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Strengthening Business Practices for Child Care Programs

August 11, 2026

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance is offering a new curriculum series, Strengthening Business Practices for Child Care Programs.

The training content and activities are designed to strengthen child care providers’ foundational knowledge of sound fiscal management and business operations.

The series contains four modules of business practices content:

  • Budgets, Projections, and Planning
  • Financial Reports and Internal Controls
  • Marketing for Child Care Programs
  • Staff Recruitment and Retention for Center-based Child Care Programs

There are two versions of this series: one for center-based providers and one for family child care (based) providers.

Provider Training Outcomes

The content and activities are designed to increase providers’ knowledge in these topics.

Marketing for Child Care Programs

Understand the value of marketing efforts that are focused both externally and internally.

  • Be able to articulate the features and benefits of the program and understand how to use them as marketing tools.
  • Appreciate how data can inform marketing efforts in order to achieve greater success, become more cost effective, and use time more efficiently.

Fiscal Management

Budgets, Projections, and Planning

  • Learn a process for building a budget and how to use it for decision making throughout the year.
  • Understand how to project business costs, generate additional income, and plan strategically for future goals.

Financial Reports and Internal Controls

  • Introduce financial reports that can help you to better manage the program’s finances.
  • Understand the concept of internal controls and how they can strengthen your program’s fiscal health.

Staff Recruitment and Retention

(only required for center-based participants)

Understand best practices related to recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new employees.

  • Have a framework for building an effective orientation plan for new employees. Be familiar with the components of a staff handbook.
  • Identify strategies for providing feedback to employees.

Schedule

Fall 2026-Winter 2027 Schedule

Training available at no cost. PQAS hours available. Please select and attend one (1) date per Module that makes sense for your program type (center or family). Courses are offered in English, and Spanish when specified. Registration for these modules is in the PD Registry (papdregistry.org) and individual links to each session are available in the PDF document below.

View Full Schedule (PDF)

About the National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (ECTA Center)

The National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (ECQA Center) supports state and community leaders and their partners in the planning and implementation of rigorous approaches to quality in all early care and education settings for children from birth to school age. The ECQA Center is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

For information on how to enhance the capacity of child care programs on this critical topic, email National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance.

Contact

For information about the Strengthening Business Practices for Child Care Programs Training, email Curtis Gussler.