Free template
Weekly staff schedule template
A week of shifts on one page, with break coverage and a ratio line, so you can see the gap on Wednesday before Wednesday happens.
- One row per staff member, one column per day, with in and out times
- A break coverage row, which is where most small programs come unstuck
- Room assignment beside each shift, so nobody guesses where they are
- A ratio check line per day against expected attendance
PDF, one page, letter size. Print Friday for the following week and post it.
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What a schedule has to show at a glance
Shifts by person
In and out times per day, written as real times rather than an early or late label.
Opening and closing
Who opens and who closes, highlighted, because those two shifts carry the checklists.
Break coverage
Who covers whom, and when. An uncovered break is how ratio violations happen quietly.
Room assignments
Which group each person is with, so a move mid-week is visible to everyone.
Ratio check
Expected children against staff on the floor, per day. The row that saves you from a Wednesday surprise.
Time off and subs
Approved absences and who is covering, listed rather than remembered.
Scheduling a small program without a spreadsheet
With six or eight staff the hard part is not building the schedule, it is what happens when someone calls out at 6am. A visible schedule makes that call shorter.
Post it by Friday for the next week. Predictability is one of the few retention levers a small program fully controls.
Schedule breaks explicitly. Write the coverage down. Whoever is covering should not have to work it out in the moment.
Keep a sub list on the same page. Three names and numbers in the corner. At 6am you do not want to be searching your phone.
Staff scheduling, answered
How do we stay in ratio during breaks?
Plan coverage in writing, stagger breaks against your lowest attendance window, and use the ratio row to confirm the floor is covered before the week starts.
How much notice should staff get?
A week is a reasonable minimum and some jurisdictions have predictive scheduling rules. Check whether any apply to you.
What about mixed-age ratios?
Ratio for a mixed group is set by your state and often follows the youngest child present. Confirm the rule and note it beside the ratio row.
Do we need to keep old schedules?
Keeping them alongside attendance makes a ratio question easy to answer months later. Ask your licensor whether they expect them on file.
Who is on, who is covering, and whether you are in ratio
Attendance and staffing in one place means the ratio answer is current, not a calculation you redo every time someone calls out.