The Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Report assists providers in forecasting future enrollment by measuring the number of full-time students scheduled to attend, independent of current check-in/out records for students. This report takes into account student schedules that are full-time, part-time, and half-day, helping Administrators gain deeper insights into enrollment to optimize staff schedules.

View and Export FTE Report

The Full-Time Equivalent report utilizes active student scheduled hours to calculate the daily, weekly, or monthly FTE data for each classroom for any future date range. In order to use the FTE report, administrators must already have student schedules entered

Log into brightwheel on the web
Navigate to the Reporting tab from the purple dashboard menu
Click the Attendance tab and select the Full-Time Equivalent report
Select which days the program is open
Enter the maximum full-time hours per day
Apply the required filters for Cadence, Start Date, and End Date
Select Create Report
To export, select the gray Export Report

Understanding FTE

Full-Time Equivalency (FTE) can be used to determine if rooms have a full schedule of students which maximizes enrollment capacity. Rather than simply count the students, some of whom may be scheduled for just a few hours, FTE converts the total scheduled hours (per room) to a number representing how many “full-time equivalent” students are scheduled.

For example, an administrator may have 10 students scheduled in a classroom when looking at the active student count for the room. However, if 4 of these students are only scheduled Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays when running the FTE report per week for that classroom, the administrator can quickly identify the gaps in Tuesdays and Thursdays and work to fill those enrollment spots.

Within brightwheel, this report can be used in conjunction with the scheduling feature to forecast future enrollment gaps, especially as it relates to students aging out of rooms or leaving the program for reasons such as moving or graduating. As schedule changes are made, the FTE report can show enrollment fluctuations across rooms as well as for the program as a whole.

How is FTE Calculated?

Full-Time Equivalency (FTE) is a measure of the number of scheduled students. One full-time, 5 day a week child would have an FTE of 1.0 for the week. Two students, scheduled 5 half days each, would have FTE values of 0.5 separately, but together would be equivalent to one full-time child (combined value of 1.0). In brightwheel, administrators can calculate FTE by day, week, or month.

Daily FTE

The daily FTE total number is calculated by taking the total of the hours that students are scheduled for the day divided by the total number of hours considered “full time” for the day. If a student goes over the max for the day, that student should only get the max number of hours.

Example: There is one room with 3 students and the maximum full-time hours is 8 hours

1 student will attend 4 hours
1 student will attend 5 hours
1 student will attend 10 hour
The FTE for this room is (4 + 5 + 8)/8 = 2.13

The Daily FTE calculation for this room is (4 + 5 + 8)/8 = 2.13. This means two students will be considered full-time each day.

The calculations for Weekly and Monthly FTE numbers are similar, taking into account the selected days of the week that the center is open.

Weekly FTE

The Weekly FTE total number is calculated by taking the total number of hours that students are scheduled for that week, divided by the total number of hours considered “full time” for the week. If a student goes over the max for any given day, that student should only get the max number of hours.

For example, there is one room with 4 students scheduled each day for the week and the maximum full-time hours is 7 hours:

1 student will attend 4 hours each day (4 hrs x 5 days = 20 total hours)
1 student will attend 5 hours each day (5 hrs x 5 days = 25 total hours)
1 student will attend 7 hours each day (5 hrs x 5 days a week = 35 total hours)
1 student will attend 10 hours each day (7 hrs x 5 days = 35 total hours)

The total hours scheduled for each student that week is (20 + 25 + 35 + 35) = 115 hours. Since this program is open 5 days a week for a max full time of 7 hours, we’ll divide this number by the total number of hours considered “full time” this week (5 days x 7 hours) = 35 hours.

The Weekly FTE calculation for this room is (115/35) = 3.29. This means three students will be considered full-time this week.

Monthly FTE

The Monthly FTE total number is calculated by taking the total number of hours students are scheduled for that month, divided by the total number of hours considered “full time” for the month. If a student goes over the max for any given day, that student should only get the max number of hours.

For example, a school is open 20 out of 28 days for the month of February. There is one room with 4 students scheduled each day and the maximum full-time hours is 5 hours:

1 student will attend 4 hours each day (4 hrs x 20 days = 80 total hours)
1 student will attend 5 hours each day (5 hrs x 20 days = 100 total hours)
1 student will attend 7 hours each day (5 hrs x 20 days = 100 total hours)
1 student will attend 10 hours each day (5 hrs x 20 days = 100 total hours)

The total hours scheduled for each student that month is (80 + 100 + 100 +100) = 380 hours. Since this program is open 20 days for that month for a max full time of 5 hours, we’ll divide this number by the total number of hours considered “full time” this month (20 days x 5 hours) = 100 hours.

The Monthly FTE calculation for this room is (380/100) = 3.8. This means three students will be considered full-time this month.