7 Revolutionary Developments in Daycare Technology
When running a daycare business, the question isn’t whether you’ll adopt daycare software but which software gives teachers, parents and administrators the best experience. You have many options for daycare technology, though some have not modernized and innovated their technology over the years.
Learn the most recent advancements in childcare software and how they are revolutionizing the early childhood education experience.
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Online Registration and Enrollment
Parents expect to complete online enrollment. As you shop for software, don’t just ask whether the provider can complete online registration and enrollment. Ask about whether you have options for creating custom activities parents can select, enroll in and pay automatically through accounting integration.
And as children move from one classroom to another, give parents the freedom to select the programs to enroll their child in. If you work on a traditional school year, send notifications to parents as reminders to enroll for the upcoming school year and provide you with the necessary information to prepare for staffing, recruiting new students and planning your finances.
Consider how the software can handle wait lists. Maintaining a waitlist can help you keep your center full and simplify the advertising and new student recruiting process by keeping your pipeline active.
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Improvements in check-in and check-out for child well-being
Childcare centers no longer manage check-in and check-out on paper. Again, parents expect a digital process. But some daycare apps just allow you to click a button to check in the child. Modern software offers you the chance to customize the experience by asking questions related to the child’s well-being.
Based on the data, the staff can decide whether to accept the child’s attendance for the day or send them home. The automated matrix can speed up the check-in process and ensure children in your center remain healthy.
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Modern Learning Tools for Daycare Centers
Understanding where a child is at in their development can help the teacher adjust their education to meet each child’s needs.
Monitoring developmental milestones and tracking them helps teachers create curriculum plans that match those developmental milestones.
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Ease of Payment Method
Digital payments are commonplace. But offering parents options for how to pay, when to pay, and simple ways to view past and future bills are all important.
The best technology allows parents to set varying payment methods. Notifying parents when a credit card is expiring ensures timely payments.
As a childcare provider, you have to accept credit card payments. But the processing fees can reduce your profits. During a software demo, you should ask about the payment processor and associated fees. All processors do not charge the same fees and you can enjoy volume discounts over using generic payment software, such as Stripe.
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Monitoring the child’s activities
The more parents can see about their child’s day, the more likely they are to stay with your child care center long term. This helps build consistency for your enrollment team.
Making it simple for teachers to apply activities to multiple students at once will also delight teachers and allow them to do what they love instead of spending their time focused solely on documentation.
Ask your software provider whether you can customize development milestones to match the standards in your area and prove the value you provide families and your community.
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Improvement in Parent-Teacher Communication
Communication software should allow for two-way communication. A simple summary of the day is not enough to meet parents’ expectations today. Today, you can chat online with every company from your bank to the retail store you purchased clothes from.
Two-way communication helps meet those expectations to chat with the child’s teacher.
Parents should be able to log into your daycare technology to view their child’s academic progress at will, not just during mid-year and end-of-the-year parent-teacher conferences.
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Improvement in maintaining children’s records
A parent should no longer need to reach out to their daycare center to update their information. With the best technology, parents can log into the software any time to update their address, a child’s allergies or enroll them in new programs. It allows your daycare to offer round-the-clock services without staffing team members around the clock.
The best technology offers real-time data and puts that data in the hands of teachers, administrators and parents who have the right access in the system to view the information.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a new daycare center or an existing one, don’t just subscribe to the first childcare software you learn of. Spend your time finding the most modern software that will delight teachers and impress parents.
iCare Software is an innovator in the industry. If you’re looking for the best software that supports parent-teacher communication, accounting, curriculum planning, fool-proof record-keeping and reporting, schedule a demo with the iCare Software team.