Procare: Childcare App Reviews

by Anony-mause

This good is good in theory but not so much in real time. I’m not sure how it works on the caregiver side but the parent side there is very little functionality. The most important thing for a parent is to be able to see and hear what is happening at daycare in real time… or at least close to real time. We need to know if our child has eaten lunch, has napped properly as it determines pick up times etc. the push notifications are not even close to the time stamp. At 6pm i get notified that my child had a diaper change at 11 am. This isn’t helpful and defeats the entire purpose of Procare . The user experience is not the issue this is pure development and bug and I would prioritize this in the bug fixes. Teachers and administration gets frustrated as parents are still calling the office and the teachers to get informed. The messaging platform is simple and easy to use. I also don’t understand why Procare hasn’t piggybacked off of the existing iOS camera instead of launching its own app. This has contributed to the heaviness of the application. I had to delete and make room for Procare on my phone.

by Bbrannon4

Going down a star after a few more days use. It’s been an hour and the main timeline still hasn’t updated based on a notification of a nap from the teacher. Also I just noticed my sons teachers profile picture is showing up under my name also in the messages.

Seems pretty decent, though I’m a parent so I guess I can only see what the school lets me. For me it’s more of a notification tool, which I think could be improved. For instance, I get a notification whenever my son is checked in or out, regardless if I was the one who did it, or my wife. Why would I need to be notified right after I did something? Also just in general I’ve found the the main timeline and the messages don’t refresh very well and it’s a bit clunky. I’ll get a push notification and then open Procare and I can’t see what I was altered to, but if I click the notification it seems to refresh Procare and then I can see it.

After more use it seems that the teacher interface might not be very clear because sometimes going to sleep and waking up are separate activity blocks, and sometimes they are in the same one. But if they are in the same one I don’t get a notification for my son waking up.

Honestly I can’t understand why Procare has so many 5 star reviews. I must be looking at something different than everyone else.

by Coach1012

I cannot speak to how Procare is for schools and teachers. But for parents this is one of the worst apps I have used (this is my 5th app for daycare/school). The parents do not have the ability to log anything for their child ie diaper, bottles, food, sleep; which informs the teachers easily about my child’s morning.
The message section for me only shows one message, not all the message exchanged. The Activities sections only updates to include “today” info after I completely close and reopen Procare . I cannot speak to pictures as I have yet to receive one.
The calendar function should be updated to allow different views and future activities.
It is okay but needs improvements, which honestly shouldn’t be too difficult to complete. Wish my school would have chosen a different app, but will look forward to update to make this more useful and user friendly.

by Hintonschmidt

I love that I get updates throughout the day. I wish there was a way to go in and see all the photos for each kid in one place without having to scroll through for so long over time where they are embedded.

I wish there was an alert letting me know when the kid has been dropped off and picked up like in tadpoles. It made me feel better knowing that if I didn’t get an alert that drop off occurred, that I could call my husband and find out what’s going on (in case there was some sort of emergency and as a good way to ensure one of us don’t forget). It was also nice in our old app when I got alerts that they were picked up early. Just another check so If I wasn’t expecting that, I could follow up with my husband immediately in case god forbid someone did so without our knowledge or permission.

I like that we can pay through Procare . I also like that I can send messages directly to the teacher through Procare , I just don’t have a way to see if they were checked or received.

by April/sunchild

I enjoy being able to communicate with teachers through Procare , and receive updates including pictures, as well as access billing information.

My main concern is that lately, the activities are not being updated including sign in and sign out activities. This becomes extremely challenging when dealing with split households with no communication and infrequent use of daycare by the other parent. If I don’t know my child is at daycare, how would I know to pick her up there? I try not to call too often as I don’t like to distract teachers from their littles. With Procare , the teachers are able to check it when they can. When the activity logs aren’t updating, the messages don’t always go through either.

It would be great if these bugs could be fixed. I just installed an app update recently, and yet the issue happened again today.

by Voxette

I love getting updates in real time throughout the day. It’s so reassuring to know what’s going on with my kid. It also helps us prepare for his specific needs that day when we pick him up. We can see if he didn’t eat well, for example, and come prepared with a snack for him. I love the pictures feature, although the camera quality could be improved. One other technical thing that could be improved is the information in the pushed notifications could have the same details as the entry when you look at the activities list. For example, if I get a notification that says my kid ate the morning snack, that just means that snack time happened. I have to go into Procare to find out whether he actually ate any of it or not.

by Viva La Fleur

It’s always nerve racking when your little one is off with a sitter or at daycare but my wife and I love the updates we get through Procare . Being able to see when she eats, naps, plays, and see pictures helps us relax knowing she’s in good hands!

