Enrollment listings allow you to showcase your school to prospective families and accept new applications. Enrollment listings simplify the application process with customizable pricing plans, essential paperwork, and the option to share listings via links or QR codes, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for both families and administrators.
Create Your Listing
From your Admin Dashboard, click the Enrollment tab and then click the blue + New Listing button in the top right corner of the screen.
Enter the Listing name. This title will be family facing so make sure it clearly describes the listing families will be completing. The Listing name can always be edited later.
When ready, click Create Listing. The first page of the enrollment editor will open.
Step 1: Center Details
The first step in creating a listing is the Program Details page. Provide as much information as possible about your program to give families relevant context. Since most of this information is family-facing, ensure it is polished, accurate, and concise. You'll be able to preview the listing exactly as parents will see it.
Adding program photos can help create a more personalized and engaging landing page for your families.
See below for an explanation of the available fields on this page:
About [required] | Provide a brief description of your program. |
Contact Information |
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Basics
Most fields in the Basics section are optional. Any field left blank will not appear on the enrollment listing.
Days | Days of the week care will be provided |
Languages | Languages spoken |
Meals | Which meals are provided or available |
Religious affiliation | Any religious affiliations |
Start & end date [required] | Session dates |
Date settings |
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Staff-to-student ratio | Optional field if programs want to share their ratio with families. |
Curriculum | The curriculum(s) used in the classrooms |
Potty Training Required | If potty training is required or not |
Snacks | How many snacks are provided, if any |
Subsidized care | If programs want to proactively state whether they accept subsidized care or not |
💡 If you're a year-round program, we recommend setting a start date of today and an end date of one year from now. You can hide these dates from families by selecting the checkbox underneath the date.
Typical Day
Add a standard schedule for a day at your center. Click the Add Activity button to add a new item to your schedule.
Licensing
Add your licensing number.
Philosophy
Provide a description of your center's philosophy and curriculum.
Admission Process
Let parents know the exact steps they will walk through in order to apply to your center. Include the next steps after applying to your center.
Password Protection
An optional password that parents must enter to apply to your center. This password is not encrypted.
Family Handbook
Upload a Student Handbook to share with families while they apply to your center. This can also be uploaded later as paperwork in Playground.
Step 2: Pricing
Set up enrollment pricing plans for families to choose from when they apply. Families can select only one plan, and once a student is accepted, a billing plan is automatically created based on their chosen pricing plan. Billing admins can modify a family's plan at any time, and you can create as many plans as needed.
Add Family-facing Instructions
At the top of the page, add instructions or additional details for families to see when they are on the pricing selection page.
Create Plan Groups
Plan groupings allow you to categorize pricing plans into groups and streamline the family registration flow. Groups are optional; if only one group exists, families will not see groupings and instead see a list of all plans.
Add a Group
Click Add Group.
The Create Group window will appear, where you will enter a group name and description.
Click Create when ready.
Once a group is created, click Add plan to add plans within the grouping.
Delete a Group
Click the red garbage bin icon to the right of a grouping you'd like to delete. When you delete a group, all plans within the group will also be deleted.
Click Delete on the confirmation pop-up to confirm the action.
Create a Plan
Plans can be based on schedules or prices. For example, you can create plans for the different schedules you offer. Each of these schedules can also have unique price points. Alternatively, you can create plans for the different pricing options you have. You can also use a combination of both options.
When enrolling a student, a family can only apply to one plan per student. There is no limit to the number of plans billing admins can create and make available to families. Plans will automatically be added as saved items within the Overview tab of Playground Billing.
💡 Each plan should be differentiated by price or student type. Examples include Toddler 3-Day or Full Time Program.
Click + Add plan.
In the Create New Plan window, add a descriptive plan name to help families choose the best option for their needs.
Add an optional Description if any additional information or instructions are needed to help families self-select.
Select the Enrollment Model. See below for a description of each option and instructions on how to set them up.
Simple (best for full-time programs): Families choose a schedule for an entire period that recurs on a regular basis.
Enter Price
Choose how often the rate will repeat, if ever.
Optionally, add a plan schedule to automatically pre-fill a schedule for students who select this plan. This is a best practice as it saves administrators from having to input schedules manually.
Optional Advanced Settings
Accounting code - tie charges for this plan to a specific GL code
Default classroom - the classroom this plan will be associated with. Students will be auto-assigned to this classroom.
Specific dates (best for camps): Families choose individual days or weeks when applying. Pricing is based on the days or weeks selected.
First, select the Payment Frequency to determine if families pay for camp by the week or upfront for all sessions selected.
Then, select the Pricing to determine if the rate is per day or week selected.
If the per-day rate is selected, next select whether it is a Flat rate per day, like $10 per day of summer camp for any number of days, OR select the Variable rate per day, where the rate changes depending on the number of days per week a student selects.
If the Variable rate is selected, optionally choose if families can select weekend days.
If the camp charges a flat rate per week, select Per week and enter the Flat rate per week. This rate will be the same per week regardless of whether a family selects 1 or 5 days in the same week.
Optional Advanced Settings
Invoice date - when charges for this plan are posted to family balances.
Due date - when charges for this plan are due
Accounting code - tie charges for this plan to a specific GL code
Default classroom - the classroom this plan will be associated with and will auto-assign to student(s)
Must select full week - families must select all days in a selected week.
