I. Introduction
1.
What flavors of KinderAttend
exist?
2. What
is the main difference between KinderAttend Web
and POS?
3. What is the purpose of KinderAttend?
4. What is the cost of KinderAttend?
5. How do we pay for KinderAttend?
6. Who can use KinderAttend?
7. How will using KinderAttend benefit our agency?
8. What software and hardware is needed to operate KinderAttend?
II. Getting Started
1.
Where can our agency “try
out” KinderAttend? Is there an opportunity to demo the software?
2. How do we sign up for KinderAttend?
3. Are there any sign up costs for
using it?
4. Is there a contract?
5. Can an agency stop using
KinderAttend at any time without penalty?
6. Is there a certain number of
childcare providers and children that must be enrolled?
III. Enrolling the Provider
1.
How do we determine who should
use KinderAttend?
2. How many childcare providers
should we sign up to use KinderAttend?
3. What type of childcare
providers should use KinderAttend?
4. Does the provider information
have do be entered manually or can the data be imported?
IV. Enrolling Children
1.
How are children enrolled into KinderAttend?
2. Do all the children enrolled at
the provider’s daycare have to be enrolled in KinderAttend?
3. Who enrolls children into
KinderAttend?
4. When is the child data entered
into KinderAttend?
5. Can KinderAttend be fully
integrated into our current payment software?
V. Tracking Attendance
1.
How does a provider enter a
child’s attendance on KinderAttend?
2. How are absences monitored?
3. Can KinderAttend track
attendance of a child who attends care before and after public school?
4. Who enters the childcare
attendance on a daily basis? The parent? Or the child care provider?
5. What if the child is absent?
How is the data entered, if the provider charges for absences?
6. If the provider’s computer
“goes down” or she cannot access the Internet, can the attendance be
entered the next day?
7. Can the KinderAttend attendance
sheet by modified or customized to replicate our agency’s attendance
form?
8. Does the provider still have to
complete the attendance sheets that are sent by the agency?
9. How do agencies file hardcopy
signatures, in case those are required?
10. Can KinderAttend track the
number of absences per child?
11. What fraud prevention measures
does KinderAttend offer when tracking attendance?
12. If there is a mistake in the
attendance tracking of a child, can the data be corrected after the
fact?
VI. Receiving Attendance Reports
1.
Does the provider have to send
the information to the agency?
2. What do the attendance reports
look like?
3. Should the provider print out
attendance reports regularly?
4. Is there historical information
kept on all children in care at
each provider?
5. Can the printed reports be
customized to meet our agency’s needs?
VII. Support
1. What type of support is
available to our agency staff?
2. Is there a support phone line
available for providers?
I. Introduction
1.
What flavors of KinderAttend exist?
KinderAttend Web is an Internet based system, using a web site for
providers and agencies. KinderAttend POS ties into the KinderAttend Web
database, but submits the attendance information by having parents swipe
magnetic stripe cards through a reader when dropping children off and
picking them up.
2.
What is the main difference between KinderAttend Web and POS?
In KinderAttend Web, the provider goes to a web site, looks at the
schedule and enters attendance data into a weekly on-line timesheet. So
the provider has to do some work to submit the information. This is very
effective for smaller providers with a limited number of children. Using
KinderAttend POS, the parent does all the ‘work’ by swiping the
magnetic stripe care through a reader when entering or leaving the
center. There is no work at all that the provider has to do. The
tradeoff is that a magnetic stripe card reader must be installed at the
provider. The reader must be connected to a telephone line. The provider
can still go to the website and monitor the swipes made by parents and
substitute information if parents forget.
3.
What is the purpose of KinderAttend?
KinderAttend is designed to track attendance of children in subsidized
childcare to make it easier for subsidy agencies to calculate and issue
payments to childcare providers. It also provides a way to monitor
attendance of children in mandatory care or protective services.
4.
What is the cost of KinderAttend?
KinderAttend is a service. Agencies pay for the service by use. Please contact us for a quotation for KinderAttend for your agency.
5.
How do we pay for KinderAttend?
We will invoice you for the KinderAttend Web service on a monthly
basis according to actual use. For KinderAttend POS, a setup fee plus a
prepaid service fee is required to cover initial equipment costs.
6.
Who can use KinderAttend?
Anybody wishing to track attendance time by in and out times, hours
or present/absent status for children in childcare. Ideal customers are
subsidy agencies, protective services agencies who have to monitor
children’s attendance, or school districts.
