I would also love for staff to be able to "pick up" a shift if there are some available or if a staff member calls out/requests off.

This may be asking too much, but being able to cap how many time off requests are allowed each day (i.e., 2 max per day). If they put in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc request for that day, they would get a warning pop-up that includes how many requests have already been put in (prompting them to immediately reschedule the appointment or consider adjusting their vacation). Something like this:

"Note: X requests are already in for this day. Approval isn't guaranteed. Please check with the Director before finalizing any plans."

Making sure that staff can request either a full day off or a short period of time to leave and go to the appointment and then return when the appointment is over. It would also be nice to have the ability to set a rule that on Wednesdays only one request off is allowed and on all other days, up to two requests off are allowed. Or set a blackout week. If that is too complex, at least being able to see what requests have already been submitted and/or approved when looking at a specific time off request.

We would also love to see this feature come into fruition! We have to make an excel spreadsheet and update it weekly and I would love it integrate and use Playground for all our staff needs and not just for paperwork. For state licensing and NAEYC accreditation we have to be able to view the room, who is in each room at any given time, but also move staff and adjust when some is off/out. The other major hiccup is that we are on a college campus so our shifts are not static and regularly change based on the student's schedule each semester/day. For example one sub works 7:30-9:30 on Mondays, 7:30-1 on Wednesdays and then will randomly add hours when soccer is out early or cancelled. I need to be able to move her rooms depending on need and see staffing all at once to also not double book people or over book staff in one room. I've got an excel spreadsheet of our basic version I'd be happy to share but the communication, tracking, and updating of it is very, very manual I would love to see this. I'm also in the N4C (National Child Care Campus Coalition) and this was on a thread the other day as a major problem across centers that would fill a major gap!

Having the schedule tell us if we are under staffed based on the students schedules for that class and the classroom ratio.

Paired with being able to also view each classroom schedule to ensure ratio is maintained. Bonus points if the schedule lets us know if we are expected to be under/over ratio!