Think of how many times you look at your smartphone each day, or how lost you feel when you forget it at home. A recent study found that on average, Americans check their phones 344 times per day … that’s once every 4 minutes!
In today’s world, people depend on apps to keep them up to date on what’s happening. And that includes what’s going on in their kids’ child care center.
Having a child care mobile app can not only streamline administrative functions but make life easier for directors, teachers and parents so you can focus on what matters most — better outcomes for the children in your care.
The Procare Solutions child care mobile app has topped more than 2.5 million downloads in Apple’s and Google Play’s app stores. This milestone shows how vital instant communication and online tuition payments have become in today’s child care industry.
Let’s take a look at what the app can do for you!
Parent Communication
With a fully integrated and complete parent engagement solution that also includes classroom management, the child care mobile app allows parents to be immersed in their children’s day-to-day activities – that includes tracking developmental milestones, sharing photos and videos as well as enabling two-way communication.
That’s because teachers can send photos and videos to parents with one tap! Parents can see their child’s activities that are shared from school and easily message staff.
They also can send reports on daily activities for infants and toddlers, as well as record activities such as diaper changes, bottle feedings and naps.
Centers can record custom student activities and attach development skills like fine motor, social behavior, language and more. And they can share newsletters in addition to upcoming events with parents easily through the calendar function.
How the Procare Child Care Mobile App Helps a Daycare in Utah
Child care provider Kristy DeGraaf, owner of The Learning Tree in Cedar City, Utah, once relied on paper forms for signing students and teachers in and out.
“It was terrible,” she said. “It was taking so much time.”
Now Kristy uses the Procare mobile child care app, which took away the hassle of compiling and recording the information on paper forms. Families can check their children in and out of her daycare by scanning a QR code on their phones, and her staff can check in and out of their shifts the same way.
The app helps her calculate her teachers’ paychecks. And she doesn’t have to take time out of her weekend to print out new sign-in and sign-out sheets.
She also uses the Procare child care mobile app to stay connected to parents. Before her daycare started using this child care app, some of her teachers used another app to message parents. It wasn’t a standardized system.
Kristy said that now, all messaging goes through the Procare mobile app so that all communication is in one place. Teachers can send pictures to parents showing what their kids are doing, and she shares important information such as newsletters and daycare closures.
“They like being connected to the program and getting pictures throughout the day,” Kristy said.
Contactless Check-Ins and Check-Outs
Contactless daycare check-in gives parents and staff the ability to use QR codes and/or GPS technology for a completely touch-free check-in and check-out process. Parents can check in their children using the Procare app without entering the building or by scanning a code once inside. And parents can add authorized users to pick up and drop off their children.
Each school and child care center uses a unique QR code that can be displayed on a tablet, computer, smartphone or printed on paper.
When parents arrive, they simply pull up the Procare app on their phone, select the QR code icon and scan. After scanning the code, the parent will be able to check in their child directly from their phone.
Procare offers two options for this: using a QR code and curbside GPS check-in.
Record Student and Staff Attendance
The Procare child care mobile app keeps working well after students and staff are checked in by recording student attendance as well as the transfers of kids to different rooms.
It also records parents’ signatures and captures answers on a drop-off form that give teachers important information.
And the app helps centers stay compliant with licensing regulations on staff-to-student ratios, which are tracked in real time from the app for rooms in a center.
Procare’s technology allows teachers and other staff to sign in and sign out easily and quickly using a tablet. Timecards automatically are updated, which frees up administrators’ time spent on a mundane task.
Billing
Centers can create and send invoices to parents easily. They also can manage all billing transactions, payments, refunds and credits from the app.
The child care mobile app allows parents to make online payments — from a checking or savings account, or a debit or credit card — to a center. It also gives parents a viewable list of transactions. That’s especially important now, when about 9,000 babies are born to millennial parents each day … and a recent study showed that HALF of millennials have never used a check!
Centers can bill parents based on hourly attendance using information gleaned from the app.
Electronic Documents
The Procare Solutions eDocuments feature gives centers a solution to create, send, review and store digital documents.
It’s a way to digitize a significant part of workflows that too often rely on pen and paper by allowing centers to send and manage all sorts of documents, including enrollment contracts, incident reports, permission slips and more.
This feature is available on the Procare child care mobile app and takes much of the hassle out of reminding parents and staff to complete their paperwork.
The ability to digitally sign a document through the app (or on a computer) eliminates the need to download, print, sign, then return documents.
Learn More About What the App Can Do For Your Daycare
“I love that it is cloud based. I can sign on anywhere to help my customers and staff. I like that all of my files are paperless. It is good for tracking when a something is coming due or is past due. It offers good reports. I like that everything is in one app.”
Linda T., CEO at a child care organization
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!
