Tandem is Now Live in Louisville

Louisville directors have a new option for covering a classroom.

As of today, Tandem is live across the Louisville area, primarily Jefferson County, with Lexington coming soon.

Kentucky is our sixth state, joining Ohio, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Why we came to Kentucky

Kentucky is one of the few states that address substitute staffing directly in their child care regulations. State rules define a contract substitute staff member, spell out exactly what that person has to document, and require licensed centers to have qualified substitutes available when they need them.

That matters more than it sounds. In most states, a director using an outside substitute is working out for themselves what is allowed and who is responsible for what. Kentucky answered those questions in writing, in 922 KAR 2:090.

The model we built is not something Kentucky had to be talked into. It is already in the rules, which is a large part of why we came here.

Louisville is already working on this

We are not arriving in a city that has been ignoring the problem.

Thrive by 5 Louisville, the nonprofit launched out of the mayor's office in 2023, has been working to expand access to quality, affordable child care across the county. Their read is that Jefferson County does not have enough slots for every three and four year old, with the need growing fastest in the southwest corridor. Separately, a scholarship pilot backed in part by Louisville Metro is trying to bring more people into the field by covering tuition and paying students while they work in classrooms.

Both efforts run into the same wall. A program can only serve as many children as it has qualified adults to staff. You can be licensed for the children and still send them home because two teachers called out.

That gap is the part we work on. We are not adding capacity to Louisville's early learning system. We are helping the capacity that already exists stay open.

What Tandem is

Tandem is a staffing platform built only for child care. Every part of how we vet teachers and match them to classrooms was designed around licensing rules, ratios, and the way a center actually runs.

You set the rate. Not us. That keeps your substitute pay in line with what you pay your own teachers, and it keeps your costs well below traditional agencies.

Compliance is handled before you book. Every Kentucky substitute in our pool is cleared through KARES and has completed Kentucky's orientation training, which covers non-certified first aid and CPR, before their first shift. Not within the state's three month window. Before.

You are not starting a background check. Tandem holds the clearance as the employing agency, so booking one of our substitutes does not mean submitting your own application and waiting on a determination.

You pick your requirements. Post a shift with the credentials, age group experience, and availability that the classroom needs. We match teachers who meet them.

You don't pay until they work. No subscriptions, no monthly minimums. You pay when a teacher works a shift.

What the first few weeks look like

We are building the Louisville pool now, recruiting teachers and walking each one through Kentucky's compliance steps. That work is finished before a substitute can apply to a shift at your center, which is why the pool grows steadily rather than all at once.

Setting up a center profile takes a few minutes. Doing it now means that when you need someone, you are posting a job instead of creating an account.

What happens after the shift

After a Tandem teacher works 120 hours at your center, you can bring them onto your payroll. No placement fee, no strings.

That is deliberate. Our goal is never to keep good teachers from you. It is to help you find them.

We have watched it happen in every market we serve. A center books a sub for a hard Monday. She comes back the next week, then the week after. Before long she knows the kids and the routines, and the center realizes they have found someone. It is the same pattern we wrote about in Turning Substitute Shifts Into Lasting Connections.

That is the outcome we are actually building toward in Louisville. Classrooms that stay open. Teachers who stay in the field. Directors who get to run their program instead of covering its classrooms.

Get started

Centers in Louisville: Create a free profile at join-tandem.com. There is no commitment and no upfront cost. The next time you are short a teacher, you will be posting a shift instead of making phone calls.

Teachers in Louisville: Download the Tandem app to begin your onboarding. We will walk you through every Kentucky compliance step required to start booking shifts at centers near you.

🧸 Crib Notes

• Tandem is live across the Louisville area, primarily Jefferson County, with Lexington coming soon. Kentucky is our sixth state.
• Kentucky is one of the few states that write substitute staffing into regulation. It defines a contract substitute staff member, says what that person must document, and requires centers to keep qualified substitutes available.
• Louisville is short on child care slots and short on the workforce to staff them. Adding capacity and keeping existing capacity open are two different problems, and the second one is ours.
• You set the rate, you set the requirements, and you pay only when a teacher works. Compliance is finished before a substitute can apply to your shift, not within the state's three month window.
• Because Tandem holds the KARES clearance as the employing agency, booking a substitute does not mean starting your own background check.
• After 120 hours at your center, you can hire a Tandem teacher onto your payroll with no placement fee. That is the intended ending, not a loophole.