Learning objective: Use report data to evaluate enrollment, staffing, and tuition decisions by age group.

Because staffing is set by classroom and ratio, most of a program’s costs stay the same whether a room has one empty seat or none. When a seat is empty, the program loses almost the full tuition for that seat.

At Harbor Oak, a private-pay preschool seat brings in $320 a week, or about $16,640 a year. Four empty preschool seats for a year would cost about $67,000 in revenue, and the room would still need its two teachers.

This is why enrollment is the first leg of the Iron Triangle, and why filling seats quickly matters more than almost any expense cut.