KEYS (Keep Elementary Youth Safe) serves kindergarten through sixth grade before and after school in New Jersey's Audubon Public School District. After 42 years of paper, pen, cash and checks, the program grew from 20 to 30 kids to more than 80 a day and needed a different system.
"My Fridays were my busy day, where I would be from like seven to 4:30. Now when I do them on Fridays, it's maybe an hour."
Oh, a lot. My Fridays were my busy day, where I would be from like seven to 4:30, just non-stop going through our attendance slips and making rosters and everything. Now when I do them on Fridays, it's maybe an hour.
I work for the Audubon Public School District in the before and after care. We call it our KEYS program. For the last 42 years, it's been paper and pen, cash or check. And it started off as a smaller program with 20 to 30 kids between the two schools, and it has blossomed to 80 plus kids a day between the two schools. So, as we grew, we realized we need a different system.
Parents are able to pick certain days, certain times, as many days as they want. And every other program that we looked into, you had to sign up for the full month at a time, morning and PM. If you didn't need it, regardless, you were still signing up for it and paying for it.
Our caregivers range from high school kids to 75-year-olds. They have adapted very well to it. It's a very simple program, very straightforward too.
It was just on a white card that pretty much anyone could access. So now that it's all on a website where it's secure, it's been very nice because not everyone can just see all of that.
Print it out in a letter, or put it in an envelope, send it to them and hope they took it out of their child's folder. Whereas now it just gets added to their account. It's beautiful.
The last three years, once I became director, I barely knew the kids' names. This year, it's great because I don't have to be sitting at my desk non-stop. I go to both schools all the time now and I can hang out with all the kids.
I would put a disclaimer that, like you told me to in the beginning, like it is going to be a lot to start, with parents just emailing non-stop, but it does get better and gets easier. So, yes, I would recommend it because it has made our lives much easier.
See pick-your-days registration, secure pick-up details and late fees added to family accounts in a demo built for your program.