Procare is well made and works well. I only have a few critiques which are minor. I wish I could scroll through the photos with a swipe instead of having to exit out and select each one. Also I hope they add the ability to comment or “like” some of the updates and messages sent by daycare so they know we received them. Messages such as “we need more diapers” could be acknowledged with a like or thumbs up, or react to the photos with a like. I want them to know we appreciate all the information without having to send a separate message via chat which can make it seem disjointed.

All in all we are so happy the daycare uses Procare so we can keep tabs on our little one while we work!

by B GrifN

Using Procare as a parent, I love it. It keeps me informed about my kids throughout the day. The daily summary email is nice, too, if you don’t want to get every notification of every thing. Just a couple things I would change:
- be able to “react” or comment on a picture
- get more granular with notifications; I don’t need to know every update, but if the teacher leaves a comment (“need diapers”, “need a pacifier”, “baby had a blowout and needs more changes of clothes at school”), I want to know about that separately. This should be configurable by “event” type (I don’t need to know real-time that she ate all of her bottle, but I do want to know if her diaper change was a blowout and she needs more clothes).
- other minor things; example: if you don’t have a profile picture for your kid, their initials are shown as Last Name Initial then First Name Initial, instead of the other way around.

by Disappointedmccainmecain

Procare has so far (1 month in) been very usure friendly as both a provider and a parent. I like that I can have 1 login for both aspects and can toggle between what I need to do for my class, and what I need to see for my own children.
As a provider I like that it allows me to track pretty much every aspect of my students day and leave notes for parents about events, how their child is doing, what has gone well (or not) during the day and send direct messages when needed. These are also awesome as a parent as I am able to see details about my child’s day and get notes from their teachers. I especially love that there are sections to upload photos, track moods (nice if my child is having a fussy day), and upload curriculum notes for parents so see what we’re learning and how it relates to state standards.
All in all this is a fantastic app!

by Meg Snook

I’m so thankful for Procare! It really has given me peace of mind when going back to work after maternity leave… They notifications all day are amazing and Procare is really designed well!

My only suggestions are the following… I love the messaging feature but I wish it showed up more as a conversation rather than just separate areas for inbox and outbox… Sometimes it would be easier to see our entire conversation in a thread rather than separate pieces.

My second suggestion is to add the ability to comment on photos that the center posts. I think this would be a great way to feel as though you’re interacting with the day care provider although I’m not sure the daycare providers would want this function as much as the parents would.

by Laursauros

I love Procare for our daycare. I love getting notifications throughout the day of what she’s eat/learning/napping/etc and most of all the pics they can send :) you can also change the setting to have email notifications instead of push notifications, or none at all, or just the daily wrap up 1x per day. The only downfall is the school can send us photos but we cannot send photos back, which would have often been helpful: example: sending them a pic of a doctors note, or like one time my daughter came home with a mark on her face that we didn’t get an incident report for, it would be nice to be able to send photo of the mark so they can see what we are talking about in case it is healed over the weekend, things like that.

by Preschool & Parent

As a Preschool Director of 65+ students and 10 staff members, Procare has improved my job immensely. Tuition collection was the easiest ever, ongoing balances for additional charges, automatically calculated late fees, allows for recurring scheduled payments. Parents have given tons of positive feedback during the 2 weeks of piloting this. Attendance, sign in sheets, incident reports, toddler charts, potty training charts, notes and videos for documentation (can use staff view only feature) are all in one place and paperless! You can print reports of any kind for licensing. Best feature is instant communication with parents and notifications of injuries, needing picked up for illness/injury with alert and text message capability. Great customer service but sometimes takes an hour for them to respond to messages. Would love updated themes and options for newsletters and ability to switch profiles since my child also attends the school so I have a staff and parent profile. So worth the monthly cost! We paid the year subscription to get a discount. Lifesaver of an app!!

by RavenMoonsong

I work at a daycare and also have my daughter enrolled there. Procare allows me to show other parents how their child is doing throughout the day in real time, which is especially helpful for parents whose children have never been in daycare before. It allows employees and parents to send direct messages to each other— very helpful when child needs their special blanket forgotten at home or needs more diapers.

