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Tandem is partnering with the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County (ELCEC) to bring purpose-built child care staffing to providers across the Pensacola region.
This is Tandem's first official launch in Northwest Florida, and it's a meaningful one. ELCEC has spent more than two decades building the early learning infrastructure that working families and providers across Escambia County rely on. We're proud to be joining that work.
ELCEC administers School Readiness, VPK, professional development, and provider support for licensed and licensed-exempt child care programs across Escambia County. They've been doing it since 2000, and they've been doing it with a mission that goes beyond classroom outcomes.
Their stated goal is to help families achieve economic self-sufficiency and to meet the workforce needs of a growing community. That framing matters. Early learning in Escambia County isn't treated as a standalone service. It's treated as economic infrastructure. The kind that lets parents work, employers hire, and the local economy grow.
That clarity of purpose is what made this partnership feel right.
A staffed classroom isn't just a good day for a center. It's a parent who got to work on time. It's an employer who didn't lose a shift. It's a household that earned what it needed to earn this week.
This is the conversation ELCEC has been having in Escambia County for years, and it's the one Tandem wants to be part of.
When centers can't keep classrooms open, the cost doesn't stop at the front door. It ripples into the homes of working families, into Pensacola-area employers, and into the long-term outlook for children whose earliest learning environments are inconsistent. Staffing stability is one of the most direct levers for keeping that ripple from starting in the first place.
That's the lever this partnership is built around.
Florida has been Tandem's most established state since the day we started the company. We've spent years learning the licensing landscape, growing a workforce of teachers credentialed for Florida classrooms, and building relationships with coalitions and community organizations across the state.
Adding Escambia County extends our footprint into Northwest Florida for the first time. Centers in Pensacola now have access to the same vetted pool of teachers, the same compliance infrastructure, and the same support that providers across the Gulf Coast, Central Florida, the Treasure Coast, and Northeast Florida have come to rely on.
This is also part of a broader approach. Tandem is built to work alongside the organizations that already serve this industry, not around them. Our growing roster of coalition and community partners reflects that, and you can find the full list at join-tandem.com/services/partnerships.
If you're new to Tandem, here's the short version. We're a staffing platform built exclusively for child care. Every teacher in our pool has been screened and credentialed against Florida's specific compliance requirements before they ever appear on your job board.
A few things worth knowing:
You set the rate. Centers decide what they pay their substitutes. That protects pay equity on your team and keeps your costs well below traditional agencies.
You pick your requirements. When you post a shift or a job, you set the qualifications. We match you with people who actually meet them.
You don't pay until they work. No subscriptions. No monthly minimums. No placement fees if you decide to hire one of our teachers full-time after 120 hours together.
Compliance is handled. We do the background checks, the screenings, the verifications. You don't have to chase paperwork.
Providers who contract with ELC Escambia gain fee-free access to Tandem (admin fee waived by ELCEC), workforce best-practice webinars, and professional development access for all teaching staff.
Visit our website to learn more about the partnership and get started: join-tandem.com/partners/elc-escambia.
For teachers across the Pensacola region, this partnership means new pathways into the classrooms that need them, with the compliance support to make it possible.
Centers in Escambia County: Visit our partnership page at join-tandem.com/partners/elc-escambia to create your free Tandem profile and start booking substitutes. There's no commitment and no upfront cost.
Teachers in and around Escambia County: Download the Tandem app to begin your onboarding. We'll walk you through every compliance step required to start booking shifts at centers in your area. Get started at join-tandem.com/childcare-workers/how-it-works.
Northwest Florida has been waiting for staffing that actually fits the way child care works. With ELCEC at our side, the work begins now.
Tandem is a purpose-built staffing platform for the child care industry. We connect licensed centers with vetted substitute teachers and permanent hires across five states, with compliance, credentialing, and payments built into the platform. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Tandem serves child care programs across Florida, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Learn more at join-tandem.com, or visit our ELCEC partner page at join-tandem.com/partners/elc-escambia.
The Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County (ELCEC) is a nonprofit organization established in 2000 to identify and meet the needs of children and families in Escambia County. ELCEC administers School Readiness, Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK), professional development, and provider support services for licensed and licensed-exempt child care programs across the region. Its mission is to lay the foundation for lifetime success by maximizing each child's potential, preparing children to enter school ready to learn, and helping families achieve economic self-sufficiency. Learn more at elcescambia.org.
Join the child care centers that trust Tandem to keep their classrooms fully staffed, every day.
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