7.
How will using KinderAttend benefit our agency?
Cost for attendance tracking, as compared to the conventional
process of using paper attendance sheets and manual calculations, is
significantly lower. Also, up-to-the-minute information helps streamline
the payment process.
8.
What software and hardware is needed to operate KinderAttend?
For KinderAttend Web, you need a
computer with Internet access. No additional
software or hardware is needed. For KinderAttend POS, a magnetic
stripe card reader is installed at the provider. This card reader must
be connected to a phone line that can be called by the KinderAttend
server. To create the magnetic cards for children, the subsidy agency
must have a card printer.
II. Getting Started
1.
Where can our agency “try out” KinderAttend? Is there an opportunity
to demo the software?
Any interested agency can obtain a username and password by clicking
on Request Information, filling out
the form and submitting it. Once the password is emailed to the user, he
or she can log in and test KinderAttend.
2.
How do we sign up for KinderAttend?
Click on Request Information, fill
out the form and submit. Our marketing staff will contact you and get
you started.
3.
Are there any sign up costs for using it?
For KinderAttend Web, there are no signup costs. For KinderAttend
POS, initial setup fees plus pre-paid service fees for several months
are required.
4.
Is there a contract?
A service contract for KinderAttend is established with the agency.
5.
Can an agency stop using KinderAttend at any time without penalty?
An agency can cancel the service contract any time. A 30 day
cancellation notice applies.
6.
Is there a certain number of childcare providers and children that must
be enrolled?
No. KinderAttend can be used by a single center, an agency, a county
or an entire state.
III. Enrolling the Provider
1.
How do we determine who should use KinderAttend?
KinderAttend POS should be used for providers with 30 or more
children enrolled. KinderAttend Web can be used for any provider who has
Internet access. We are currently working on implementing KinderAttend
Dial that will allow providers to log attendance by using the telephone.
2.
How many childcare providers should we sign up to use KinderAttend?
We suggest you start with those providers that have the most
children in subsidy, and with those who have Internet access. Get
comfortable with the system at the provider level as well as at the
agency level. Then start working down to smaller providers. There is no
need to make a big, all-encompassing decision to get started. Start
slowly and small.
3.
What type of childcare providers should use KinderAttend?
Really any provider with children in subsidy that already has
Internet access can use KinderAttend Web. KinderAttend POS should be
used by larger providers with more than 30 children.
4.
Does the provider information have do be entered manually or can the
data be imported?
All information can be entered manually on the web site by the
agency. However, a full import/export interface is provided.
Go to the Request More
Information page for the import/export specification documents and
show those to your information systems staff. They will know what to do
with it.
IV. Enrolling Children
1.
How are children enrolled into KinderAttend?
The subsidizing agency enters the children and associates them with
the provider. The provider then sees those children in the list of
children when they log in to enter timesheets. This can be done
manually, one by one. Of course, we provide a database import capability
to make this easier.
2.
Do all the children enrolled at the provider’s daycare have to be
enrolled in KinderAttend?
No. Only those for which the provider would like to track attendance
without paper.
3.
Who enrolls children into KinderAttend?
Agencies enroll the children
and associate them with the providers. Providers only enter and lookup
attendance sheet information and reports.
4.
When is the child data entered into KinderAttend?
Child data is entered when the agency signs up the child to be
tracked using KinderAttend.
5.
Can KinderAttend be fully integrated into our current payment software?
This depends on the software, of course. We also produce Kinder Track,
which is fully integrated. Other system interfaces are being
developed. We can assist in determining the feasibility of full
integration with your current subsidy management system. We will need to
talk to the vendor or developer of your software. Please contact us with
your questions about integration so we can help you with the answers.
V. Tracking Attendance
1.
How does a provider enter a child’s attendance on KinderAttend?
The provider enters the web site www.kinderattend.com
and logs in using her username and password. A pull-down menu appears
that contains only those children at this provider. The provider can
select any child, pull up the child's schedule for the week (if
submitted by the agency) and enter the in and out times into a grid. The
system can track in and out times, just hours or just present/absent conditions, depending on system setup.
2.
How are absences monitored?
The system has a pull-down field where the provider can select from
a number of absences, including sick, holiday, etc. Also, notes can be
attached for every day. This information is then forwarded to the
subsidizing agency with the
regular attendance information.
3.