I love seeing my daughter’s achievements and various activities when I check Procare on my break. It also lets me know has she napped? Has she eaten what was offered today?

by Haileybell09

I have used a few different Care/School apps and this is, by far, the BEST! My 2 year old daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and she started daycare full time for the first time since she was diagnosed. Her school uses Procare to post updates and pictures and it has drastically reduced my anxiety about her going full time. I am able to see if she’s eaten her snacks and lunch and then that allows me to notify them of how much insulin she needs. I have never had any issues (feed loading, connection, etc.) with Procare , which is rare for an app that has so many features. I definitely recommend Procare to any school, daycare, institution, etc.!!!!

by BrittneeAD

It’s wonderful to use to keep up to date with parents and their little ones. I enjoy the features such as the allergy section so I can verify that what they are eating/drinking is a-ok. This is especially helpful right now. I am a preschool then the after school teacher and this is very useful when it comes to my after school kids. I am able to keep in touch with parents and send messages for them to pass along to my kids. While our school is closed down right now, I very much love the fact I am able to check up on everyone. My only suggestion (unless I’ve missed it) is to always list the child’s name in each selection (such as messaging, sending photos, etc.) due to the fact I may have started one and have to come back to it. Whether that be at home or school. Life/kid troubles happen and I do not want to be messaging the wrong parent about another student accidentally, just due to walking away.

by Sommer Olivia

My children’s daycare recently started using Procare and I love being able to see pictures of my kids and the activities they’re participating in while I’m at work. I’ve often struggled with being a single mom, working full-time and not being able to know what my 2 young children are doing during the day. Procare makes it possible to see what my kids are eating daily, what they’re working on and learning, their nap schedule and pictures throughout the day. I love Procare and I think all daycare centers should use it, especially for the working parents who can’t be around their children during the day.

by TheDalaiPython

My wife and I brought our baby to a new daycare, and the provider uses Procare. We love the daily play-by-play updates, and seeing photos/videos of Baby Girl helps reassure us that she’s doing well! The embedded text chat feature is also great!

So far, we haven’t experienced any bugs. The only feature update/improvement I can think of so far would be in the text chat section. Neither of the “parent” accounts gets a notification when the other parent sends a message in the text chat. It would be good if we would get notifications when the other parent sends a message, not just for the provider messages.

by Buzzy Ramone

No frills, but it seems to work very well. No bloat, just simple and effective. You can get and send messages between you and your daycare provider, get reminders about events, see picture your daycare provider posts, and you see your child’s activity feed like a social media feed that only features your child. Notifications pop up on your phone, so you don’t have to check Procare or your email. Ultimately it’s up to your daycare provider to post the content, so if they do a good job posting, that will improve your experience with Procare. I can’t think of any feature that I wish was added to Procare. Maybe something for specific medication timing, or perhaps diaper changes... once again that would be up to the daycare provider to post accurately.

by Hines830

We’ve been with a few different day cares (and; with that; few different communication systems). This one is super easy to use, and acts almost as a live feed throughout the day instead of just a play by play report at the end of the day - LOVE that. Also love that it’s a “one stop shop” for teachers and administrators; could be just a great school we’re in, but I’m thinking this system makes the teacher life easier so they focus more on the kiddos - ie, great school! AND it’s a cumulative/running timeline - if you want to know a regular schedule/routine (feedings, diapers, potty breaks, BMs, naps, etc)... Lets say you’re taking a trip and want to try to make days a little easier for LO or you’re trying to figure out a natural potty training schedule - BOOM. Easy peazy info right there for ya. AAAANNDDDD the comprehensive end of day report summarizes by category (naps, meals, activities, potty breaks, etc). Two thumbs WAY way up.

by Steven G Mom

Such a piece of mind after going though lots this is by far the best fit for my son who is such a loving boy and does well with structure and fun! They make playtime safe, chapel enjoyable , they are truly there for you and whatever you need and have concerns about. I could not say enough great things about how wonderful the teachers all are the and director how they have helped our family more then they know! I would highly recommend this for your child if they are a good kind kid who wants kind teachers they help learn and love while making it all fun! God bless them and there future I wish they could extent to middle school because my son is 5 and it’s his last year here which is hard for me to ever find all they have to offer elsewhere.

by Sheebles

Procare is good for keeping up-to-date with our son’s preschool shenanigans. I had a couple of suggestions to improve the UX:
1) allow the ability to scroll between photos; currently, you have to tap the photo to view a higher res version, then close it to go back to the main screen and repeat the process with the next photos.
2) batch the notifications; our school sends multiple photos at the end of the day, so we wind up getting a dozen notifications in succession, with our phones constantly buzzing. It would be nice to get a single notification that 12 photos were posted, rather than 12 notifications.
If these changes were implemented, this would be a 5-star app for us!

