Staff shortages happen – and they can throw your entire child care program into a scramble. That’s where a licensed substitute pool can step in to help!
Imagine this: It’s 6:30 a.m. and you get a call from a staff member saying they or a family member are sick, and they won’t be able to make it in. What now? Do you close your program for the day? Lose the trust of families? Sacrifice your credibility? Rearranging the day under pressure is stressful, especially knowing the impact it can have on children, families and your team. It’s a lot, and it’s a big responsibility.
Zero to Five Montana Substitute Solutions is here to help.
What is Zero to Five Montana Substitute Solutions?
Zero to Five Montana Substitute Solutions is a statewide substitute pool that pairs licensing approved substitutes with licensed/registered programs.
Our substitutes are licensed, trained, and ready to step into child care programs across the state. They go through the same licensing requirements as regular child care staff. Once a sub is in a child care program to cover a shift, it is the responsibility of the owner/director to orientate the sub on the child care program’s individual rules and regulations, philosophy, and emergency policies. It is also the program’s responsibility to process payroll for the substitute.
Once approved, the substitute is added to the Zero to Five Montana Substitute Pool PV number. If a licensor visits while a substitute is present, you can feel confident knowing they’re fully covered, and your ratios are compliant. Using the Alliance CARE platform, we manage all the paperwork and track substitutes’ progress, so you don’t have to.
Relaunching with Local Collaboration
Through the sub pool, our goal is to start partnering with local early childhood education groups to support recruitment and onboarding. You know your community best, and we’d love your help identifying great substitute candidates.
For example, we’re working with Bitterroot Early Learning Network (BELN) who is recruiting, interviewing, and completing reference checks for their applicants. Once BELN hires the applicant, we take care of licensing requirements. BELN has committed to paying the membership fee for child care programs in their services area to access substitutes through Alliance CARE.
Saving Time, Reducing Stress and Cutting Costs
Using licensed substitutes doesn’t just fill gaps in staffing, it gives you time back in your day, reduces stress, and returns money to your program.
As a program owner/director with limited time to work on your business, let us handle worrying about tracking hours, paperwork, or whether someone has completed their training. With a projected 56% turnover rate in Montana’s early child care field, hiring and onboarding can get expensive fast — around $3,637 per employee.
Using our substitute pool can help you avoid those costs. By sharing substitutes across multiple programs, we reduce the onboarding burden for everyone and save dollars in the process.
Signing up for Substitute Solutions is a breeze. Click the link below and fill out the form. Once Zero to Five Montana has received your sign-up form, we will send you out a contract to sign. Once the contract has been signed and returned, you will receive an email from us on next steps.
Let Zero to Five Montana Substitute Solutions be your support system. We are here to make sure sick days, and vacation days are manageable without sacrificing quality care or your peace of mind.
Jacklynn Liles is Zero to Five Montana’s Shared Services Coordinator, and Rhonda Schwenke is Director of Program Services.
