This blog was originally published on Aug. 13, 2023, and updated on March 10, 2026, with new information.

Going above and beyond to safeguard personal online information is not just a nice perk to offer — it’s a necessity. All businesses, including child care centers, must take steps to protect their own personal data as well as their customers’ sensitive information, and it’s vital to use the best practices in child care security.

Procare Solutions stands out as one of the few U.S.-based child care management software providers with exceptional data security credentials. Both its Procare and ChildPlus software brands hold the prestigious SOC 2 Type 2 certification, a gold standard for secure and trustworthy data management. This certification showcases Procare Solutions’ commitment to protecting client data while ensuring its systems remain reliable, compliant and secure. 

Designed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SOC 2 Type 2 compliance framework evaluates and validates an organization’s information security practices. It focuses on security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy. 

As a child care director or owner, you must help families keep their information safe on their end as well … something that is growing increasingly difficult as cybercrime becomes more prevalent.  

The three primary ways in which cyber-attackers break into an organization are stolen credentials, phishing (when an attacker sends a genuine-looking email to deceive recipients into carrying out harmful instructions such as clicking on a link, opening an attachment, providing sensitive information or transferring money) and exploitation of vulnerabilities, according to a Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. 

Here are some of the most important ways child care programs can strengthen data security — and how Procare supports those efforts. 

Two-Step Authentication  

Two-step authentication, also known as multi-factor authentication, adds an important layer of protection by requiring a second verification factor in addition to a username and password. This extra step helps decrease the likelihood of a successful cyberattack. 

Microsoft found that strong authentication can block 99.9% of automated cyberattacks, underscoring the value of adding a verification factor during login. Procare Solutions has adopted this approach to further safeguard sensitive information. 

With two-step authentication, parents and staff can add a phone number or email address to their Procare login to receive verification codes when a login attempt occurs. This additional step helps prevent unauthorized access, data breaches and other cyber threats. 

Enabling two-step verification creates a strong safeguard for the personal information stored in Procare. Even if a password is stolen or guessed, a bad actor cannot log in without the secondary verification code. This feature reflects Procare Solutions’ commitment to providing secure, trustworthy tools for managing child care operations. 

Strengthen Data Security with Strong Password Practices 

While two‑step authentication adds a powerful layer of protection, strong passwords remain one of the most important foundations of account security. Weak or stolen credentials, including passwords, are still the leading cause of data breaches, and child care centers are not immune to that risk. 

To help centers and families protect their information, Procare Solutions requires passwords that meet modern security standards designed to defend against brute‑force attacks and unauthorized access. 

Procare’s enhanced password requirements include: 

• A password length of 12 to 32 characters 
• At least three of the following:
  • An uppercase letter
  • A lowercase letter
  • A number
  • A special character
• Restrictions preventing users from reusing any of their last four passwords 

These strengthened requirements help ensure that even if a password is compromised elsewhere, attackers cannot easily gain access to a parent or staff account. This added rigor gives families greater confidence that the information they entrust to your center is protected with industry‑leading safeguards. 

Custom Roles and Permissions to Protect Sensitive Data 

Another essential part of data protection is controlling who can access what. Child care centers handle financial information, family details, health notes, attendance records and more — and not every staff member should have access to all of it. 

Procare’s enhanced Roles & Permissions experience helps you clearly define staff responsibilities and maintain tighter control over sensitive information. Instead of assigning permissions individually in each profile, administrators can now create fully customizable roles and apply them to multiple staff members at once. 

These customizable roles help your center: 

• Ensure staff only see the data necessary for their responsibilities 
• Reduce the risk of unauthorized access 
• Improve workflows with clearly defined access levels 
• Build a secure foundation for your overall operational processes 

This level of control supports your center’s privacy practices and helps maintain compliance with security and confidentiality expectations. It also reassures families that your team handles personal data with the highest level of care. 

