Scheduling Overview

A fairly typical calendar app

Most of the concepts you’ve come to expect about calendars are the same in StaffBlox: Create, Make recurring, Edit or Delete. Much of the UI should be familiar and we allow direct integration with the native calendar system you use (e.g.: Google, Apple, Outlook, etc).
However we do add some childcare specific features to make life easier: across the top horizontal header the times of each day, along the left column side are your classrooms and any staff assigned to a room. In the middle are the different blocks of time you manage.

Pro Tip: The “big idea” of Staffblox is that you have your regular default schedule for all your Staff but things come up (sick, dr. visit, lates…etc). And when they do you can make those adjustments keeping ratios in check, track who actually is working where and when and update everyone seamlessly as you do it

There are 4 types of “blox” in StaffBlox

1. Schedule Blocks: used for defining regular work times for your staff. You can define these however you want. Some examples: “Lead Teacher”, “AM session”, “Class Lunch”, “Classroom Prep”, etc. When you first start creating blocks the dropdown list will be empty. Create the names that you want to use. Use schedule names familiar to you (e.g.: Lunch Break) and click create. In the future you can just select it from the dropdown.
2. Absence Blocks: these can be created on top of the existing schedule blocks for any staff member. It’s the only block that does this. All other blocks when created on top of an existing block will ask if you want to adjust times to make the new block fit. Absence blocks are intended for you to plan staff holidays or time off AND also to schedule last minute changes. You can track and generate absence reports per staff member.
3. Activity Blocks: can only be created in the activity row for each classroom. No teacher is assigned to these. Some schools use them while some don’t.If you are planning on tracking aftercare students, you must do that via actiivties. Typical examples include: “Aftercare Music Program” or “Recess”, “Nap time”, “Circle time”, “Lunch”, etc. Again, create the activities that make sense for your program.
4. Pick-up Blocks: Similar to activities, pick-up blocks also can only be created in the activity row of each classroom. Add student names to these blocks to help coordinate which students are picked up throughout the day.

Pro Tip: Naming blocks is important because you can use it to simplify your reporting and overall organization. Click here for naming tips and strategy.

The scheduling board

The scheduling page is the main workspace in StaffBlox. It shows your full schedule in a calendar grid with staff members along one axis and time blocks along the other. Everything is here in one place and 95% of the time this is the only screen you’ll need to work in. This screen lets you manage the schedule of your entire staff, plan for future weeks, set staff absences or late arrivals, organize aftercare activities and the staff and students in those programs and plan your student pickups.

When you first arrive you will see the current week. Use the arrows at the top of the page to move forward or backward by a week at a time, or click on the week or date to pop up a calendar so you can jump to a specific day/week.

Viewing modes

The scheduling board supports two views:

• Week view — See the full week for all staff at once. Good for planning ahead and spotting gaps. (you will default to this view the first time you start the app)
• Day view — Focus on a single day in more detail. Useful for managing same-day changes.

Switch between daily and weekly views using the toggle buttons in the top-right corner of the board. When yiou are in a weekly view you can also just click the small eye icon next to the date at the top header.

Adding and editing schedule blocks

Easiest way is to start dragging on the start time and stop dragging on the end time. A panel will slide out and you can finish any details like making it a recurring schedule. You can also just click any empty cell on the board and then click on Create New which will bring out the same panel that appears when you drag to create a block. This panel is also where you indicate that a block is recurring. Setting up recurring blocks is an important and useful feature of the system. Click here for more info on creating recurring blocks.

To edit an existing schedule block, Just double click on it. The same panel appears with the current values filled in. Make your changes and click Save.

Pro Tip: Double clicking on most objects on the screen will bring up the edit panel.

To remove a schedule block, mouseover in the upper right corner and click on delete.

Inserting schedule blocks in existing blocks

Example: you have a 4 hour block set in the morning called “AM session”. But you now want to insert a 15 minute break after the first two hours. All you have to do is position your cursor right above the existing 4 hour block (you’ll see the block shrink down a bit to give you space) and then click down and drag and drop just like creating a block when there is empty space.

Pro Tip: You can also create an overlapping block by holding down the control button before dragging and dropping

Pushing schedule updates to staff

When you have finished making changes for the day, click Push updates at the top of the page. StaffBlox will send a notification to all affected staff members with their updated schedule for the day. Only staff whose schedules changed will receive a notification.

Staff/Child ratios

Based on your state regulations Staffblox automaticaly keeps track of your ratios. As you assign staff to certain time slots in each room and depending on the student counts for that day, your ratios will keep you informed. Any ratio shown in red is out of compliance and you’ll also be notified of this in your alerts section.

Filtering, Student Search, Reporting and more

There are so many more things you can do from the scheduling page follow these links for more information: