---
title: "Move a child to another room for the day"
description: "Move children between rooms during the day (opening and closing combines, nap, break cover, ratio) without touching their enrollment. Ratios, rosters, and parents follow the move."
type: guide
updated: 2026-09-14
canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/centers/move-a-child-for-the-day
roles: ["super_admin", "center_admin", "teacher"]
platforms: [web, ios, android]
---
Children move rooms all day: everyone starts in one opening room at 6:30, splits to their own rooms at 8, combines again at nap or at 5pm, and a child spends a morning in the next room up before moving for good. **Move to room** records that without changing anything permanent. It is for *today*; the child stays enrolled in their own room and is back there the next morning on their own.

If you want to change which room a child is enrolled in, that is a different action: see [Move a child from one room to another](/owners/centers/move-a-child-between-rooms).

## What a move does

- **Ratios follow the child.** Room Overview counts them in the room they moved to, and stops counting them at home, the moment you move them.
- **Rosters follow the child.** The teacher covering the new room sees them on their activity logger and on that room's Room Mode tablet; the home room's list drops them for the day.
- **Parents are told.** "Emma moved to Toddler 2" goes out as a push and bell notification (parents can turn "Room moves" off in their notification settings; you can turn it off org-wide under Settings → Notifications).
- **A trail is kept.** Every move records the time, from and to room, who did it, and an optional reason. The child's profile shows the day's trail; the [Room Day Log](/owners/reports/room-day-log) report shows it per room.
- **Nothing else changes.** Enrollment, billing, and the Rooms page are untouched.

Teachers and admins can move children. A Room Mode tablet can move children too, attributed to whoever is on its identity chip.

## Move one child, or a whole room

**From Room Overview (web).** Open the room card's **⋯** menu → **Move children to a room…**. Children who are here now are pre-selected; tick or untick, pick the room, optionally a reason (Ratio, Rooms combined, Nap, Break cover, Transition), and click **Move**. Children who are not here yet get *placed*: when they are checked in at the kiosk, they land in the new room. When a room is over ratio, the red warning's "move N children" is a shortcut to this dialog.

<ScreenshotWithPointers
  src="/screenshots/owners/centers/room-card-actions-menu.png"
  alt="Room Overview with a room card's actions menu open: Move children to a room, Send back to own rooms, Move staff to a room, Send staff back"
  caption="Every room card's ⋯ menu carries the four move actions. They only ever apply to today."
/>

<ScreenshotWithPointers
  src="/screenshots/owners/centers/move-children-dialog.png"
  alt="The Move children dialog: destination room, the room's children with the present ones pre-selected, and reason chips"
  caption="Pick who, pick where, optionally say why. Children who are not here yet get placed for when they arrive."
/>

If the destination would end up over its staff ratio or licensed capacity, the dialog says so before you confirm — "Butterfly Room would hold 12 children of 8 licensed" — but it never blocks the move. Sometimes going over for ten minutes is the right call, and the room card shows it either way.

**From a child's profile.** Open the child → **Attendance** tab → the **Room today** card → **Move to room**. This is also where you set a move ahead of time (pick a day) and where you can **Undo last move**.

**From a Room Mode tablet.** Each present child's row has a **Move** button; with **Select** on, the bulk bar has **Move (n)**. Pick the destination room and the child leaves this tablet's list.

**From the apps.** iOS and Android: child profile → Attendance → **Move to room**, and the same Move buttons on the Room Mode roster.

## Send everyone back

On the room card's **⋯** menu, **Send N back to own rooms** returns every child who is here on a move to their own enrollment room, one tap. It is the closing-time counterpart of "combine rooms" at opening.

## Undo

**Undo last move** (child profile → Attendance) removes the most recent move of the day and puts the child back where they were. Only the latest move can be undone; to change an earlier one, just make a new move.

## Moving staff too

Ratios have two sides. When a floater covers a room over lunch or two rooms combine and one teacher goes with them, use the room card's **⋯** menu → **Move staff to a room…**. The staff member counts in the new room's ratio from now on Room Overview and is listed there as "covering". Their schedule and home room never change. **Send staff back** returns them. Teachers can move themselves; admins can move anyone.

<Callout kind="tip" title="Rooms combined at opening?">
Easiest: check early arrivals in from the opening room's Room Mode tablet; a check-in from a room's tablet places the child in that room automatically. Or, on Room Overview, open each other room's card and move its early arrivals into the opening room. At 8am, from the opening room's card, **Send N back to own rooms**.
</Callout>

## Troubleshooting

**The child moved but still shows in the old room's ratio.** Reload Room Overview; the count updates as soon as the page refetches.

**"Already left for the day."** You cannot move a child who has been checked out or marked absent. Check them in again first.

**"Isn't in this room."** A Room Mode tablet can only move children who are currently in *its* room.

**A parent did not get the notification.** Check Settings → Notifications (org-wide "Room moves" switch) and the parent's own notification settings.