Webinar Series
How to Run a Best in Class Child Care Program Part 3
Join our live, three-part webinar series on building stronger teams, navigating compliance, and making smarter financial decisions.
Runs on Wednesdays
2 PM - 3:30 PM EST
Live & Recorded
Leading a child care program comes with complex challenges. Leaders are expected to build and retain a strong workforce, navigate licensing requirements, and make financial decisions that keep their programs sustainable. This three-part webinar series brings these critical areas together, giving directors, owners, and administrators practical tools to strengthen operations, reduce risk, and make more confident decisions.
Led by experienced early childhood professionals, each session tackles a pressing challenge facing today’s child care leaders. From building transparent salary scales and responding effectively to licensing citations to calculating the true cost of turnover, you’ll gain actionable strategies you can put to work right away. Together, these sessions will help you strengthen retention, improve compliance, and build a stronger financial case for investing in the people who make your program possible.
Register for this free webinar
Register for this free webinar
From Turnover to Stability: How ECE Salary Scales Drive Retention and Equity
Date: September 9, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Early childhood educators are the foundation of quality programs—yet high turnover, wage inequity, and inconsistent compensation remain persistent challenges across the field. This webinar examines how structured salary scales can transform ECE workforce stability by creating transparent, equitable pathways for teacher compensation.
Designed for program directors, administrators, and early education leaders, this session pairs the evidence on fair pay structures with practical, immediately applicable guidance for building a salary scale—whether you're starting from scratch or refining an existing structure—along with realistic strategies for funding it over time.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the research linking structured salary scales to improved teacher retention, reduced turnover costs, and greater pay equity across race, gender, and credential levels.
Design a draft salary scale framework for their own program, including credential- and experience-based steps and transparent placement criteria.
Identify at least three funding strategies — including grants, public investments, and blended financing — to sustain competitive compensation over time.
Presented by: Dr. Tamar Andrews, Senior Director of the Masor School for Education and Leadership at American Jewish University
From Turnover to Stability: How ECE Salary Scales Drive Retention and Equity
Date: September 9, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Early childhood educators are the foundation of quality programs—yet high turnover, wage inequity, and inconsistent compensation remain persistent challenges across the field. This webinar examines how structured salary scales can transform ECE workforce stability by creating transparent, equitable pathways for teacher compensation.
Designed for program directors, administrators, and early education leaders, this session pairs the evidence on fair pay structures with practical, immediately applicable guidance for building a salary scale—whether you're starting from scratch or refining an existing structure—along with realistic strategies for funding it over time.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the research linking structured salary scales to improved teacher retention, reduced turnover costs, and greater pay equity across race, gender, and credential levels.
Design a draft salary scale framework for their own program, including credential- and experience-based steps and transparent placement criteria.
Identify at least three funding strategies — including grants, public investments, and blended financing — to sustain competitive compensation over time.
Cited. Now What? Understanding Licensing Decisions and Your Next Steps
Date: September 16, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Receiving a citation can leave even experienced child care leaders with a lot of emotion — and even more questions.
What exactly was cited? When did that become a rule? Was the regulation interpreted correctly? Should the finding be accepted as written, clarified, or discussed further based on additional information?
Join Ronnae Williams, The State Lady®, for an inside look at how licensing decisions are made, what consultants are evaluating during inspections, and how to respond professionally when findings are documented.
Drawing on her experience as a former licensing consultant, Ronnae will help participants better understand licensing reports, identify common areas of misunderstanding, and determine appropriate next steps when concerns arise.
Participants will leave with practical strategies for addressing citations, strengthening compliance systems, and communicating effectively throughout the process.
Learning objectives: by the end of this 90-minute webinar, participants will be able to:
Interpret a licensing report to identify the specific regulation, practice, or observation being cited.
Describe what licensing consultants evaluate during inspections, investigations, and follow-up visits.
Determine whether clarification, corrective action, or additional documentation is appropriate following a citation.
