BRAND NEW: Get the 2024 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends Report 📚
Get the Report
Aug 22, 2012 3 min read

3 Methods For Simplified Child Attendance Tracking

Procare By: Procare

Pretty soon the school buses will be rolling again. Perhaps they already are in your area. That likely means your childcare business will be busy with school-age children in a variety of before and after school programs.

The thing is, when a large group of children arrive or depart at once, how do you efficiently track their time and attendance? The bus arrives, the children hop off and you need to get the entire bus load checked in, pronto! This can be especially challenging as kids have varied schedules, some arriving earlier and leaving later.  Have no fear, Procare is here with a number of easy-to-use child attendance tracking options.

Child Attendance Tracking Basics

The most basic way to record child arrival and departure times is with a simple bus run sheet. You can print them out and have the bus driver or other staff person mark who is being picked up or dropped off.

If you’re already using Procare Software, bus rosters are built right in. You’ll find them under the “Tracking” section in the Family Data module. This makes it easy to automatically print the names of the children assigned to each bus.

If you’re not yet using Procare, print some of our free bus run sheets that come blank, and you can fill in the names yourself.

Childcare Time Cards

Another option is to check children in so hours are automatically recorded on each child’s time card. With student attendance tracking software there are several options.

  1. A staff person (teacher or bus driver, etc.) can quickly check all children in or out at once. This can be done at a regular computer or through a check-in screen.
  2. If you schedule children in advance, you can use the batch post time card tool to check kids in and out based on their scheduled times for the day. You can even schedule them for both before and after- school time slots.
  3. You can assign the teacher or bus driver as a pickup person for each child and use the Receptionist Check-In feature to look up the pickup person and quickly check in the appropriate children. See: 3 Time & Attendance Methods for Your Daycare.

Mobile Child Check-In App

Childcare providers who subscribe to the Procare Cloud have access to a host of Procare child care apps, allowing them to access child attendance tracking features from any device and location with an internet connection. This simplifies attendance tracking, allowing staff to check students in as they get on or off their assigned bus using a tablet. See: Mobile Apps for Childcare Management 

Attendance tracking is necessary at any childcare center. It ensures that every child gets to and from the center or after school program safely. It also helps childcare staff to calculate accurate hourly billing rates, based on when each child arrived and departed. With Procare, there are child care forms to track child attendance, allowing staff to choose the option that best fits in with established processes.

Learn how Procare can help streamline child attendance tracking and other childcare tasks.

2024 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends

2024 Child Care Management Software Industry Trends

Watch On-Demand Webinar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Procare

Procare provides comprehensive child care management software with the power to help you take control at every point of your business.

Procare