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In a hurry? Here’s the run down.
Our product team has been working hard, and we are so excited to finally share with you that Famly is now one of the official childcare management software with an approved integration with KinderConnect.
KinderConnect is a portal used to manage the attendance and payment status of subsidy-supported children.
In some states, childcare centers are required to submit attendance information for children who are receiving public funding or subsidies. State agencies have partnered with KinderConnect as the required system used to register and manage childcare attendance.
Requiring early childhood and preschool attendance to be documented is a small step in the effort to improve the quality of childcare across the United States. Simply, for childcare to be valuable, children need to attend.
Attending school regularly is especially important in early education, when foundational logical skills and academic habits are beginning to develop. In a long term study, research has demonstrated that missing 10% of the school year in preschool and kindergarten significantly affected children’s ability to read in third grade, and their overall academic ability in sixth grade, interfering with their ability to graduate.
Attendance requirements in preschool and early childhood education is setting children up for a successful academic future.
Regular attendance is also important for children to develop their social and emotional skills. Being in a classroom environment where they are surrounded by other children, and with adults other than their caregivers or parents is important.
Children learn cooperation and sharing, how to read social cues or recognize emotions in others, empathy, how to listen, and also how to advocate for themselves by expressing when someone does something that hurts their feelings, and also manners such as how to nicely ask a peer to pass them a book.
When parents feel as if they are a part of a partnership with teachers and staff, or view the school as a nurturing and positive environment for their child, it increases the likelihood of them prioritizing their child's regular attendance. Simply, strong parent and family engagement leads to improved attendance, resulting in higher quality care and overall positive growth and development for the children.
Famly’s attendance management tool simplifies the process of monitoring each child's attendance trends. Digitized sign-ins and caregivers’ ability to mark upcoming vacations or whether their child is out sick makes it super easy to track children’s expected attendance and their actual attendance. These digital reports provide a clear summary of each child’s attendance record.
Strong family engagement and family-staff collaboration is essential if a child is struggling with attendance. Rather than blaming parents, it is better to problem solve and work together to help come up with a solution. While working on improving a child’s attendance, teachers and parents can send direct messages to each other, teachers can share photos of fun activities in the classroom, etc.
Attendance is a communal effort at this young age, and it is important for families and ECE staff to be on the same page, working together. Using a childcare management system, like Famly, can facilitate and improve this collaboration.
Through a seamless integration with KinderConnect, Famly is contributing to other initiatives dedicated to enhancing the quality of childcare.
With the official integration between KinderConnect and Famly, your childcare center can link the children between both systems and transfer the attendance records when needed (including corrections). This system helps you coordinate the subsidy payments for supported children by:
We know that childcare providers have a lot of rules and requirements to fulfill. With the seamless integration between Famly and KinderConnect, you do not need to worry about whether you are meeting your state’s requirements.
With Famly, you don’t have to stress about logging attendance in KinderConnect, as attendance information from Famly will be transferred to KinderConnect.
Currently, four states are supported by the integration with KinderConnect, including:
Stay tuned as we will provide updates when other states become supported!
You can refer to our help page here, or of course, feel free to reach out to customer support.
Guidance from the Danish Health Ministry, translated in full to English.
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The full recommendations from a working group of over 70 nursery chains in the UK.
Please note: here at Famly we love sharing creative activities for you to try with the children at your setting, but you know them best. Take the time to consider adaptions you might need to make so these activities are accessible and developmentally appropriate for the children you work with. Just as you ordinarily would, conduct risk assessments for your children and your setting before undertaking new activities, and ensure you and your staff are following your own health and safety guidelines.
