How Do Burlington, VT Child Care Centers Fund New Classrooms, Vans and Payroll Gaps?

Daycare financing is not one product that pays for everything a center buys. Classroom furniture and indoor equipment are paid for the same way other equipment is: with equipment financing on the supplier's quote, where the equipment itself secures the agreement and the payments run for a set number of months.

Illustration only, invented figures: the $19,600 quote, financed over 48 months at an annual rate of 10%, is a $497.11 monthly payment. The supplier's delivery and setup can sit on the same quote.

Check that the quote shows delivery and setup on their own line. If a partner finances only the furniture, that line is the part the center pays from its own cash.

A capacity change can come with a list of items to add or replace. This article does not say what such a list should contain; the center decides that. The funding question starts once the list exists: which items to buy, in what order, and with which product.

Illustration only: the list totals $9,420. Cribs, cots and gates are small items, and a partner can treat them differently from one large machine; a working capital amount can cover the whole list at once. The self-contained stations belong on the supplier quote; fixed sinks and plumbing are excluded.

Order matters when cash is limited. Items that let a new room open, such as its cribs and cots, come first, because the tuition from those places helps pay for the rest of the list.

An outdoor play area is work on the property itself. Play structures, climbers, playhouses, fencing, grading, drainage, hard paths and poured safety surfacing are all outside this site's funding.

• Keep outdoor play work on its own quote, apart from the classroom furniture and vans
• Take the furniture, crib and van quotes to an equipment financing request
• Plan the outdoor work with the property owner or from the center's own funds
• Schedule furniture delivery so it does not overlap with outdoor contractors

Splitting the quotes early keeps the equipment request clean. A single bid that mixes surfacing with furniture leaves a partner unable to see which part of the price the equipment covers.

A new classroom adds staff on the first day and children over the following months, so payroll runs ahead of tuition. Movable classroom furniture, storage and self-contained handwashing stations can be listed on a supplier quote for a term-loan request; walls, fixed sinks, lighting and building additions are property work outside this site. The payroll gap while the room fills is the part a budget can miss.

Illustration only, invented figures: with $6,800 of room payroll every two weeks and tuition of $1,350 a month per child, the first two months come up $11,000 short in total before the full room covers its payroll in month three. A working capital amount of that size bridges the fill-up.

Passenger vans for field trips and pickups are equipment too. Illustration only: a $52,000 van over 60 months at an annual rate of 9% is a $1,079.43 monthly payment, secured by the van. Insurance, fuel and upkeep are running costs rather than part of the purchase, and they belong in the monthly budget next to that payment.

County Business Patterns counted 85 child day care establishments with paid employees (NAICS 624410) in Chittenden County, VT for 2023; 21 of them had fewer than 5 employees. ZIP Code Business Patterns put 11 in ZIP 05401 that year. Nonemployer Statistics for 2024, a separate Census count using the broader NAICS 62441 code, counted 159 child care businesses without paid employees in the county. The child care center funding page, the term loan page and the Burlington, VT page go further.