? Do you even know what to say when you answer the phone? So that's something that I would ask about when you move into that director role. But be prepared to answer phones, be prepared to answer emails. You are pretty much the public liaison for your program. Do you understand the quality rating systems in your state? Is your program part of that or the program that you're applying for? And if they are, you have to have a really good understanding of the application process because when it's time to renew, they're going to be looking at you to collect the documents and know what is going on and guiding your staff to be prepared for their visit to make sure that you either keep your accreditation or your star rating. Do you understand budgets? Will you be given a budget? These are things you need to know. Um, one of the things that I think is super important is are you in charge of maintaining payroll? And you may be, you may be in charge to make sure that your staffing does not exceed the certain amount of hours or, or dollar amount that you've been allotted. So that sometimes means maybe a portion of the day you hop in a classroom again. This could be one of the roles that you would anticipate could happen as a director. Probably now more than ever, directors have hopped in classrooms when teachers have called out. This is a very real reality. If you think that being a director means you're going to be hanging out by the desk most of the day. The that is not where good leadership leads from. They lead from the floor. They lead from doing, showing, supporting. So it's not a desk job. There are times that you'll be at the desk filling out paperwork. But for the most part, great leaders know they're leading from, from in front on the side and sharing.

Problem solving. Are you good with problem solving? If you're not, being a director is probably not good for you. You really have to get skilled at that and then working with different types of personalities. That is another thing where some directors are a little challenged. Just because you have the title as the authority and just because you have that title of being the leader doesn't always mean that you're the leader. That is an action, not a title. You have to be supportive of your staff. They have to know that they're part of what's going on at the program, meaning that you're sharing the vision, the mission. Where we are now, where do we want to go? That might mean that you're putting together strategic planning meetings. And lastly, you know, managing apps. IU tech savvy because again, you may have to do things through an app. Most programs right now are using apps to manage payments, tuition, manage messages from parents, manage scheduling, all of those things. So these are some of the things that could run on your job responsibility as your role of director. But most importantly is taking care of your people, your big people and your little people, your families and your community. There is no part on that task list that's more important than that. So please keep in mind that if you're not skilled in that area, do not apply to be a director in a child care program. That may SEEM Harsh, but 23 years in the fields, I can tell you from experience, if you don't care about the children, you don't care about the families, don't care about the staff, you not going to be a great director. That's where it starts. All the other things are trainable and learnable. So good for you. If you're not great with quality rating systems, it's something you can learn really quickly and your team can help you with that. So reach out to them. Work together. Reciprocal relationships and childcare just work. So this is Erica with the Child Care Directors Chair. If you want to know more about business in child care or any business, Visit us at www.stellabusiness concepts.com. if you love podcast, check out our sister channel Practical Biz Podcast. We are also available on YouTube and any of your listening platforms. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you have anything you think we could add to this list, leave in the comments below. Have a great day.

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