by Nana Whisperer

I love Procare and my clients rave about it. It’s easy to use, the tech support is there right away if I have a question. Then they usually wait on me for a response because I get busy with the kids. But they wait and are always polite and knowledgeable. Parents get updates immediately as I enter them. I can send pictures of all the fun we have. It makes communication with my clients convenient and more exciting than a note home or a billboard that no one looks at. Procare. Makes me look good and up to date for new parents and clients. It contains all the options I need for my daily reports, for the ages I care for. It makes signing in and out a breeze. It’s great!

by PapaVespa

Being able to check up on my little ones throughout the day is great! I previously waffled between receiving notifications, but the updated settings introduced a week ago let me get only the ones I want. Several times, Procare has been helpful for checking nap trends so we can continue them into the weekend. Response time when switching between kids or scrolling through more than a handful of events lags as Procare loads the data, but Procare still provides a nice overall experience. I particularly like getting photos delivered in a good resolution so I can save local copies and see them again later. Thank you to the developers for a decent app that keeps me in touch throughout the day!

by Fredghj

I have loved getting to use Procare. I am in the process of setting up a home daycare and this will be perfect! I love that there is a free version for those that do not need tuition billing or other attendance records etc.

I wish the messaging feature showed up as a conversation instead of sent and received. It would be much easier to see what you’ve responded to and conversations with parents to see the full conversation at once. I also wish there was a start and end button for naps instead of having to input a time by hand. For those that nap at different times, it would make it easier to just hit “start nap” or “end nap”.

by Dp At Kz

Procare is a great way for my teaching staff to communicate with parents. We just owe it for all our daily and incident reports. I looked at the pieces that you can pay for and they all seemed very easy to use and very useful for the price. I chose not to use them because my corporate takes care of those aspects. We get a quicker response from the parents using the messaging piece. We get supplies quicker with the real time daily notes that parents can re ire at anytime with Procare . And since parents can update information on Procare our contact information is kept current. I would and have recommended Procare.

by Megan Aleshire

I have an in home daycare and use to always send home papers at the end of each day letting the parents know what their child ate, how they slept, diaper checks and so forth. Papers get lost, ripped, stained by having to keep up with them all day. And, the parent doesn’t get to know how their child’s day was until the end of the day. Procare helps me keep up with the kids right then. And the parents can see everything in real time. And! No more wasteful paper use! Highly recommend Procare. I use the free version and get everything I need from it. But If you needed more, you could pay for it.

by TacoSaladMan

It made it a lot easier to drop my kids off at day care the first day, as I got plenty of updates for them and plenty of photos. It’s also so much easier for them to just message us and ask us to bring in another pack of diapers or more bibs. I actually quickly realized I had to change my email notifications because I got a ton of email updates. That’s my b.

Only less than stellar thing I’d have to say is the messaging portion of Procare is a little funky, in that there’s a separate place for sent messages and separate place for received messages. Everything else is great!

by Pookie5632

You ask a question and it is always answers with minimal wait time. They speak to you in clear English everything makes sense. There are a few things I wish Procare could do more of. You have to go onto the website because Procare can’t do what you want. But that’s ok. The billing rotation seems a bit long for days for it to hit your account and They mean all those four days. I wish the attachments that are sent through the newsletter feature would show up in the messaging not just email. Overall it’s a fantastic app it saves me so much time and effort.

by UsTheFamily

I do in home childcare and Procare is amazing for communicating with parents and creating daily reports. The parents love the real time updates (and photos) and the summaries sent at the end of the day are as simple as signing the child out. Parents can sign use Procare to sign their children in and out and if they forget they can do it from their car when they remember! Alternatively, the provider can sign the child in or out. I have been using Procare for about two months and have zero complaints so far. Every detail and option I’ve seen or used has been great!

by FrecklesNgrins

We’ve used competitor apps as well, and this one is fantastic! I love that I get alerts and we can easily and timely communicate with our caregivers. Our caregivers are great about using Procare throughout the day instead of “batch” updates, so we are really getting the most out of it. As a nursing/pumping mom, the pushed notifications are a great way to help me stay in sync with my baby’s on demand eating schedule. Procare features make it easy to use. Our favorite features are: pictures, messaging and the emailed daily summary. Very thoughtful design overall.

by Cary Rich

I was referred to Procare from another child care professional. Needing to rethink our current billing service and find something more conducive to a child care center Kinderlime made perfect sense. With so many other features it was exactly what I was looking for. All areas needed for tracking in one place. I have been amazed at their customer service too. Billing, online payments, online sign-in/out, activities, immunizations, staff tracking and ratios plus more? The choice was easy!! I highly recommend Kinderlime.

Sincerely,
Cary Rich
Santa Rosa Rise and Shine Child Care Center