Being a childcare provider involves many complicated tasks. Contrary to stereotype, childcare is so much more than supervising and playing with children day after day. You have to be on top of everything: schedules, food allergies, safety regulations, signs of child maltreatment, and many other moving parts.
Every major priority of a childcare center comes down to classroom attendance. Therefore, your attendance tracking system must be quick, effective, and reliable for all who use it.
How can you choose the right childcare attendance tracking method to keep your business running smoothly? Here are some considerations to point you in the right direction.
Why is it Important to Track Attendance at a Childcare Center?
It’s crucial to accurately keep track of attendance every day, no matter the size or scale of your childcare business.
Here’s why:
- Licensing—different states have different requirements for childcare licensing depending on the number of children enrolled. Plus, if your childcare center ever gets audited or inspected, having consistent and accurate attendance records prevents you from potential legal trouble.
- Billing—knowing when, where, and by whom each child was checked in/checked out is what calculates your tuition and billing. If a child skips a day, leaves sick, or gets picked up late, it impacts a parent’s invoice and your revenue.
- Staffing—tracking exact childcare attendance numbers lets you know whether you should hire more staff. It dictates when to rotate employees throughout the workday and notifies you when to send extra staff members home early.
- Safety and security—slacking off on attendance tracking can put children and staff at risk. Forgetting a headcount could result in missing children. Leaving “pick up” information blank could mean an unauthorized adult took a child home. Losing track of which children switch to different areas might cause confusion or safety concerns.
- Trust—maintaining accurate attendance sheets strengthens trust with parents. They receive accurate childcare bills and can rest assured that trusted adults always have a close eye on their children while at daycare.
Daily childcare attendance logs also extend beyond sign-in and sign-out. You may have to keep track of when children leave to use the restroom, go play outside, or move to a different classroom. Keeping detailed logs of attendance and headcounts also benefits your staff, ensuring every classroom follows child-to-teacher ratio laws to avoid employee overwhelm.
3 Ways to Track Childcare Attendance
There are three widely used ways that childcare centers track attendance today, each with its set of pros and cons. Whether you currently have an attendance tracking system in place or you’re starting a childcare center and want to know your options, you can use the information below to improve your daily attendance log.
1. Paper Attendance Sheet
Paper sign-in and sign-out attendance sheets are the traditional way that some childcare centers still track attendance today. A weekly childcare attendance sheet is typically printed out via a premade template and then later stored in a filing cabinet for ongoing records.
The information on your attendance sheets might vary by state or regional requirements. But attendance sheets typically include similar items, laid out in an easy-to-read table:
- Month, Year
- Days of the week
- Date
- Child name
- Sign-in time + name or signature of parent/authorized adult
- Sign-out time + name or signature of parent/authorized adult
- Teacher or staff initials confirming in/out times
- Checkboxes for important notices such as absence, snack allowance, sick check, or incident report
- In/out times for children who switch classrooms
- Notes
- Times and totals of group headcounts
Some childcare centers are more detailed with attendance sheets whereas others only include basic check-in/check-out. Again, you have to be aware of your local childcare regulations to know what to include in an attendance log.
Pros: Easy to use, widely known, handwriting makes attempts at tampering with information very obvious.
Cons: Easy to misplace, prone to messy wear and tear, active log information is visible to anyone, requires excessive use of paper/ink, staff handwriting may be hard to read.
2. Attendance Spreadsheet on a Computer
Some of the downsides of paper sheets include fragility, loss, and excessive usage of office supplies. With digital spreadsheets, tracking childcare attendance stays in one place and feels more streamlined. Spreadsheets are ideal for logging data into tables, and that data can be easily calculated or corrected when necessary.
Attendance spreadsheets can include the same information as paper attendance sheets. The information is easier to read since it’s typed and can be easily shared with childcare directors, teachers, support staff, and digital storage systems.
However, relying on a computer station or carrying around a laptop all day is inconvenient in childcare settings. Trying to use spreadsheets on smartphones or tablets can also be challenging. Parents and employees might need help learning to use the spreadsheet interface. Staff may forget to log crucial information when the spreadsheet is out of sight.
Pros: Organization, easily legible, digital storage, automation options.
Cons: Lack of intuitive user interface, difficulty logging real-time information, unrealistic for on-the-go attendance tracking required of teachers and staff.
3. Childcare Attendance Tracking App
Digital childcare platforms help streamline daily processes including child attendance. Childcare management apps like Daily Connect offer advanced features that cover all the important aspects of attendance.
Using the Daily Connect childcare app makes attendance logs easy and secure for everyone. Since the app is developed specifically for childcare providers, its user interface is easy to learn, simple to use, and completely mobile, which helps teachers and staff stay on top of everything. With contactless sign-in, parents can safely check in their children which automatically inputs the timestamp into your childcare reporting software.
Daily Connect is especially useful when you need to report childcare attendance online for compliance purposes. Because it fully integrates with Kinder Systems’ new Kinder Connect, childcare providers also use Daily Connect to manage childcare subsidy details.
Pros: Easy to use, comes with multiple childcare management features, ideal for cross-classroom communication, compatible with any daycare size, simplifies attendance recording for compliance, trusted by parents and childcare staff.
Cons: Requires a subscription.
Improve Your Childcare Attendance Tracking Process
Protect your childcare business by improving daily attendance tracking. Since childcare attendance is the most important data for your operation, you need the most effective system in place—and the tools to help your staff uphold it all.
Today, childcare software is the best solution for attendance logs and beyond. With the Daily Connect app, you get a handful of comprehensive management solutions plus the most secure, intuitive attendance software for childcare providers. Get a head start today with the Daily Connect free trial.
