School owners, educators, and caretakers have many responsibilities and challenges. They need to create a good learning environment, a safe place for children, find the best way to teach them, and also juggle the day-to-day operations. These operations include scheduling, administrative, as well as financial processes. It’s quite a lot to tackle.
In the last decades, technology has been a blessing for such challenges. Software solutions can be very helpful in terms of streamlining all kinds of operations.
In the child management and daycare industry, management systems have become an invaluable tool. These reduce the manual work to the minimum, make recordkeeping easier and safer, and allow for hassle-free communication and organization.
Before we skip to the best part i.e. the top solutions that can solve all of your problems, let’s discuss what child care software means.
What is child care software?
Child care software solutions differ greatly in terms of features and operations they offer. Quality child care software will help the user manage the most important internal operations of preschools and child care centers.
These include scheduling, billing, attendance, communication, feedback, alerts, etc. With the right tool, you can simplify everything from how you organize the schedule to how you track progress and attendance to how teachers and parents communicate.
Most of the time, these solutions are cloud-based, which allows for instant access and easy sharing. They work well on mobile devices and provide things such as reports, invoices, generate student profiles, and store documents.
In other words, the child care software centralizes and streamlines all operations in a single platform.
The best software for child care management
You can only enjoy all of the perks discussed so far – and even more – if you choose a well-rated, versatile software solution. This is what our article is all about – to provide you with the top 10 choices to use today.
1. Playground
Playground is an all-in-one child care management software that centralizes and streamlines admin tasks necessary to run a child care program. Playground streamlines your admin work, allowing providers to focus on the work that matters most: providing high-quality child care.
Playgrounds features include:
- Enrollment
- Billing
- Attendance
- Family engagement
- Expense management
- Meal programs
- Staff-management & payroll
- Subsidy management
- Marketing websites
2. Brightwheel
Tens of millions of classroom moments have been documented with Brightwheel since this software first appeared on the market. This is all-in-one daycare management software that offers every feature you can think of. The official website is easy to navigate, while the app allows for instant access and control over everything put on this platform’s cloud.
Brightwheel facilitates different kinds of operations in terms of childcare. It is used by preschools, childcare facilities, daycares, etc. With it, users streamline all kinds of processes for administrators and staff, regardless of the capacity.
One of the reasons why this software is so popular is its affordable pricing. Users can test Brightwheel thanks to the free trial version, use the free, yet a bit limited version, or pay a small monthly fee for all of its features. Prices start at only $15 per month for the standard version.
We picked this as the overall best choice because it can be used for everything, including:
- Enrollment and attendance
- Communication with parents
- Staff management
- Billing and finances
- Learning plans and paperwork
- Multimedia sharing
- Health screens and checks throughout the day
- Contactless check-in
3. EZCare
EzCare is excellent multitasking and organization software. It offers amazing customization of user permissions, menus, fields, and more. Its multi-site support allows users to work through several sites and handle all kinds of responsibilities related to childcare. The package includes a parent portal and contactless check-in, while the EZSmiles app is perfect for family interactions.
If you pick this tool, you can use the free trial version to test it. There’s a paid version only after it, one with 3 pricing models. Compared to our first choice which was quite affordable, this one costs more. The prices range between $59 for the express and $149 per month for the premier package.
4. Sandbox
Sandbox is one of the easiest childcare software tools to manage. It might be simpler in terms of features, but its offerings grow all the time. Today, this tool has over 140,000 in North America and offers seamless parent-teacher communication, various care management features, as well as versatile pricing options.
The pricing model is based on the size of the childcare center in question. It starts at $59 per month for small centers with up to 24 children and goes up to $199 per month for centers with over 200 children. The features include:
- Child care billing
- Detailed reporting
- Attendance tracking
- Instant messaging
- Child and staff profiles
5. Kangarootime
Kangarootime is an amazing tool for managing your team’s work and communicating with parents. It offers features like automated billing and payments, a digital classroom, contactless check-in, and parent communication. Its main focus is on making things run smoothly in a childcare institution by keeping track of and assisting the educators and other employees taking care of the children.
The pricing is not transparent on the site and differs depending on the features you wish to unlock, as well as the capacity of the institution. There’s a free trial version available.
6. HiMama
As the name tells you, HiMama is a tool focused on quality teacher-parent communication. It’s made to capture and share the experiences and progress of children starting with their adventurous moments to the big milestones. This software is all about including the parents in the learning process, while it also includes some of the more basic staff monitoring and management features.
While more limited in other features, HiMama is amazing for establishing fruitful relationships with parents. There’s a free trial for you to test, as well as affordable pricing models. There are two pricing models – home daycare and enterprise. The first is only $25 per month, while the latter depends on the pre-school capacity.
7. Procare
Procare is a highly integrated day-to-day management tool used in preschools and after-school programs. It is a mobile-optimized tool with amazing features that include, but are not limited to:
- Multimedia communication capabilities
- Contactless check-in and check-out
- Attendance monitoring
- Performance tracking
- Automatic online billing
- Medical screening monitoring
The cost of Procare depends on the capacity of the institution. It begins with $49 per month for institutions with a maximum of 60 kids, and goes as high as $89 per month for over 90 kids.
8. Famly
Famly does a lot of things for school owners and managers, but one of its best features is the finance and billing one. This tool makes it easy to keep track of and control finances, pay employees, collect payments, and get automated reports of all it. In addition to this, the tool is used for better parent communication, employee tracking and management, and document sharing.
This tool has a free trial and a free version, as well as three pricing models.
9. KidCare
KidCare is a program for childcare management and CACFP that is focused on saving you money and time. It streamlines the claim process and assists institutions in maintaining their USDA compliance. One of its best features is the accounting program.
Even though this tool is great for maintaining compliance, it is more focused on the child and adult care food program than on features like automated billing or check-ins.
10. Bloomz
Bloomz goes a long way toward building the connection between teachers and parents. It offers a variety of features that facilitate the work of teachers and empowers them to collaborate with each other and with parents. Bloomz has a great messaging platform and features such as:
- Photo and video sharing
- Real-time updates
- Calendar coordination
- Behavior management
- Student portfolios
- Conferences and volunteer signups
11. Storypark
Storypark allows users to share multimedia and observations, as well as communicate with parents easily. Its numerous features make management simple for daycare providers.
Right now, this software is used by over 11,000 childhood centers across 37 countries, which is a big success considering that they are not long on the market. Some of the best features of Storypark are:
- Preset planning templates or the opportunity to make custom ones
- Storage of compliance records in one place (weekly lesson plans, checklists, child daily sheets, etc.)
- Easy sharing of information for every child including multimedia, the curriculum, teacher observations, etc.
- Simple communication with parents
You should opt for this software if you are looking forward to boosting the communication with parents, and if you want to be more transparent about what’s happening in the childcare facility. This tool is limited in terms of things such as billing and online check-in since it is mostly focused on teacher-parent-child communication.
Final thoughts
Did you find what you were looking for? Software solutions like these can make childcare better organized, simpler, and more productive. It helps owners keep track of everything, assists care providers in their work, and facilitates communication with parents. Not only will it save you tons of time and money, but it will also make your institution a lot better!
