ISDS Project Preliminary Project Requirements based on this report and plan

Managing a Daycare

Part 1

Introduction/Background: 

Enrollment in daycare plays an important role during child development. Daycares are a great alternative to keeping children safe and healthy while parents may be preoccupied with work.  These types of programs help children develop interpersonal, communication, and behavioral skills. The daycare setting incorporates a structured curriculum and programs which enhances the students’ intellectual growth and development. Interacting and socializing the entire day  leads to an increase in prosocial behavior, empathy, and resilience later in life. Through our daycare program individuals are able to sign up online or through the phone. Usually daycares tend to close around 5:00 – 6:00 PM, but our daycare will remain open until 10:00 PM for parents and individuals who work overtime or have additional responsibilities to complete after work. In order to increase revenue the daycare program will need to increase enrollment. Additionally, to create a safe space for children our program should choose staff carefully in order to cultivate the best environment.

Objectives

The Daycare’s strategic goals include continuously providing great service through our friendly staff at a reasonable cost. The daycare wants to provide a safe environment that encourages enrolled children to not only learn, but love learning. Our program is fully committed to providing support and development towards children’s social and learning experiences. The program will have various activities and be structured with a “hands-on” approach that allows children to make decisions on what activities they wish to participate in. The facilities at the daycare can keep children safe by establishing a childproof environment, as well as, increasing supervision by our employees. Another objective is to develop a positive relationship with parents by staying involved and communicating with the parent. Our program also caters to parents that are preoccupied during later hours of the day, 6:00 AM – 10:00 PM. 

Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement

Currently there has been an increase in the need for daycare services as most parents are finding themselves unable to care for their children while working, meaning that there are more parents enrolling their children in daycare.  Due to the unexpected increase in daycare services, there are not enough daycare workers to take care of the increasing number of children. We now find ourselves short-handed and must look for more people to work at the daycare. While hiring, we must ensure parents that we are only accepting the most qualified to take care of the children.  We also need to ensure that once we have enough employees that we evenly distribute the amount of children and the amount of hours the children will be at the daycare with each employee.

Preliminary Project Requirements 

1. Find qualified individuals capable of working with minors.

2. Innovative individuals who can provide various activities to not only communication skills but to also keep children engaged. 

Budget Estimates and Financial Analysis

The budget contingency is estimated to be $17,584.53 per month. The costs that the daycare takes to account is: hiring more staff, going through resumes, doing background checks, enrolling children into the program, collecting information from staff, collecting applications, preparing budget, and constructing daily agendas. As the demand for daycare services increases, our daycare plans on extending daycare hours and hiring additional daycare teachers to increase revenue. Initially, our daycare had 5 teachers, however, by extending the daycare hours the amount of staff will need to be doubled since a full time day shift is 8 hours. Now that our daycare will be running for 16 hours we will increase our employees to a total of 10. 
Since our daycare is a continuing business, initial costs will not be included. According to studies, the cost per square foot is $20, and each child needs at least 35 square feet. Thus, the rent for commercial property per month would be $30,100 because the cost per child is $700 and there are 43 children enrolled. 
Projected profits are based on the demand for daycare services and additional hours. The cost for daycare per child is $15.53 an hour. In addition, the daycare is open from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. To increase profits the daycare sets a cap to certain age groups. Also, children aged 4 and 5 year olds is capped to 8. While the cap for 3 year olds is 7. Lastly, children aged from 6 to 8 are capped to 20 children. The reason the cap for children aged 6 to 8 is because this will help with profits. The child to staff ratio for 6 to 8 year olds is 20, this means that by maximizing the cap for older children our daycare is able to maximize profits with more children and less teachers. In conclusion, the total projected benefits are $27,702 per month, and the projected yearly benefits would then be $332,424. When combined with the overall expenses per month of $17,584.53, we are left with a profit of $10,117.47.
Child: Staff ratio 
$17,584 expenses per month 

Age

Maximum Child: Staff Ratio

Maximum Group Size

3-years old

7:1

21

4-years old

8:1

24

5-years old

8:1

24

6-8-years old

10:1

30

(Children Age Ranges: 3 year old (7), 4 year old (8), 5 year old (8), 6-8 year old (20)= 43 children)
Employee pay: $15.53/hour x 8 hours/day x 5 days a week= $621.20/week,  $2,484.8/month
Daycare cost: $15/hour, $120/day, 5 days/week, $600/week, $2,500/month 
Total Number of Children Enrolled: 43
Amount of Staff: 10 staff members

Expenses:

Legal fees: $1,500

Overall Daycare cost: $17,584.53 per month

Supplies: $50 per child per month = total of $2,150

licenses and fees: $400 per child/month (I think we should change this because it won’t make sense because 400 x 43 =17,200 so that would make our total expenses 34,784.53)

Advertising and marketing: $4,000

Project Due Date

Start date for the summer session begins on May 6 and will run until August 30.  We will be working on preparing for the summer session between March 10- May 6.

Available Working Hours

The hours of operation will be a total of 16 hours per day(6 AM – 10 PM).

Constraint Dates 

May 6th, April 12th

People Who Will be Working on the Project

Jasmine Gamino, Micaela Hager, Khanh Nguyen, Katy Cienfuegos, Gabrielle Lin. 
People that will be hired: John Smith, Gale Johnson, Tom Newman, Olivia Williams, Gertrude Jenkins.

Our monthly expense for hiring staff is $4,326.13. 
All employees will earn $15.53 per hour, which is the average wage for a daycare worker in California.