Fran Simon, M.Ed.

Digitizing your program's operations:

How to choose software for✓ program management✓ family communications ✓ and documentation

111.22.2019Survey design and analysis in collaboration with Steve J. Dick, Ph.D.

Download Handouts and Slides

• Slides from today’s session

• 2019 List of Available Software Products

• NAEYC 2018 SlidesDirectors as Fearless Consumers of Early Childhood Software

• 2018 Profiles of 19 Products (Excel)

• Product comparison charts- 19 ECE Software Products 2018

EngageStrat.com/ece-software 2

B.A. & M.EdEarly Childhood

Education

Child Care Administrator

15 years

VP of Marketing & Tech Initiatives

Teaching Strategies

Chief of Family Engagement

NACCRRA(Child Care Aware)

Biz Consultant to NPOs &

Companies in ECE

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4

Just

1 objective for this session

Become empowered to select software for the professionals

in your early childhood program.

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6

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Categories of products

• Comprehensive• Family Communication• Family Engagement• Documentation• Assessment

• Customer Relationship Management

• Enrollment• Nutrition/Accounting

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• Back office

• Child data management

• Family Communication

• Assessment

Products that combine features administrators use to manage programs and

features used by teachers

Include some constellation of these

features:

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• BrightWheel• ChildPlus• COPA• Daycare Works• Ezcare (3)• HiMama• Jackrabbit• KangarooTime• Kinderlime• Lifecubby• Procare• PROMIS• Sandbox• SchooLeader• Smartcare 10

Comprehensive

Comprehensive products are the result of scope evolution

Family Communication

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Insight on comprehensive products

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MOST HOOK CUSTOMERS WITH

FAMILY COMMUNICATION.

ALL “ALL-IN-ONE” PRODUCTS DO NOT THE

HAVE THE SAME FEATURES.

EACH IS DEEPER IN THE PRODUCT EXPERTISE FOR WHICH IS WAS

LAUNCHED.

Products that automate two-way Family/School communication

• Photo/video sharing

• Daily reports

• Messaging

• Calendar

• Reminders

Include these features and more

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• Bloomz• Class Tag*• ClassDojo*• KidReports• Learning Genie• MyKidzDay• Parent Square*• Remind*• SeeSaw*• Tadpoles• Daily Connect

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Facebook | Pinterest

• 1 class or program at a time

• Not designed for ECE

• No admin insight

• Limited functionality

• Privacy & security concerns

SeeSaw, Remind, Class Dojo

• 1 Class/teacher for free

• Not designed for ECE

• No admin insight

Family Communication products

FREE

FRFREE!

You get what you pay for!15

Products that deliver activities to help families facilitate engagement

with their children at home

• Activities and/or modeling for parents

• Sent by text/email

Include these features

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• Ready Rosie*• Vroom

*Now includes family communication, too!

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Tracking technology used to manage interactions with families considering

enrolling.

• Intake from phone calls & emails

• Contact form on website

• Tracking emails

• Waiting lists

Include these features and more

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Customer Relationship

Management

• ChildCareCRM• Intellikids

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Products that automate pedagogical documentation and planning. Include these

features and more

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• Open fields / prompts for potentially detailed notes

• Photo/video/audio file sharing

• Portfolios

• Documentation sharing

• Planning tools

• Family communication features

• Educa• Kaymbu• Storypark

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Systems used to capture information, monitor, and report about children’s development.

• Curriculum or development objectives

• Progress monitoring checkpoints

• Open fields for observations to support checklists

• Videos, photos and file sharing

• Child portfolios

• Alignments to State Preschool/HS Standards

• Parent communication features

Include these features and more

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• COR Advantage• GOLD• Work Sampling Online

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Gaps or difficult to find functionality

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Support for multiple

languages

Forms management

and Electronic signatures

Regulatory compliance

(Readily available for head start)

Accreditation support

Automation of health records (Somewhat

covered for Head Start)

2018 and 2019 Study FindingsProducts and User’s Responses

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Preliminary ResultsEarly Childhood Education Institutional

Software Product Survey, 2019Fran S. Simon, M.Ed. Steven J. Dick, Ph.D.Publication Pending

Survey design and analysis in collaboration with Steve J. Dick, Ph.D.

