Childcare Revenue Calculator

Licensing regulations generally require lower child-to-staff ratios for infants than for older children, since infants need more individual attention and supervision. That lower ratio means a center needs more staff hours per infant slot, which drives up the cost of providing infant care and is typically passed through as a higher monthly rate.

Enrollment percentage scales monthly revenue directly and linearly, and that monthly effect compounds across all 12 months in the annual figure — a drop from 90% to 80% enrollment isn't just 10 percentage points, it's a 10% reduction applied to your entire annual revenue base. Because fixed costs like rent and base staffing often don't shrink proportionally with lower enrollment, even a modest enrollment dip can hit profitability harder than the revenue drop alone suggests.

Industry figures commonly cited for licensed childcare centers run around 80-90% average enrollment, though this varies by local demand, reputation, and how long a center has been established. New centers often model a more conservative enrollment ramp — lower in the early months while building a waitlist, climbing toward the industry average as reputation grows.

It gives a single blended average tuition figure across your entire age-group mix, which is useful for a quick sanity check against per-child operating costs like staffing, food, and supplies. Because it blends different age-group rates together, a center weighted more heavily toward higher-rate infant slots will show a higher revenue-per-slot figure than one weighted toward lower-rate preschool slots, even at identical enrollment percentages.

If your actual enrollment varies noticeably by age group — a long infant waitlist alongside open toddler spots is common — running each age group through the calculator separately with its own realistic enrollment percentage and slot count gives a more accurate total than applying one blended rate across every group.