Apply professional communication strategies to respond to licensing findings and strengthen compliance systems.
Presented by: Ronnae Williams, Culturally Yours Consulting
Cited. Now What? Understanding Licensing Decisions and Your Next Steps
Date: September 16, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Receiving a citation can leave even experienced child care leaders with a lot of emotion — and even more questions.
What exactly was cited? When did that become a rule? Was the regulation interpreted correctly? Should the finding be accepted as written, clarified, or discussed further based on additional information?
Join Ronnae Williams, The State Lady®, for an inside look at how licensing decisions are made, what consultants are evaluating during inspections, and how to respond professionally when findings are documented.
Drawing on her experience as a former licensing consultant, Ronnae will help participants better understand licensing reports, identify common areas of misunderstanding, and determine appropriate next steps when concerns arise.
Participants will leave with practical strategies for addressing citations, strengthening compliance systems, and communicating effectively throughout the process.
Learning objectives: by the end of this 90-minute webinar, participants will be able to:
Interpret a licensing report to identify the specific regulation, practice, or observation being cited.
Describe what licensing consultants evaluate during inspections, investigations, and follow-up visits.
Determine whether clarification, corrective action, or additional documentation is appropriate following a citation.
Apply professional communication strategies to respond to licensing findings and strengthen compliance systems.
Cited. Now What? Understanding Licensing Decisions and Your Next Steps
Date: September 16, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Receiving a citation can leave even experienced child care leaders with a lot of emotion — and even more questions.
What exactly was cited? When did that become a rule? Was the regulation interpreted correctly? Should the finding be accepted as written, clarified, or discussed further based on additional information?
Join Ronnae Williams, The State Lady®, for an inside look at how licensing decisions are made, what consultants are evaluating during inspections, and how to respond professionally when findings are documented.
Drawing on her experience as a former licensing consultant, Ronnae will help participants better understand licensing reports, identify common areas of misunderstanding, and determine appropriate next steps when concerns arise.
Participants will leave with practical strategies for addressing citations, strengthening compliance systems, and communicating effectively throughout the process.
Learning objectives: by the end of this 90-minute webinar, participants will be able to:
Interpret a licensing report to identify the specific regulation, practice, or observation being cited.
Describe what licensing consultants evaluate during inspections, investigations, and follow-up visits.
Determine whether clarification, corrective action, or additional documentation is appropriate following a citation.
Apply professional communication strategies to respond to licensing findings and strengthen compliance systems.
Presented by: Ronnae Williams, Culturally Yours Consulting
The Cost of Starting Over: A Financial Framework for Hiring, Developing, and Keeping the Team Your Program Needs
Date: September 23, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Every time a staff member leaves, your program starts paying — long before you post the job opening.
The obvious costs are easy to see: advertising, background checks, onboarding, training hours, and classroom coverage. The real cost reaches much further. Turnover can mean overtime, leadership time pulled away from enrollment and operations, stressed classrooms, lost family confidence, delayed growth, and months of reduced productivity while a new hire gets up to speed. So the question becomes: do you track it?
Join Kate Woodward Young and Carrie Casey for a session that helps child care leaders view staffing decisions through a business lens. Kate and Carrie will break down the financial impact of hiring, training, developing, and retaining staff — including the often-overlooked cost of director turnover and the time it takes a new leader to bring a program back to full strength.
Participants will explore how to make smarter decisions about raises, performance bonuses, credentialing, onboarding, and staff development. Rather than asking only, "Can we afford to invest in our team?" this session asks the more important question: "What is it costing us when we do not?"
Leaders will leave able to put real numbers to the cost of turnover, weigh a retention investment against the cost of replacing an employee, and build a clearer financial case for keeping the right people.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this 65-minute webinar, participants will be able to:
Calculate the total cost of replacing one staff member, including direct hiring expenses and indirect costs such as overtime, classroom coverage, and lost productivity.
Identify the hidden costs of director and leadership turnover, including the time required for a new leader to return a program to full strength.
