Summer is the staffing season that catches a lot of California childcare programs off-guard. Teachers want vacation time. Subs are harder to find because school-year subs are off-rotation. Enrollment can be patchy. And kids are full-energy in the heat.
The programs that handle summer staffing well don’t do anything magical. They plan for it months in advance.
The staffing pressure is real. The Bureau of Labor Statistics childcare worker data reports low median wages for childcare workers nationally, and California early childhood workforce data shows the wage gap California early educators face against the state’s cost of living.
Centers that want a stronger pipeline also need relationships with training programs and tools like the California Early Care and Education Workforce Registry, which supports professional development records for the early care and education workforce.
Step one: get teacher vacation requests in by April. A simple form. Each teacher submits her requested weeks. The director maps them on a calendar. The goal is to make sure no two leads are out the same week, and no critical coverage gap exists. Better to negotiate dates in April than scramble in July.
Step two: identify your real coverage options before you need them. Your in-house floater is option one. Your director’s classroom-ready hours are option two. Your network of trusted substitutes is option three. Sub agencies are option four. Sub agencies should be a last resort because cost and consistency suffer.
Step three: prep your trusted subs. The people you’ve worked with before, who know your program, are gold. Reach out in April. ‘We have these weeks where we’ll need coverage. Can we book you now?’ Many will say yes when asked early. Building this list is a real investment.
Step four: plan around lower attendance. Summer attendance is often 60–80% of regular weeks because families travel. That gives you a small staffing buffer — but only if you actively use it. Don’t carry full staffing on a 60%-attended Tuesday in July. Adjust schedules to match attendance, then redirect the savings to giving someone a meaningful day off.
Step five: budget for the cost. Summer staffing has real costs — overtime, sub agencies, premium pay for working through holidays. Build it into your annual budget rather than absorbing it as a surprise. Many programs we know set aside a ‘summer coverage fund’ monthly through the rest of the year.
Step six: communicate with parents. A short email in May or June that says ‘here’s how summer will run; here are any anticipated coverage variations; we appreciate your flexibility’ builds enormous goodwill. Parents are forgiving when they’re told what to expect.
Step seven: take care of your team. Summer is hot, hard, and high-energy. Cold drinks in the staff fridge. Slightly relaxed dress code if it works for your program. Acknowledgment of the labor. A small mid-summer ‘thank you’ moment — a coffee for the team, a small note. It matters more than you’d think.
Step eight: protect your own summer too. Owners often work harder through the summer because everyone else is on vacation. Build in your own days off. The program needs you well-rested for the fall ramp.
Summer staffing is doable. It just doesn’t work on instinct. Plan in April. Confirm in June. Execute in July. Reset in September.