Running a child care center means constantly balancing the needs of families with the reality of business operations. While scheduled, full-time care forms the backbone of most centers, there’s an untapped opportunity that many providers overlook: drop-in care services.
Drop-in care allows parents to bring their children for temporary care without long-term commitments or extensive advance notice. This flexible service model offers significant advantages for both families and child care businesses.
Here are five compelling ways your center can benefit from adding drop-in care to your service offerings.
1. Generate Additional Revenue Streams
Drop-in care creates an immediate opportunity to increase your center’s income without major infrastructure changes. Unlike traditional enrollment models that rely on monthly fees, drop-in services operate on a pay-per-use basis that can command premium hourly rates.
The financial impact extends beyond the obvious hourly fees. Drop-in care often leads to full enrollment conversions. Parents who use your drop-in services get firsthand experience with your staff, building and programs.
Smart pricing strategies can maximize this revenue potential. Many successful centers offer package deals, such as five drop-in sessions for the price of four, or membership plans that provide discounted rates for frequent users. These approaches encourage repeat business while increasing predictable income.
2. Attract and Serve a Broader Customer Base
Traditional child care enrollment requires significant commitments from families – both financial and scheduling. This model excludes many potential customers who need quality care but can’t commit to full-time arrangements.
Drop-in care opens your doors to entirely new market segments:
Working parents with flexible schedules: Freelancers, consultants and remote workers often need care on an irregular basis.
Stay-at-home parents: These parents might need care for medical appointments, personal errands or simply a few hours of respite. They represent a substantial untapped market that values occasional, reliable care options.
Families in transition: Parents between jobs, moving to new areas or waiting for full-time enrollment openings often need temporary solutions. Drop-in care serves as a bridge service that keeps these families connected to quality care.
Grandparents and extended family: Increasingly, grandparents provide regular child care but occasionally need backup support. Drop-in services can serve this growing demographic.
By serving these diverse groups, your center builds a larger network of families who know and trust your services. This expanded reach creates more opportunities for referrals and word-of-mouth marketing.
3. Fill Unused Capacity
The 2025 Child Care Business Report from Procare Solutions found that 39.8% of centers face challenges with maintaining consistent enrollment.
Survey results also showed that larger centers (more than 91 children) are operating slightly below their licensed capacity. This suggests potential to increase enrollment without needing to expand facilities, which comes as an increased number of centers reported being under-capacity when compared to the previous year:
Most child care centers experience fluctuations in daily attendance due to illnesses, vacations, and other family circumstances. These empty spaces represent lost revenue opportunities that drop-in care can help recover.
The math is compelling. If your center has a capacity for 60 children but averages 52 children daily due to absences, you have eight unused spaces. At $20 per hour for drop-in care over an 8-hour day, those spaces could generate $1,280 in additional daily revenue.
This approach works particularly well during traditionally slower periods:
- Summer months when enrolled families take vacations
- Holiday weeks when some families travel
- Beginning and end of school years during transitions
- Specific weekdays that show consistently lower attendance
Strategic scheduling can maximize this benefit. Some centers reserve 10-15% of their capacity specifically for drop-in care, ensuring they can accommodate both regular attendees and drop-in clients without overcrowding.
4. Build Community Trust and Brand Recognition
Drop-in care serves as a powerful marketing tool that builds trust within your community. When families use your services occasionally, they become familiar with your staff, teaching philosophy, and facility quality. This firsthand experience creates authentic advocates for your center.
Unlike traditional advertising, drop-in care provides potential customers with direct service experience. Parents can observe how your staff interacts with children, evaluate your safety protocols and assess whether your environment aligns with their values. This trial period often proves more convincing than any brochure or website.
The trust-building aspect extends beyond individual families. Drop-in care users often share their experiences with friends, neighbors and online community groups. Positive experiences create organic marketing opportunities that money can’t buy.
Community partnerships can amplify this benefit. Consider collaborating with:
- Local gyms that need childcare during fitness classes
- Community centers hosting evening events
- Libraries offering parent programs
- Healthcare providers serving families with children
These partnerships position your center as a community resource while expanding your service reach.
5. Provide Essential Flexibility for Families
Today’s families juggle complex schedules that don’t always align with traditional child care models. Drop-in care addresses this reality by offering the flexibility that modern parents desperately need.
Consider the challenges facing contemporary families:
- Unpredictable work schedules in the gig economy
- Last-minute business travel or overtime requirements
- Medical appointments and family emergencies
- Social commitments and self-care needs
- Irregular childcare arrangements that occasionally fall through
Drop-in care provides a safety net that reduces family stress while positioning your center as a valuable community resource. This service proves particularly important for single parents who may lack extensive support networks.
The flexibility extends beyond emergency situations. Many families use drop-in care to:
- Maintain work-life balance during busy periods
- Allow parents to pursue education or professional development
- Provide children with social interaction and learning opportunities
- Give stay-at-home parents regular respite time
Implementation Considerations for Drop-In Success
While drop-in care offers substantial benefits, successful implementation requires careful planning. Key considerations include:
Licensing and regulations: Ensure your state licensing allows drop-in care and understand any additional requirements or restrictions.
Staffing flexibility: You’ll need staff who can adapt to varying child-to-caregiver ratios and work with unfamiliar children effectively.
Registration systems: Implement user-friendly booking systems that allow parents to reserve drop-in slots online.
Safety protocols: Develop streamlined intake procedures that maintain safety standards without creating barriers for occasional users.
Space management: Design flexible spaces that can accommodate varying numbers of children throughout the day.
Take the Next Step Toward Expanding Your Services
A full center is a happy center! Wouldn’t it be great to help families who only need occasional child care and fill those enrollment vacancies?
Procare’s drop-in capability makes it easier than ever to offer families more enrollment opportunities and streamline the process. The drop-in form is a simple way to temporarily add a child to your center’s schedule and make sure everyone who needs to know is notified. It’s designed to keep your records accurate and make the process easy for both staff and families!
With Procare’s drop-in care capability, you can:
- Enroll a child for specific days
- Schedule attendance with start and end times
- Notify teachers and parents about the child’s temporary schedule
- Automatically remove the child from enrollment and scheduling once the period ends
Your community needs flexible, reliable child care options. By offering drop-in care, you position your center as a comprehensive solution for busy families while creating new opportunities for business growth and community impact.
Learn more about how Procare can help your center grow by offering drop-in care!
