Toddler program marketing is filling your one- and two-year-old rooms: keeping the families your infant room already won as children age up, and winning new toddler families from search, referrals and the waitlist.
It picks up where infant care marketing ends: the baby room is full, and the next room up decides whether a family stays three more years.
Why toddler daycare openings behave differently
Demand is broad but soft at the center end: the 2019 NSECE found 48.5% of infants and toddlers under 3 spent at least 5 hours a week in nonparental care, a count that includes relatives, per OPRE's August 2025 review.
What shifts across the toddler years is commitment to center care: in NCES's 2023 parent survey, 54% of 1- and 2-year-olds with a weekly nonparental arrangement were in center-based care, against 85% of 3- to 5-year-olds (arrangements can overlap).
Families are still deciding, then, and the center that wins them in the twos room fills its preschool class as a byproduct, which is the problem preschool marketing takes over.
Supply backs that up: in the nine states with age-specific data in CAP's 2018 analysis, infant and toddler slots were more than three times scarcer than preschool slots.
The room under pre-K gains weight as pre-K spreads: UC Berkeley's CSCCE found California Head Start and Title 5 sites served on average 20 fewer 4- and 5-year-olds in 2024 than before the pandemic, and most directors surveyed saw enrolling more 3-year-olds as their best response.
Every 4-year-old seat a public program absorbs makes the twos room a bigger share of your enrollment, a fight the competing with public pre-K guide covers.
Toddler room enrollment starts with the move-up
A toddler seat filled by a family already in the building costs no acquisition, and the economics argue for protecting it.
Opportunities Exchange's Iron Triangle guidance (2019) says per-child cost rises when a program runs below full enrollment or bad debt grows; it tells operators to track classroom attendance and plan for children aging out or moving rooms.
Cost falls as the child grows: the Center for American Progress' February 2018 cost model shows per-child cost declining with age, largely because older children allow more children per teacher and larger groups.
The family that stays through the twos room is cheaper to serve every year; the family that leaves over the move-up costs a full new-family search to replace.
Track an age-up date for every infant
Opportunities Exchange says to plan room moves ahead; the age-up date is the trigger.
Raise the move-up before the family asks
Weeks of notice lets a parent adjust while their child is in a room they trust.
Let the family meet the twos room
A short visit with the toddler teachers turns an unknown room into a known one.
Say what changes and what stays
The ratio, group size and daily rhythm change; the approach and the people up the hallway stay.
Hand the opened infant seat to the waitlist
Every move-up frees an infant seat, so the families waiting for one get the call that week.
If a family hesitates at the move-up, ask why before notice: price, schedule, ratio worries and toilet learning are the usual suspects; the reduce daycare withdrawals guide takes it from there.
Marketing a toddler program: the story a move-up family gets
The move-up needs something in writing: what your toddler years look like.
What the day looks like
The toddler day in plain words: meals, naps, outside time, and language and toilet learning support by age.
Ratio and group size
The numbers that apply to the twos room as it runs, stated so a parent can check them.
What stays the same
The approach and routines a child already knows, most of what a move-up family fears losing.
The rate and what it includes
Toddler tuition, schedule options and what's included, published instead of saved for the tour.
That page is one room's version of the structure the daycare program pages guide lays out.
Toddler photos go up only with written parent permission on file; an ad can describe a scene instead, two toddlers at a sensory table with faces turned away; the daycare photo release policy guide covers the paperwork.
The ratio claim on a toddler page
Caring for Our Children (standard 1.1.1.2) recommends 4 children per teacher with a max group of 8 for ages 13 to 35 months, a recommendation rather than law; NAEYC suggests 1:6 with a class of 12 for toddlers and twos, ranges that may change under its newer accreditation model.
State minimums divide the band differently, and there is no current federal count of state ratio ranges to quote instead.
Where a room mixes ages, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina set the ratio by the youngest child present, while Florida and Georgia use other rules.
The number on your toddler page should be the one that applies to your real room mix, confirmed with your state licensing agency; the daycare ratios guide carries the state-by-state numbers.
Pricing the toddler years
Toddler care costs less to deliver than infant care, so the toddler rate usually sits below the infant rate; one large operator's published numbers show the shape.
Average monthly tuition by room, Bright Horizons
Those are premium, often employer-sponsored centers in high-cost markets: one operator's averages, not a going rate for your city.
The marketing job is simpler: put the toddler rate, what it includes and schedule options on your tuition page before the tour, which the daycare tuition page guide answers.
Filling toddler openings from outside the building
The move-up fills part of the twos room; the rest comes from three familiar sources.
Your waitlist first: families who wanted an infant seat a year ago are toddler-seat prospects now, so keep start months current and say which rooms have openings; the daycare waitlist guide covers the rest.
Local search second: a family typing toddler care plus your town meets your Google Business Profile before your website; name the toddler program in categories, services and photos, as the Google Business Profile for daycares guide details.
Referrals third: ask parents whose toddlers settled after a hard first month whether anyone they know needs a twos room.
Measure the move-up, not just the openings
One number belongs next to occupancy: of the children who aged out of the infant room in the last 12 months, how many are still enrolled today.
That rate comes from your own roster, and it shows whether the twos room is leaking revenue the infant room already won.
Before a ratio, a rate or a photo goes on your toddler page, confirm what your state's licensing rules require with your state licensing agency; rules differ by state and change.
Frequently asked questions
How do I keep families enrolled when their child moves up to the toddler room?
Raise it before the family asks: introduce the toddler teachers while the child is still in infants, say what changes and what stays, and ask whether anything about the move worries them. A family lost at the move-up costs a full new-family search to replace.
Are toddler openings easier to fill than infant openings?
On cost, usually: the Center for American Progress' cost model shows per-child cost falling as children get older, because toddler rooms run more children per teacher. On demand, infant-toddler slots were more than three times scarcer than preschool slots in the nine states with age-specific data in CAP's 2018 analysis.
When should I start the move-up conversation with infant families?
Weeks before the child crosses your toddler age band, not the week the room math forces it. Opportunities Exchange's 2019 guidance tells operators to track attendance classroom by classroom and plan ahead for children aging out or moving rooms.
What ratio should my toddler page show?
The one that applies to your real room mix: in several large states the youngest child in a mixed-age room sets the ratio. Confirm your state's number and wording with your state licensing agency before it goes on the page.
How much should I charge for a toddler program?
Price from your own payroll and market; the sources cited here include no national toddler average. One reference point: Bright Horizons' fiscal 2025 Form 10-K reports average toddler tuition of $2,565 a month across about 350 centers, premium and often employer-sponsored ones.