How to get school and daycare cleaning contracts
By Travis Heurtelou · 7 min read · Updated September 12, 2026
The short version
- Private schools and daycares: the business manager or director signs, on a normal timeline.
- Public districts: a formal bid with pre-qualification. Different sale, longer clock, bigger contract.
- Background checks on every person who enters the building are not optional, and the buyer will ask.
- Summer is the deep-clean season and the best time to be the new cleaner.
Two different buyers
A private school, a charter, a preschool or a daycare center buys cleaning the way an office does: a manager finds a vendor, walks the building, signs. A public school district buys through a bid: a posted request, pre-qualification, sealed pricing, a board vote. The first is a normal outbound sale. The second is a procurement process, and you should know which one you're in before you pick up the phone.
Who signs
Private schools: the business manager, head of operations or head of school at a small one. Daycares and preschools: the director, or the owner at an independent center; a regional manager at a chain. Public districts: the facilities director runs the bid and the board approves it.
What they care about
- Background checks. Every person who enters the building, documented, before the first shift. The buyer will ask on the walkthrough and you should have the policy in writing.
- Restrooms and classrooms, every day school is in session, done before the first bell.
- Disinfection of high-touch surfaces, especially in daycares, where sick kids are a business problem for the director.
- Floors: gym floors, cafeteria floors, and the summer strip-and-wax that resets the building for the year.
The summer
Schools do their deep cleaning when the building is empty: floors stripped and waxed, carpets extracted, every desk and chair wiped, walls washed. It's specialty work that bills on its own, and it's also the moment a school reconsiders its cleaner. Pitch in spring for a summer project, do it well, and the year-round contract is a short conversation in August.
How to reach them
For private schools and daycares, email the director or business manager directly. Name the school, say the background-check line up front, and offer a walkthrough during a break or after pickup. For districts, watch the bid postings and get pre-qualified before a bid you want opens; by the time it's posted it's too late to start the paperwork.
Subject: [School name] cleaning
Hi [First name],
We clean schools and daycares in [City]. Every person on our crew is background-checked before their first shift, and we do the summer floor work as well as the nightly.
If your current cleaner is a worry on either count, I'll walk the building after pickup and quote it the same week.
Worth a look?
[Your name], [Your company]
The walkthrough and the bid
Walk it after hours or during a break. Count classrooms and restrooms, look at the floors, ask what the summer plan is. Quote the school year and the summer work as two lines. Put your background-check policy and your insurance in the quote so the director can hand it to whoever asks.
What we do, if you'd rather not build it
We run cold email to the facility, office and property managers in your service area, in your company's name, and screen every reply. You get a meeting-ready lead: a manager who fits the profile you wrote down and replied wanting a quote or a walkthrough, with the whole thread. One flat monthly fee with every lead included, scoped on the call in about four minutes. Month to month, no minimum term. Cold email only; we don't call and we don't do LinkedIn.
Thirty minutes. We count the buildings in your service area and check the numbers on your contract size.
Book a discovery callQuestions
Do school cleaners need background checks?
Yes, on every person who enters the building, and most schools will ask for your policy in writing before a walkthrough. Fingerprint-based checks are required in many states for anyone working around children.
How do I bid on a public school cleaning contract?
Get pre-qualified with the district before a bid opens: vendor registration, insurance, references, sometimes bonding. Then watch the district's procurement postings and submit sealed pricing against the posted scope. It's a longer sale with a bigger contract at the end.
When is the best time to approach a school about cleaning?
Spring, for the summer deep-clean project. A school that hires you for the summer and likes the work has an easy decision about the year-round contract in August.