Can KinderAttend track attendance of a child who attends care before and
after public school?
Yes. Multiple in and out times per day are provided just for this
purpose.
4.
Who enters the childcare attendance on a daily basis? The parent? Or the
child care provider?
The provider enters daily attendance information in KinderAttend Web
by logging onto the website. For KinderAttend POS, the parent actually
swipes the card through the reader. There is no work for the provider.
The parent does not access the KinderAttend website.
5.
What if the child is absent? How is the data entered, if the provider
charges for absences?
The system has a pull-down field where the provider can select from
a number of absences, including sick, holiday, etc. Also, notes can be
attached for every day. This information is then forwarded to the
subsidizing agency with the regular attendance information. Once the
information is submitted to the subsidy management system, that system
applies the payment rules to the information given. KinderAttend only
tracks attendance. It does not make any payment decisions.
6.
If the provider’s computer “goes down” or she cannot access the
Internet, can the attendance be entered the next day?
The attendance can be entered any time for any day.
7.
Can the KinderAttend attendance sheet by modified or customized to
replicate our agency’s attendance form?
In order to maintain the generic nature of the product KinderAttend,
we would not modify its standard attendance sheet form for individual
agencies. However, custom attendance forms can be designed and
implemented per request. We charge one-time design fees for such custom
features.
8.
Does the provider still have to complete the attendance sheets that are
sent by the agency?
Hopefully not. This depends on the business rules of the agency. It
would not make much sense for an agency to use KinderAttend and continue
to use the old attendance sheet. KinderAttend supplies this information
in a paperless format.
9.
How do agencies file hardcopy signatures, in case those are required?
KinderAttend provides a printer-ready version of the attendance
sheet per week. This can be printed by the provider. It contains a
signature field for the parent and the provider. While the information
is already submitted to the agency in electronic format, this sheet can
be used for filing of signatures. There is no need to manually process the information on the attendance sheet.
10.
Can KinderAttend track the number of absences per child?
KinderAttend is a database tracking attendance. This means that it
automatically tracks absences. Reports can be generated on this data per
the business rules of the agency.
11.
What fraud prevention measures does KinderAttend offer when tracking
attendance?
KinderAttend does not track whether a child is at multiple agencies.
This kind of tracking
should be done by the subsidy management system that receives the output
from KinderAttend. KinderAttend sorts by child key and can flag
duplications. However, it does not make decisions on this data. It
simply tracks attendance. Currently under development is KinderAttend
with finger print detection. This will help reduce fraud greatly by
recording the identity of the adult dropping off or pickup up the child.
12.
If there is a mistake in the attendance tracking of a child, can the
data be corrected after the fact?
Yes, the provider can go back to the records and correct them.
KinderAttend, behind the scenes, actually logs and checks how many times
a field is accessed, and by whom.
VI. Receiving Attendance Reports
1.
Does the provider have to send the information to the agency?
No, as soon as the provider logs the information into the website
and presses Save, the information is ready to be forwarded to the
agency. This is done automatically on a daily or weekly basis, dependent
on agency setup. The provider does not have to be concerned with this
detail at all.
2. What do the
attendance reports look like?
The attendance report can be viewed on the Internet, or printed out
on paper using any printer connected to the workstation. One report
shows the child’s attendance per week. Another report shows all
children at the given provider. These reports can be printed by the
provider as well as any agent.
3.
Should the provider print out attendance reports regularly?
The provider can print out attendance reports any time. There is no
specific reason to keep printed reports, however, since the provider can
always go back and review historic information.
4.
Is there historical information kept on all children in care at each
provider?
The attendance information
is kept in the database for every child. Attendance information can be
purged by the agency, but it does not have to be purged. Both the
provider and the agency can access this historical information until it
gets purged.
5.
Can the printed reports be customized to meet our agency’s needs?
In order to maintain the generic nature of the product KinderAttend,
we would not modify its standard attendance sheet form for individual
agencies. However, custom attendance forms can be designed and
implemented per request. We charge one-time design fees for such custom
features.
VII. Support
1.
What type of support is available to our agency staff?
We maintain an 800 number for customer support. For non-emergency
questions, we suggest using email to our technical support staff. POS
devices, if found faulty by our technicians, will be swapped out using
overnight mail.
2.
Is there a support phone line available for providers?
We maintain an 800 number for customer support. For non-emergency
questions, we suggest using email to our technical support staff.