Shout out to another study

Technology in the Lives of Educators and Early Childhood Programs: 2018 Survey.

Evanston, IL: Center on Media and Human Development, Northwestern University.

Pila, S., Blackwell, C. K., Lauricella, A. R., & Wartella, E. (2019).

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https://cmhd.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NAEYC-Report-2019.pdf

0

1

2

3

4

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Accounting and nutrition Assessment

Comprehensive Customer Relationship Management

Documentation Enrollment

Family comminication Family engagement

Pedagogical Documentation

Software launch date by type

Program Administration |Child Data Management

27Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional

Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending ©copyright 2019

Historical: Introduction of software titles by year

Tried refined and deep Innovative, not as deep

Steeped in understanding of ECE Still learning

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Under reported due to acquisitions, exits and speed of new entrants

Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending

©copyright 2019

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Proportion of available

products

2019

29Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending

©copyright 2019

2%

67%

25%

3%

3%

3%

50%

37%

3%

7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Assessment

Comprehensive

Family Comm

Family Engagement

Documentation

Teachers Administration

Percentage using each

of the categories

4.2 4.1 4.14.0 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.7

3.6

3.8 3.9 3.9 4.03.8 3.7 3.7 3.7

3.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

PK-K+ Early HeadStart

State-run Campus Private Child care Head Start Family Special needs

31Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional

Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending ©copyright 2019

Product Ratings by Type of Program 5 point scale

Product Satisfaction 5-point scale

4.0 4.03.7 3.8 3.9 3.9

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Features Reliability Enhance Value for cost Delivers on promises

Summary

3.9 3.9 3.8 3.6 3.8 3.8

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Speed correcting

issues

Technical support

On-boarding or initial training

Ongoing training

Self-help options

Summary

Product offerings Support and training

32Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional

Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending ©copyright 2019

The top products

consideredby

administrators

HiMama27%

BrightWheel24%

Seesaw5%

Storypark8%

Procare11%

EZcare9%

Smartcare9%

Sandbox7%

33Preliminary Results, Early Childhood Education Institutional

Software Product Survey, 2019, Simon and Dick, Pending ©copyright 2019

47%

62%

55%

36%

50%

42%

19%

61%

35%

2%

50%

6%

21%

60%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Family communication

Attendance

Billing and payment collection

Documentation

Enrolment management

Family check-in/out

Photo and video sharing

Teachers Administration 34

Features considered most important in comprehensive

software by role

Users who use one or two products

Top 12 first software vs. Top 12 second software

by type of product

First Software Second Software

Procare 19 % Assessment 16 %

HiMama 12 % Procare 11 %

BrightWheel 8 % ClassDojo 6 %

Seesaw 7 % ChildPlus 6 %

Tadpoles 6 % KidReports 4 %

EZcare 4 % Tadpoles 4 %

KidKare 4 % Remind 3 %

Bloomz 4 %Learning Genie 3 %

Storypark 4 % Seesaw 3 %

Kaymbu 3 % HiMama 3 %

ChildPlus 3 % Kaymbu 3 %

Ready Rosie 3 % KidKare 3 %

Assessment Comprehensive DocumentationFamily Communication Family Engagement

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Communication challenges

Administration processes

Programmatic or pedagogical

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Main Office

Regional Admins

Site 1

Teachers

Classes

Children….

Parents

Child(ren)

Site 2

Teachers

Classes

Children

Parents

Child(ren)

Superuser Access

Site AccessSite access

Authorized Access

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How does the company provide technical support?

