A companion to Kate Woodward Young’s piece on resetting under pressure
As a companion to Kate Woodward Young’s FrogStreet preview, we recently sat down with Kate, M.Ed., PCC, keynote speaker, author, and host of Childcare Conversations, to talk about why the unexpected is the job, not the exception. We brought some state-level data along. She brought the human side. Below is a Q&A capturing the highlights of our conversation.
Your FrogStreet preview says overwhelm is a normal Tuesday in this field. Is the unexpected really that constant?
Kate’s right. The unexpected is not the exception in this field. It is the job.
We looked at the Texas licensing numbers to see how often that moment actually arrives. Across the state’s licensed centers, 51,195 violations were cited in just two years, 2022 and 2023, and 87 percent were still open at the time of inspection. Does that match what you see?
That’s exactly it. The gap between “we’re compliant” and “we can prove it” shows up after the fact, not before. That is not a story about bad directors. It is a story about visibility.
The single most cited violation category statewide was Staff Training. Not neglect, not facility issues. Does that surprise you?
Not at all. That’s the kind of gap that grows quietly when a center is moving fast and nobody has time to check the paperwork against reality.
During those same two years, Texas centers carried 710 open enforcement actions and 2,947 voluntary corrective action plans. What does a number like that tell you?
Nearly three thousand centers actively working to steady themselves, in real time, while still running full classrooms. That’s the reactive mode I’m talking about. Not a flaw in the people. A gap in the systems around them.
In your sessions you describe the directors who reset the fastest. What do they have in common?
They tend to be the ones who are also not carrying the mental weight of wondering whether that citation from March got fixed. Documented, visible compliance does not replace the deep breath habit. It just means the deep breath is not interrupted by a filing cabinet.
That’s the kind of steadiness we try to build into the system itself. Not another checklist, a clear, current picture of where every center stands, so the next unexpected thing lands on a foundation, not a guess. How does that sit alongside the reset work you teach?
They work together. My three FrogStreet sessions are about resetting the moment. Yours is about giving you less to reset from.
We loved speaking to Kate. If you or someone you know has a story to share, we’d love to have a discussion. Let us know via the website, Facebook or LinkedIn.
