The 30-Minute Head Count Template, available in the MSSA Resource Library, gives you a structured way to see exactly how staffing and attendance move together throughout a real week. The template has a column for each day, Monday through Friday, and a row for every 30-minute interval from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Each day has two sub-columns: Children and Staff.

At each 30-minute mark — 6:00 AM, 6:30 AM, 7:00 AM, and so on — a teacher in each classroom counts and records two numbers: the total children present in the classroom, and the total staff members present in the classroom, at that exact moment.