5 Things Every Child Care App Should Accomplish

It’s no secret technology is awesome.

From booking an Uber to telling Alexa to read you the news, tech has made its way into all aspects of life to make things easier every day—and when it comes to child care, technology is at it again.In fact, there are hundreds of apps out there which help running a profitable center as easy as ABC.

But there's a catch:

• First, the number of tools, apps and software can quickly get overwhelming.
• Second, not all tools are as useful as they first appear.

So, what makes a great child care app?Here are the top five things that every app should accomplish to make managing a successful child care business easier at the touch of a button.

#1. Easy communication with parents

Gone are the days when parents drop their children off with their care provider and hear nothing until they pick them up again at the end of the day.

Teachers can now keep parents up-to-date throughout the day with secure messages, photos and even videos of their child’s special moments.According to the New York Times, millennial parents, or “parennials”, are “high information parents”.

They're used to using tech in all areas of their lives—and child care should be no exception.

#2. Happier, healthier teams

Overwhelm among teachers is way too common.

According to the National Foundation for Educational Research, one in five teachers feels tense about their jobs, compared with only 13% in other occupations. And when it comes to caring for children, a stressed teacher can have a detrimental impact on children.

Luckily, the time it takes to fulfill admin tasks can be drastically reduced with tech, making it possible for teachers to get home in time for dinner with their own children.

A great child care app will help cut down on stress simply by helping the day-to-day run smoothly: from reducing the workload to streamlining activities, going digital is the first step to a healthier classroom.

#3. More time for teachers to teach (and play!)

Allowing your teachers the space and autonomy to teach the way they do best is the key to a great child care center.

Unfortunately, the box-checking, report-filing and paper-pushing that makes up a large part of child care, leaves teachers with less time spend with children each year.

According to the National Education Association, Kindergarten teachers work an average of 50 hours per week plus an extra 12 hours per week on admin duties—that makes us tired just thinking about it. And you better believe the number is just as high for ECE providers.

So, what if we told you the right technology can leave teachers with extra time to do what they do best?Game-changing, right?

Child care centers can now utilize technology to reduce the time it takes to write reports, check timesheets and even take payments. A great child care app should do all of these things, so your teachers don't have to.

#4. Always know the health of your business

We all love to track. From recording your child’s first steps to noting what they ate for dinner last night, tracking a child’s progress is at the top of every parent’s to-do list.

In fact, there are well over 160,000 apps available that are solely dedicated to tracking any part of your life.And now, even child care businesses can track until their heart’s content thanks to apps developed specifically for them—helping to easily check in on important performance related metrics like cashflow, parent engagement and enrollment and membership rates.

#5. Workflows that actually make life easier

So, you’ve got your finance software set up—well done. Then there’s the app for communicating with parents—great. Now it’s time to think about setting up something to help with reporting…Hold on.

This seems like a lot of extra work, right?

Having multiple apps doing multiple tasks can quickly start to feel overwhelming. The training it takes to make the most of technology, not to mention logging in and out of each program can quickly start to make dents in your staff's productivity.

That’s why every child care app should have the ability to fully integrate other types of software, to make sure that technology works for you, not against you.

Want to see how MomentPath can connect seamlessly with your other systems? Schedule a demo today!