This blog was originally published on Dec. 29, 2023, and updated on May 28, 2024 with new information.
A child care mobile app is now a must in our world, in which almost every industry is turning to mobile. And early childhood education will be no exception to the rule. As a child care provider, tools like child care mobile apps are just as beneficial to parents as they are for you.
Let’s take a look at why child care apps are so important.
Parenting in the Digital Age
Millennials are the largest group of today’s parents, and the demand for great child care will continue to rise among this technologically fluent generation.
Expectations are shifting and people have become used to a certain level of accessibility when it comes to some of their most important information. If parents have constant access to their bank accounts, bills and more, then they’re going to expect the same when it comes to their children.
Research indicates that  family engagement in early childhood education promotes student achievement and growth. It also helps families feel confident about their child’s education and the direction in which they are moving. When families can easily see which areas their child might be behind in, they are more likely to help their child in these subjects at home.
How Child Care Apps Increase Family Engagement
A solid framework for your daycare helps meet and exceed expectations as well as provide families with valuable insight into how their child is progressing.
It’s completely normal and expected that parents will be slightly nervous leaving their child; however, child care mobile apps can help ease this anxiety. Features like real-time updates, daily check-ins, pictures and push notifications not only provide an easy way for child care providers to communicate with parents, but also gives parents the peace of mind they need.
Child care apps can also be a great way to keep parents in the loop about important or last-minute info such as facility closures, field trips, policy changes, important reminders and more.
Here are several ways that child care apps help increase parent engagement:
Automation
What’s the number one way to streamline your daycare business, and get parents involved and engaged at the same time? Automation. And this includes mobile apps.
By using child care apps you can significantly cut down time spent on manual administrative tasks, and instead focus on engaging with parents and children during peak hours like the beginning and end of the day (during pick-up and drop-off).
Child Check-In
Although the busiest time of the day for many daycare centers is parent pick-up and drop-off, it is also your best chance to get  face time with the families. However, instead of being able to focus the conversation on the children, time is often spent repeating reminders or passing out flyers.
Apps allow you to make the drop-off/pick-up process run faster and smoother with a child check-in system.
Reporting
Give families access to multiple reports including family and child information, family accounting, meal tracking, attendance tracking, activity management and more. By proactively providing them with the things that they usually have to ask you for, families are able to take more responsibility for their child by staying on top of any relevant information.
Tuition Payment Options
Chances are that you have families from various backgrounds, and giving parents different payment options can actually help everyone stay on the same page about their tuition and other necessary payments. When you consider that 80% of millennials use the internet to manage their bills and finances, an internet-based child care app seems like the obvious way to go.
Child Scheduling
Keep families in the loop with daily schedules so that they can see exactly what their child is doing each day. In addition to building trust with the daycare, this helps parents feel more comfortable and like they are involved in their child’s education and, ultimately, their success.
Assessments and State Standards
Each state board has its own set of developmental milestones that children should be reaching in the first few years of their life. These standards ensure that caregivers are helping children develop healthy social, emotional, language, and cognitive skills, among other things.
Software helps you keep track of how each child is progressing. Developmental reports such as Vine Assessments are another great way to get parents involved in their child’s success.
How Procare Can Help!
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Simplicity and accessibility are key to increasing family engagement. And child care apps provide parents with all of the information necessary to help their child succeed.
When parents feel like they are included in their child’s classroom life and able to get the answers they are seeking through the ease of a child care app, family engagement increases and they are more likely to want to stay involved in the future.
The Procare child care mobile app gives you the ability to: ​
- Get information quickly via an app​
- Take the hassle out of check-in/out​
- Have a direct mass communication channel​
- Keep parents engaged​
- Go digital​
- Empower your staff​
- Collect tuition and payments effortlessly
It saves child care programs time and money by streamlining core administrative functions while raising the bar for the parent experience with professional communications, easy-to-access portals and the ability for real-time updates from the classroom.
Check out this on-demand webinar to learn more about the app and see for yourself what it can do!