• Onboarding training included

• Phone or chat support 24/7

• Phone or chat support 9-5

• Onsite support INCLUDED

• Onsite support for Fee $$

• Online knowledge base

• Webinars, videos

• User's Manual

Passive,but immediate

Interactive,but NOT immediate

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• In-app prompts & help• Online coaching• User groups (live/online)• Monitored online forum• Assigned account manager

How does the company provide implementation support?

Interactive and personal

Immediate

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• Where is the data hosted? Is it on a dedicated server?

• How is it monitored?

• How is the system encrypted?

• What are the sign-on, access and authentication policies?

• What is the backup and recovery plan?

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(And, are your processes compliant?)

HIPPA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act includes:

National standards for the protection and confidential handling of protected health information.

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act includes:

Federal privacy laws that gives parents certain protections regarding their children's education records.

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Does the product connect to others? How?How accessible is your data?

Option 1: API Application Programming Interface

Allows separate software systems to interact with one another, to sync data. Enter once and it stays up to

date.

Option 2: ManualExport/Import

Manually export data from one system and import it into the

other. This process may have to be repeated routinely.

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Is the product as inclusive as possible?

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Languages Accessibility Availability

Section 508

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# 1!

Best selling!

The only

Top Rated!

Save Time!

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The first

Intentional, inclusive,

methodical, and

collaborative

1. Assign a project leader

2. Gather a team & identify needs

3. Identify functions & prioritize

4. Gather a list of products (next slide!)

5. Select 2-3 products to review

6. View a demonstration

7. Participate in a trial/pilot

8. Use real data in real scenarios

9. Score with rubrics & select 47

Time to Shop

• Search the Internet • Visit conference exhibits• Check software review sites

(next slide)

• Ask for recommendationso Use NAEYC’s Helloo Contact respected colleagueso Post questions in LinkedIn and

Facebook Groups

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Ratings. Grain of salt…

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What to ask your colleagues (and what to think about when you talk to salespeople)

• Is the company responsive to customers?

• Do they seem to understand ECE programs’ needs

• Is the product reliable? (Uptime/Downtime)

• Is it easy to use over time?

• Does it deliver what is promised? (Or does it seem too good to be true?)

• Is it sustainable?

• Do the staff, families, and children benefit?

• Do the staff and families like it?

• Does it solve the administrator’s problems?50

Tips for Product Demos

• Private vs. group demos

• See a demo of the functionality for all types of users

• Review the apps as well as the desktop version

• Have all user types participate in demos: Admins |Teachers |Parents

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Desktop & mobile interfaces should…

REQUIRE 3 CLICKS OR FEWER GET TO

ANY FUNCTION

INTUITIVE TO NAVIGATE

HAS ON-SCREEN PROMPTS AND

HELP

OFFERS CLEAN DESIGN

LOADS QUICKLY OFFER CLEAR ERROR MESSAGES

BROWSER /OPERATING SYSTEM CONSISTENCY

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PROVIDES ACCESSIBLE HELP

Software Trials

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May cause product

misevaluation

On the other hand…

No $kin in the game = No

use

FREE trials are controversial for product vendors

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Use real data.

Don’t just play.

Evaluate using a scoring rubric

Include testers with different roles

Follow a testing plan.

Access available support.

Trials and pilots and very

worthwhile for customers andvendors when

used with intention.

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Demonstration or contact withsalesperson required first in some cases.

to get the most from your investment

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Monitor use of the system by all.

Plan for coaching and mentoring

Get onboarding support

Ensure staff have basic skills needed

Develop a rollout plan

Get buy-in before the purchase

Ready, set, go…

Maybe, Maybe not.

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Is this the right time?

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Thank you!

Good luck with your search!

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Fran Simon, M.Ed.

Fran.Simon@EngageStrat.com

EngageStrat.com

Data, analysis and collaboration

Thanks toSteven J. Dick, Ph.DModernMetricsBarn.com

Questions?

Thanks for joining me!