McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Robyn Kelton | March 2, 2020

A woman wearing glasses and a suit is smiling in front of a flag.

Sim Loh is a family partnership coordinator at Children’s Village, a nationally-accredited Keystone 4 STARS early learning and school-age enrichment program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving about 350 children. She supports children and families, including non-English speaking families of immigrant status, by ensuring equitable access to education, health, employment, and legal information and resources on a day-to-day basis. She is a member of the Children First Racial Equity Early Childhood Education Provider Council, a community member representative of Philadelphia School District Multilingual Advisory Council, and a board member of Historic Philadelphia.


Sim explains, “I ensure families know their rights and educate them on ways to speak up for themselves and request for interpretation/translation services. I share families’ stories and experiences with legislators and decision-makers so that their needs are understood. Attending Leadership Connections will help me strengthen and grow my skills in all domains by interacting with and hearing from experienced leaders in different positions. With newly acquired skills, I seek to learn about the systems level while paying close attention to the accessibility and barriers of different systems and resources and their impacts on young children and their families.”

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

Note: This resource is part of a series focused on fiscal check-ups for family child care providers. Read the rest of the series here: Part 1 | Part 2


Part 2 in this blog series, Fiscal Check-Up for Family Child Care Part 2: Tips for Tracking Actuals and Budgeting, briefly mentioned how you might use your Time-Space Percentage to determine the tax deduction allowed for the business use of your home. This blog addresses what Time-Space Percentage is and how it can be used.


If you are a family child care provider who cares for children in your home, then according to the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), “The most important number in a family child care provider’s business is her Time-Space Percentage” (NAFCC, n.d.). Those of us who work with the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS) tend to agree with that statement!


“What’s so great about Time-Space Percentage?” you might ask? For family child care providers operating programs in their home, the Time-Space Percentage is the percent of shared business and personal expenses that can be deducted on taxes as a business expense (Copeland, 2011). And more tax deductions mean more money saved. Because these family child care providers use their home for their business, they have the opportunity to calculate the percent of the year the home was used for business and the percent of the square footage of the home that was used for the business, resulting in their Time-Space Percentage—that number worth knowing (Copeland, 2011).


Once a provider has correctly calculated their Time-Space Percentage, they can then apply that percentage to a variety of shared business and personal expenses in order to claim tax deductions. For example, if a provider’s Time-Space Percentage is 33% she can deduct 33% off the shared personal and business expenses related to the business use of her home. This would mean 33% of her rent or mortgage interest would be deductible, 33% of her utilities would be deductible, 33% of home repairs, 33% of cleaning and laundry supplies she buys and then uses for both the business and personally, and 33% of furniture purchased for rooms used by both the provider and her family as well as the child care business could be deducted, you get the picture. In essence, Time-Space Percentage may boil down to a lot of money in tax deductions for providers. When it comes to calculating your own Time-Space Percentage, you will need to start with two important things: 1) records to substantiate purchases and time worked in the home and 2) a tax preparer with specialized knowledge about family child care (Talan & Bloom, 2018).


I also recommend checking out Tom Copeland’s blog posts on the subject (see the References below). As an attorney with decades of experience in the business of family child care, Tom walks you through the formula for calculating your Time-Space Percentage and what to look for in a tax preparer (Copeland, 2011; Copeland 2020).


If you would like to join a Community of Practice (CoP) of family child care providers to learn more about financial operations for family child care providers and many other business topics, attend the 7th Taking the Lead (TTL) leadership academy in Chicago, Illinois from October, 2020 – June 2021.


References


Copeland, T. (2020, February 24). Calculate Your Own Time-Space Percentage.
http://tomcopelandblog.com/calculate-your-own-time-space-percentage


Copeland, T. (2020, January 16). How to Find, Choose, and Work with a Tax Professional. Taking Care of Business. http://tomcopelandblog.com/how-to-find-choose-and-work-with-a-tax-professional-2


Copeland, T. (2011, January 27). Time-Space Percentage Quiz. Taking Care of Business. http://tomcopelandblog.com/the-time-space-percentage-quiz


National Association for Family Child Care (n.d) The Time-Space Percentage. National Association for Family Child Care. https://www.nafcc.org/Time-Space-Percentage


Talan, T. N. & Bloom, P. J. (2018). The Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.

Robyn Kelton, M.A., is a Quality Training Specialist for the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University (NLU). Robyn conducts training and research on the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS) and the Program Administration Scale (PAS) and serves as a national reliability anchor for both tools. In addition, Robyn reviews BAS and PAS assessments for the assessor certification system. Robyn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Kansas and a Master of Arts degree in psychology with an advanced certificate of study in organizational psychology from NLU. Robyn is currently a doctoral student in the brain, behavior, and quantitative science psychology program at the University of Kansas. Prior to joining the McCormick Center, Robyn spent three years as a lead teacher in a kindergarten classroom for an after-school program. Robyn’s research interests include leadership in early care and education, family child care, child development, and autobiographical memory.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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