Protect Family Privacy with Parent‑to‑Admin Messaging 

Digital communication is an important part of running a modern child care center, but not every message belongs in a classroom chat. Families often need to discuss private matters such as billing, registration, documentation or schedule changes — and those conversations should be kept confidential. 

Procare’s Parent‑to‑Admin Messaging creates a secure and private channel between parents and your administrative team. This dedicated “Office Chat” lives alongside your existing “Classroom Chat,” keeping day‑to‑day teacher communication separate from sensitive topics. 

This feature helps safeguard privacy by: 

• Giving parents a private space to discuss confidential matters directly with administrators 
• Removing teachers from conversations that don’t involve them 
• Keeping sensitive financial or personal information out of general classroom communication 
• Streamlining how centers share important information with enrolled families 

The result is a more secure, respectful and organized communication system — one that protects families’ privacy while supporting stronger parent‑center relationships. 

Uphold Customer Trust and Your Reputation 

When customers provide their personal information, they trust that it will be handled responsibly and securely. A breach of this trust can severely damage your child care center’s reputation.  

A Forbes Insight report found that 46% of organizations had suffered reputational damage as a result of a data breach and 19% of organizations suffered reputation and brand damage as a result of a third-party security breach. 

By safeguarding their personal data, your child care business can demonstrate its commitment to respecting the privacy of your families and reinforcing the trust they have placed in you. 

Recent news coverage has highlighted concerns about how well child care management software protects sensitive data. Procare Solutions is the leader in taking steps beyond just what is required by law to secure data. When your center uses Procare, you can assure your families that you are offering the best-in-class software as well as industry-leading security measures. 

Let’s take a look at some additional ways Procare protects children, families and their data.     

Know Who Is Authorized to Pick Up Children 

With Procare, each person who is authorized to pick up a child is issued his or her own unique four-digit pin. That includes parents and other people who are allowed to take a child from your center.  

This is beneficial during peak times when your center is bustling with many families arriving at the same time to pick up children. It’s often hard to keep track of everyone coming and going. Enabling a pin gives you confidence in knowing that you’re providing your families, as well as your staff, an extra layer of security regarding who is allowed in the building and authorized to pick up children. 

And when you have changes in drop-off or pick-up procedures at your center, you can quickly alert parents with the Procare child care mobile app, which allows you to send messages either individually or via group messaging. 

Once a child is checked in or out, that information is immediately populated into an attendance dashboard, where you can see how and when they checked in or out, their assigned room, hours attended, absences and parents’ signatures (if applicable).  

You can also track ratios and compile daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly reports! 

Enable Contactless Check-in 

Relying on paper sheets to record when children are dropped off and picked up just doesn’t work anymore. It makes these times of day too chaotic and it doesn’t give you the information you need to adhere to staff-to-child ratios in real time. 

It’s just not a way of doing business that inspires confidence. 

Procare’s integrated technology allows families and your staff to use QR codes and/or GPS technology for a completely touch-free check-in and check-out system.  

Parents can check in their children using the Procare child care mobile app without entering your building or by scanning a code once inside. 

Each school and child care center uses a unique QR code that can be displayed on a tablet, computer, smartphone or printed on paper and displayed at your daycare.  

When parents or other family members arrive, they simply pull up the Procare mobile app on their phone, select the QR code icon and scan. After scanning the code, the parent will be able to check in their child directly from their phone.  

Procare’s technology allows your teachers and other staff to sign in and sign out easily and quickly using a tablet at your center or their own phone. 

Timecards automatically are updated, which frees up your time spent on a mundane administrative task. 

Procare Solutions is the only provider of child care management software that uses geofencing on contactless check-ins, which means that a person must much be within a certain distance from your center to check in a child. That means a “bad actor” in another country, for instance, could not check a child in or out over the internet.  

Use Procare to Protect Your Data 

Rest assured that we adhere to strict security measures and compliance protocols, upholding the utmost protection of your data. Read more about our security and compliance practices.