For children from age birth to five, attending an early education setting, whether it is a family child care facility, child care center, or preschool, helps them to physically and emotionally shape their developmental milestones. Research shows that a child’s first five years are the most critical for brain development, with more than 90% of brain growth happening during this time. This makes it important for child care facility managers to review their business operations occasionally, and apply the findings to achieve improvements that match the necessary high quality standards for all child care facilities. By doing so, children are able to learn in a place that cares about providing quality standards when it comes to their services, curriculum, teaching practices, and environment.
Applying these measures will achieve:
– Healthy child development in all children under care
– Overall program success by improving practices
– Keep track of equipment and safety hazards
– Effective selection of staff and professional development opportunities to motivate them
– Recognition by families and the community on the quality standards provided
The following suggestions will allow you to prioritize on what requires to be addressed in your program and what methods you can use in order to improve these needs.
Data is the single most helpful tool for analyzing a program’s operations. Without data, managers have to conduct extensive investigations, surveys, reviews and research to determine how well the center is performing, and whether clients and their children are reaping the intended benefits of a quality child care business. You can gather from various systems, such as statistics for enrollment, financials, sick days, and retention of children, and then you can analyze and identify trends and patterns for what may need improvement.
Measuring customer satisfaction in the early childhood education field involves reaching out to parents for their feedback via surveys or comments. Though it can at times be challenging, as all families lead busy lives, you can find ways to make short, convenient surveys for them to complete. Asking parents to complete an annual survey provides a long-term view, and enables the program to identify shifts in perception over the year (e.g. number of educators per child, turnover, vacancies per age group, etc.), while more frequent surveys deliver data for shorter, specific periods.
New customers may have different viewpoints from existing ones, and by combining the data from surveys with the statistics available, the program management can compile comprehensive results
Analyzing the findings and comparing them with the goals in the program’s business strategy enables management to see whether they are meeting objectives. This analysis should enable them to:
• Highlight common problems typically experienced in child care programs, and raise awareness of them
• Find out whether policies and procedures are being followed by staff, and what transpires when they are not
• Identify hazards that can play a role in child safety on the premises, with a view to preventing them
• Interpret financial results to see whether the program is on track to monthly or yearly success, or if it’s merely surviving.
Various types of software are available to perform this analysis, and once management has identified the patterns they can compile reports that give insight into where and why attention is needed.
A review of the findings enables center management to develop a plan to fix the problems they encounter. It’s important to keep parents up-to-date on the results of the review and the plans for improvement, and to take notice of any concerns the parents have. By conducting reviews of all staff members, they can ensure the employees all have the right qualifications and experience, and are able to work with all young children from birth to five.
Summary: Quality child care centers conduct continual monitoring of their policies and procedures to make sure they are delivering the quality services for the children in their care. This will create customer satisfaction in the long-run, keep clients, and help spread the word about how good of a child care facility it is, which will attract new clients and potential recognition from the field.
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Vice President of Strategic Alliances
Elisa Shepherd is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at the Council, where she leads initiatives to advance the Council’s mission and strategic plan through designing, managing, and executing a comprehensive stakeholder relationship strategy.
With over 25 years of experience in early childhood education (ECE), Elisa has dedicated her career to developing impactful programs, professional development opportunities, and public policies that support working families, young children, and ECE staff. Before joining the Council, Elisa held numerous roles within the childcare industry. Most recently, she served as Associate Vice President at The Learning Experience and as Senior Manager at KinderCare Education, where she influenced government affairs and public policies across 40 states.
Elisa’s commitment to leadership is reflected in her external roles on the Early Care and Education Consortium Board of Directors, the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees, and as the DEI Caucus Leader for KinderCare Education. She has been recognized as an Emerging Leader in Early Childhood by Childcare Exchange’s Leadership Initiative.
Elisa earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on child development from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.
Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Andrew Davis serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Council. In this role, Andrew oversees the Programs Division, which includes the following operational functions: credentialing, growth and business development, marketing and communications, public policy and advocacy, research, innovation, and customer relations.
Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the early care and education field. Most recently, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of Partnership and Engagement with Acelero Learning and Shine Early Learning, where he led the expansion of state and community-based partnerships to produce more equitable systems of service delivery, improved programmatic quality, and greater outcomes for communities, children and families. Prior to that, he served as Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions.
Andrew earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore and Towson University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland – University College.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Jan Bigelow serves as Chief Financial Officer at the Council and has been with the organization since February of 2022.
Jan has more than 30 years in accounting and finance experience, including public accounting, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She has held management-level positions with BDO Seidman, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Communities In Schools, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and American Humane. Since 2003, Jan has worked exclusively in the non-profit sector where she has been a passionate advocate in improving business operations in order to further the mission of her employers.
Jan holds a CPA from the State of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College. She resides in Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
Vice President of People and Culture
Janie Payne is the Vice President of People and Culture for the Council for Professional Recognition. Janie is responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing initiatives that strategically manage talent and culture to align people strategies with the overarching business vision of the Council. Janie is responsible for driving organizational excellence through strategic talent practices, orchestrating workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management as well as a myriad of other Human Resources Programs. She is accountable for driving effectiveness by shaping organizational structure for optimal efficiency. Janie oversees strategies that foster a healthy culture to include embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.
In Janie’s prior role, she was the Vice President of Administration at Equal Justice Works, where she was responsible for leading human resources, financial operations, facilities management, and information technology. She was also accountable for developing and implementing Equal Justice Works Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy focused on attracting diverse, mission-oriented talent and creating an inclusive and equitable workplace environment. With more than fifteen years of private, federal, and not-for-profit experience, Janie is known for her intuitive skill in administration management, human resources management, designing and leading complex system change, diversity and inclusion, and social justice reform efforts.
Before joining Equal Justice Works, Janie was the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Global Communities, where she was responsible for the design, implementation, and management of integrated HR and diversity strategies. Her work impacted employees in over twenty-two countries. She was responsible for the effective management of different cultural, legal, regulatory, and economic systems for both domestic and international employees. Prior to Global Communities, Janie enjoyed a ten-year career with the federal government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she held key strategic human resources positions with multiple cabinet-level agencies and served as an advisor and senior coach to leaders across the federal sector. In these roles, she received recognition from management, industry publications, peers, and staff for driving the creation and execution of programs that created an engaged and productive workforce.
Janie began her career with Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic), where she held numerous roles of increasing responsibility, where she directed a diversity program that resulted in significant improvement in diversity profile measures. Janie was also a faculty member for the company’s Black Managers Workshop, a training program designed to provide managers of color with the skills needed to overcome barriers to their success that were encountered because of race. She initiated a company-wide effort to establish team-based systems and structures to impact corporate bottom line results which was recognized by the Department of Labor. Janie was one of the first African American women to be featured on the cover of Human Resources Executive magazine.
Janie received her M.A. in Organization Development from American University. She holds numerous professional development certificates in Human Capital Management and Change Management, including a Diversity and Inclusion in Human Resources certificate from Cornell University. She completed the year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program sponsored by The Schaefer Center for Public Policy and The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. She is a trained mediator and Certified Professional Coach. She is a graduate of Leadership America, former board chair of the NTL Institute and currently co-steward of the organization’s social justice community of practice, and a member of The Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Janie is the Board Chairperson for the Special Education Citizens Advisory Council for Prince Georges County where she is active in developing partnerships that facilitate discussion between parents, families, educators, community leaders, and the PG County school administration to enhance services for students with disabilities which is her passion. She and her husband Randolph reside in Fort Washington Maryland.
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