For more than 30 years, Procare Solutions has been the leader in child care management software. And in 2023, those decades of experience proved crucial in supporting early childhood education providers while navigating changes to the industry. The year brought continued new enhancements to our software that built upon recent product launches designed to help child care centers grow their businesses and educate young learners.
This year’s numerous highlights include:
- Introducing a new assessments tool designed for young learners
- Feature enhancements to support teachers and staff
- Advocating for funding as pandemic-era dollars are expiring
“Child care providers in 2023 continued to prove they are the backbone of our economy,” said Procare Solutions CEO JoAnn Kintzel. “As 2024 approaches, we will continue to lay the foundation for further enhancements to help ECE providers prepare children for kindergarten while growing their businesses.”
Educating Young Learners
Helping centers improve the education of young learners has always, and continues to be, a top priority of Procare Solutions. In 2023, that included the introduction of Vine Assessments™, an integrated assessment framework within Procare’s classroom-management capability.
With the release of Vine Assessments, Procare Solutions became the only provider of child care management software to offer integrated proprietary early childhood assessments for children from birth to 5 years old at no additional cost.
Vine Assessments gives early childhood educators and staff a way to clearly articulate the growth and development of children in their care. It includes clear and easy childhood assessments that align with all 50 state standards and provides developmental continuums with 21 goals that apply to children from birth to age 5 as they prepare for kindergarten.
The addition of Vine Assessments to Procare comes on the heels of Procare Early Learning, an all-digital curriculum specifically designed to meet the unique needs of educating children from infancy through pre-kindergarten.
It integrates the early childhood curriculum of Learning Beyond Paper, the leader in digital curriculum, into Procare so busy teachers and administrators can provide high-quality, developmentally appropriate education while saving precious time.
And the partnership between Procare Solutions and MarcoPolo Learning, the Emmy-nominated global developer of high-quality educational resources, continues to grow. With Procare and MarcoPolo Learning, educators will be able to foster curiosity and increase the quality between student-teacher interaction through educational videos, games and digital platforms for children ages 3-7.
Making Days Run Smoother for Child Care Providers
Procare Solutions this year also added morning drop-off notes to the Procare child care mobile app. This feature gives family members the option to complete a short form with specific information about their child’s start to the day, including when a child woke up, time of last meal and time of last diaper or bathroom use.
This enhancement comes in addition to a staff scheduling feature that allows administrators to name and edit a staff schedule that shows which shifts that staff members are scheduled for with how many hours they are scheduled for in the week, as well as a Programs feature so centers can create custom programs and events.
Other 2023 enhancements included the ability to share milestones in the child care mobile app as well as shareable observations. Procare Solutions also added nap checks, which allows caregivers to record nap start and end times separately or together. Children marked as napping will have a special icon next to their profile picture to remind teachers to record in the app when they wake up.
Teachers can set recurring reminders for nap checks, add the child’s sleeping position to the nap check activity and more!
Advocating for Child Care Funding and Leadership
With the end of pandemic-era funding for child care, states are being forced to consider whether to use their own dollars to continue some of the policies and programs created through the relief funds.
Procare Solutions supports and promotes the advocacy efforts of child care industry influencers such as the Early Care and Education Consortium, National Child Care Association and Child Care Aware of America to advocate for additional child care funding.
This effort included assembling a state-by-state list of resources that includes grants, professional development opportunities and much more.
Recognition for Our Work
We are proud to once again be named as one of the top 100 best midsize companies to work for in Colorado, and in 2023, we grew to more than 400 employees!
Procare Solutions also was recognized a category leaders by GetApp, a free online service that helps organizations find the right software, in the daycare software category.
This ranking highlights top-ranked North American software products based on ratings from end-users in five key areas: ease of use, value for money, functionality, customer support and likelihood to recommend.
And this year, we are especially proud that we became certified as SOC 2 Type 2 complaint. In the cybersecurity world, this is a big deal.
There are two SOC ratings. A type 1 classification is given after an auditor determines the system is designed suitably to achieve the related objectives on a specified date.
To earn SOC 2 Type 2 classification, an organization must meet all the requirements in type 1, but goes further to focus on testing the controls to prove their effectiveness over nine months.
Procare Solutions is the only child care management software to earn this coveted certification.
We also are proud to report a rating of 4.9 out of five stars on the Apple store for our child care mobile app!
At the helm of our success is Procare Solutions CEO JoAnn Kintzel, who was named to the list of Calibre One’s 2023 ranking of the top 25 women leaders in U.S. private equity-backed software.
The list includes top chief executive officers and presidents leading fast growing software businesses that are backed by prominent private equity firms. They are recognized as some of the highest caliber leaders in the industry.
Looking Ahead
As we head into 2024, Procare Solutions pledges to continue standing with child care providers. Our team will always listen to those doing the important work of ECE while working every day to make their jobs easier with technology and automation.
Procare has the solution that’s right for each center or program so leaders and teachers can focus on what matters most – the children in their care.
About Procare Solutions
For more than 30 years, Procare Solutions has been helping early childhood educators simplify operations and create meaningful connections with families, so they can focus on what matters most – the children in their care.
From registration, attendance tracking, staff management and lesson planning to family engagement, tuition collection and reporting, we help ease the challenges faced of running a child care business.
Our dedicated team of support professionals also make it easy to get up and running quickly and answer questions along the way. That’s why over 37,000 customers choose Procare. We are proud to be number one in child care management software. For more information, visit ProcareSolutions.com.
MEDIA CONTACT: Leah Woodbury, head of content, at press@procaresoftware.com