Compare the cost of a retention investment — such as a raise, performance bonus, or credentialing support — against the cost of replacing that employee.
Formulate a financial case for a specific staff investment decision using program-level turnover and time-to-productivity data.
A few things that would strengthen the session:
Name the framework. The title promises a financial framework, but the description doesn't yet say what it is. Three to five named components or steps would give participants something concrete to take with them — and would make the assessment questions much easier to write.
One worked example with real numbers. An anonymized scenario, such as a 60-child center losing one lead teacher, would anchor the whole session.
A cost-of-turnover worksheet. Handouts are optional, but this session is the ideal case for one. It's exactly the kind of same-day tool our audience loves, and it makes the first objective something participants can genuinely do. Note that if you'd rather keep the session conceptual, we can soften that objective from "Calculate" to "Identify" — just let me know which you prefer.
Logistics. Since you're co-presenting, let me know how you'd like to split the content. I'll also need a current resume or CV and a completed Disclosure of Proprietary Interest form from each of you, even if there's nothing to disclose.
Presented by: Carrie Casey, Author and Co- Host, Childcare Conversations
Presented by: Kate Woodward Young, M.Ed., Author and Co- Host
The Cost of Starting Over: A Financial Framework for Hiring, Developing, and Keeping the Team Your Program Needs
Date: September 23, 2026 from 2:00 - 3:30 pm Eastern
Every time a staff member leaves, your program starts paying — long before you post the job opening.
The obvious costs are easy to see: advertising, background checks, onboarding, training hours, and classroom coverage. The real cost reaches much further. Turnover can mean overtime, leadership time pulled away from enrollment and operations, stressed classrooms, lost family confidence, delayed growth, and months of reduced productivity while a new hire gets up to speed. So the question becomes: do you track it?
Join Kate Woodward Young and Carrie Casey for a session that helps child care leaders view staffing decisions through a business lens. Kate and Carrie will break down the financial impact of hiring, training, developing, and retaining staff — including the often-overlooked cost of director turnover and the time it takes a new leader to bring a program back to full strength.
Participants will explore how to make smarter decisions about raises, performance bonuses, credentialing, onboarding, and staff development. Rather than asking only, "Can we afford to invest in our team?" this session asks the more important question: "What is it costing us when we do not?"
Leaders will leave able to put real numbers to the cost of turnover, weigh a retention investment against the cost of replacing an employee, and build a clearer financial case for keeping the right people.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this 65-minute webinar, participants will be able to:
Calculate the total cost of replacing one staff member, including direct hiring expenses and indirect costs such as overtime, classroom coverage, and lost productivity.
Identify the hidden costs of director and leadership turnover, including the time required for a new leader to return a program to full strength.
Compare the cost of a retention investment — such as a raise, performance bonus, or credentialing support — against the cost of replacing that employee.
Formulate a financial case for a specific staff investment decision using program-level turnover and time-to-productivity data.
A few things that would strengthen the session:
Name the framework. The title promises a financial framework, but the description doesn't yet say what it is. Three to five named components or steps would give participants something concrete to take with them — and would make the assessment questions much easier to write.
One worked example with real numbers. An anonymized scenario, such as a 60-child center losing one lead teacher, would anchor the whole session.
A cost-of-turnover worksheet. Handouts are optional, but this session is the ideal case for one. It's exactly the kind of same-day tool our audience loves, and it makes the first objective something participants can genuinely do. Note that if you'd rather keep the session conceptual, we can soften that objective from "Calculate" to "Identify" — just let me know which you prefer.
Logistics. Since you're co-presenting, let me know how you'd like to split the content. I'll also need a current resume or CV and a completed Disclosure of Proprietary Interest form from each of you, even if there's nothing to disclose.
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Stay in the loop on all things ECE
Join 300,000+ other early childhood professionals on our weekly newsletter.
Stay in the loop on all things ECE
Join 300,000+ other early childhood professionals on our weekly newsletter.