Mariposa Child Care Center was spending weeks every year manually forecasting enrollment capacity across two locations. By adopting RoomRunner, Procare’s AI-powered enrollment planning tool, director José Paulino cut what once took 20 hours down to just minutes, eliminating the manual processes and freeing him up to focus on what matters most: the children and families he serves.
The Challenge
Managing enrollment across two child care center locations – one serving children up to 18 months, the other serving 18 months and up – meant José was constantly juggling capacity planning for several classrooms at once, often forecasting several months into the future.
Before RoomRunner, that process was entirely manual. José built enrollment calendars in word documents, allocated children room by room, printed the documents and posted them on the wall as a reference. Every call or email from a prospective family meant updating that document by hand. Every time a child transitioned from one location to the other, every time a family canceled, José had to return to the wall calendar to make those updates.
| Mariposa Child Care Center |
| Two Locations |
| Spanish Immersion Program |
| Located in Dedham, MA |
| Website |
| Download PDF |
That system wasn’t just inconvenient; it was costly. Because directors are constantly multitasking, a single distraction in the middle of updating could mean starting the entire process over to confirm forecasts were accurate.
The primary challenges were:
- Time-consuming manual planning: Forecasting months of availability across both locations took José around 10 days of work for a single planning cycle.
- Error-Prone tracking: Updating documents by hand left room for missed transitions or openings and limited how far into the future José could forecast.
- Multi-location complexity: Two locations serving different age groups required coordinated capacity planning to ensure existing children transitioned at the right time.
The Solution
Mariposa Child Care Center was already a Procare customer when José was selected to participate in the RoomRunner beta program. Because his team was familiar with Procare, onboarding was straightforward. By the time RoomRunner officially launched, Mariposa was already up and running.
José completed most of the setup independently. When he did need guidance on how RoomRunner could accommodate his two-location model, the Procare team listened closely, understood his operation’s complexity and delivered a solution tailored to his needs.
“The best resource we had was the team itself,” José said. “They were ready to listen and were able to adapt RoomRunner to our specific needs – that was really clever. We sat down with the team, explained what we were doing in detail and they said, ‘We have a solution for you.’”
RoomRunner allowed José to:
- Eliminate manual capacity tracking: Replace wall calendars and word documents with real-time availability that updates automatically as children move between rooms and locations, available right in Procare.
- Forecast instantly across locations: View enrollment capacity months into the future and answer families’ questions about when they can start instantly.
- Fill openings with the best fit: Manage room transitions and ensure currently enrolled children receive priority when they’re ready to transition before offering new families a spot.
[Before RoomRunner] I used to spend – I would say weeks – figuring out and organizing scheduling… To figure out space availability across six to seven months, that would take me at least 10 days of work – about 20 hours total.
José Paulino, Director at Mariposa Child Care Center
Source: Customer Interview
The Results
The transformation has been dramatic. What once consumed weeks of José’s time each year now happens in minutes. RoomRunner gives him an accurate, real-time picture of capacity at each of his locations, updated instantly when a family cancels, when a child ages into a new room or when a new spot opens up,
“Now I can project not only to September but beyond September – just like that, in a blink,” he said. “It’s saving me all of that time so I can use it for other things. I’m really thankful for that.”
RoomRunner has also changed how José responds to prospective families. Because the center is nearly always at capacity, having an accurate view of availability means families calling in get immediate answers, while existing families never lose their place in line.
From enrollment planning to day-to-day updates, Procare and RoomRunner have become a core part of how Mariposa Child Care Center operates. “Procare in general has been – not only with RoomRunner, but overall – an amazing experience. Procare has improved the life of our center in so many ways, and RoomRunner is just one of them. It has made things so much easier.”
Learn How Procare Can Help Your Child Care Center!
Mariposa Child Care Center’s experience with Procare and RoomRunner shows what’s possible when the right tools meet a complex, real-world operation. By replacing a time-consuming manual system with integrated enrollment planning, José reclaimed weeks of his year and gained the confidence that his enrollment data is always current, always accurate and always working for him and his families.
As Mariposa continues to grow its capacity, Procare remains foundational to how the center plans, operates and serves its community.
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