Playground: Child Care App

After School Development

About this app

Playground is the leading early childhood management system used by hundreds of thousands of child care providers, teachers, and families. It is an all-in-one platform for child care operations & family connection
From classrooms to the front office to families at home, Playground gives everyone the tools they need to stay in sync, reduce administrative overhead, and create better child care experiences. Get real-time access to daily activity updates, billing, enrollment, compliance, messaging, and more. Directors save hours of admin work per week. Families get a window into their child’s day. Teachers spend less time on paperwork and more time teaching.

FAMILY EXPERIENCE
Engage families with a single platform that makes communication effortless and meaningful.
Real-time activity feed (meals, naps, diapering, potty, sunscreen)
Daily reports with photos, videos, and notes
Personalized calendars and newsletters
Digital paperwork and e-signatures
In-app messaging, announcements, and RSVPs
Mobile check-in/out with ETA sharing
Tuition billing and payment in one place

CENTER OPERATIONS
Manage daily workflows across every area of your program, from check-in to licensing reports.
Digital attendance & live ratio tracking
Staff clock-in/out & timecards
Pay staff and file payroll taxes
CACFP and subsidy tracking
Paperwork automation and custom packets
Late pickup fee automation
Allergy alerts and food program tracking
Licensing-ready reports

LEARNING & OBSERVATION
Support child development and curriculum planning with tools that work for teachers and families.
Lesson plan builder and internal curriculum bank
State standard alignment or custom domains
Developmental milestone tracking
Child development reports
Activity observations with media
Easy family sharing

ENGAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION
Keep families informed and staff aligned—with minimal lift.
Messaging, daily student feed, branded email newsletters, and SMS announcements
Staff <> family communication
Scheduled posts and approval settings
Media gallery and downloadable content
Engagement dashboard with classroom and student-level insights

REPORTING & COMPLIANCE
Replace clunky systems with one fast, customizable reporting suite.
Customizable, real-time reports across billing, attendance, staff time, food, and more
Exportable and printable reports for licensing and audits
Ratio alerts and missing signature flags

Whether you’re a parent checking in from your phone or a director running a multi-site operation, Playground brings clarity, connection, and control to every part of your day.

Download Playground today and experience the difference.

Ratings and reviews

Overall, this app is very capable and helpful as a parent. My biggest issue is that notifications don't navigate to what they're about; they just go to the last viewed page, which isn't helpful. Since most of my engagement is based on these notifications this is a pretty big inconvenience for me. If the devs could fix this, I'd give it 5 stars.

UI seems okay but once you start using it it's quite buggy. Numerous typos as well as features that either don't work or are not well thought out. Push notifications don't work. Can't message a classroom but rather have message specific people. Can't sign in/out using GPS which competition offers.

UI is okay but the app is slow to load, pictures and videos are even slower to load. Notifications don't work half the time, the check in/out notification never works, and there is no notification for when a nap ends. Doesn't offer proximity check-in/out.

What’s new

– Added the ability to share photos easily
– Performance improvements and bug fixes