Pick days for entire period (best for before & after school care): Families choose the specific days of the week for the entire period.
Add rates for the number of before and after care days selected.
Start time and end time. The times will be automatically added to the students' schedule for the days selected once accepted.
Optionally Add additional pricing and schedule to add separate before and after care options on the same plan.
When ready, click Submit to add the plan.
Add additional plans by following the steps above, or by duplicating an existing plan by clicking on the 📋 icon.
When all plans and groups are added, click Next: Additional Charges
Additional Charges
Set up additional charges and add-ons, such as application fees, enrollment fees, or tuition deposits, for guardians to select while applying for their child.
🚨 Any fees charged to families will override the program's processing fee settings. The program will pay the 3% + 30¢ non-refundable processing fee for any additional charges.
Fee settings
Require applicants to add a credit card when they apply: This cannot be turned off if additional charges are set up.
Hide the charges that are not due on application submit: If this setting is toggled on, any program fees that are due later will not be visible. This applies to charges that are automatically charged once a child is accepted, not for charges that are due to submit their listing submission.
🚨If you create an Enrollment Listing that includes additional charges but remove those charges in the future, you must go into Fee settings in order to turn off the toggle that requires applicants to add a credit card if you no longer want to require that.
The Additional Charges section of an Enrollment Listing allows you to charge guardians for registration or application charges. You have three options to charge families during enrollment:
Application Fee | Charged immediately upon application submission and does not count towards tuition. Required to submit the application. |
Enrollment Fee | Charged if the student is accepted to your center and does not count towards tuition. If there is an enrollment fee, guardians will be asked for a credit card at the end of the application so that it can be automatically charged once the student is accepted. |
Tuition Deposit | Charged if the student is accepted to your center and counts towards the first tuition payment. If there is a tuition deposit, guardians will be asked for a credit card at the end of the application so that it can be automatically charged once the student is accepted. |
Add new fee
Click + Add new fee.
Enter the Charge name and the Fee amount.
Select Fee type:
Application fee: charged upon application submission and does not change the student balance.
Optionally toggle on Family Fee so that this fee is only paid once per family instead of per student.
Optionally Add new discount to create a discount code that you can provide families to lower or bypass the application fee. This can be created as a flat amount or percentage of the application fee.
Acceptance fee: charged upon acceptance and does not change the student balance.
Tuition deposit: charged upon acceptance and applies as a credit towards the student balance.
Add-ons
Add-ons are additional programs that a student can enroll in like a hot-lunch program or aftercare. The prices associated with these programs are added to the guardian's balance.
To add programs, you must have already created the programs. Learn more about creating programs by clicking here.
Select the checkbox next to any program that should appear as an option for a guardian to enroll in when applying to this specific listing.
💡 If a program should have a recurring charge, you can set this up when you accept a student. You must set the enrollment fee to a one-time charge and enter the fee per cycle. Use the program description to let parents know how often this charge will reoccur.
Step 3: Paperwork
In this section, you can create an enrollment form and select paperwork that should be assigned to students. You can even require that the paperwork be completed before the application is submitted.
Enrollment Form
Either build your enrollment from scratch by clicking Create New Form or connect to an existing one by clicking Use Existing Form
If you have already created a form, choose the form from your dashboard.
When ready, click Link Form
If you've selected the wrong form, click Unlink Form to remove the form from your listing.
Once you unlink a form, you won't be able to re-link it. You will lose the ability to use connected fields for this form, it will no longer autofill any documents or forms, and you may lose the ability to view previous responses to this form. If you are unsure about this button, please contact support before you unlink your form
Select whether you'd like to copy the existing form questions to a new form or remove all fields and start from scratch.
Confirm you'd like to unlink the form to be brought back to the create form screen where you can start to build a new form.
If you are creating a new form, the default student and guardian templates will populate with the Add Field button at the bottom so you can begin to build your enrollment form.
By default, the form requires basic student information and the name of one guardian. All forms created through a listing will populate to your Forms tab in the Paperwork section of the Admin Dashboard.
Connect custom field - custom fields are synced to a student's profile and will be displayed on the student's profile page. This is a great way of collecting enrollment data and connecting it directly to the student's profile to minimize the manual work of transferring data.
For more instructions on building a form, click here.
Registration Paperwork
Select which documents families need to submit when applying.
Start by uploading program paperwork to your Admin Dashboard. Once your paperwork is in Playground, you can include it in your enrollment flow.
To add documents, click the dropdown menu under Requirement and select:
Not Required if you do not require the document to be filled out.
Required After Application if you require the document to be filled out after the application has been submitted.
Required During Application if you require the document to be filled out before the application is submitted.
If you require multiple documents to be completed during the application process, you can change the order in which parents fill them out by clicking the blue pencil icon next to Appearance Order. You can then drag and drop each document to sort them.
Clicking the "eye" icon next to a document in this window will automatically hide it from the list and change its requirement status to Required After Application.
Step 4: Publish Your Listing
Click the Publish Listing button in the top right corner of your screen.
💡 If you are not ready to publish your listing, click the white Save and Exit button to return to the Enrollment Dashboard.
To publish your listing from the Enrollment Dashboard, click the three dots on the unpublished listing tile and then select the green Publish button.
Step 5: Share the Listing with Families
Share your listing with existing or new families using a QR code or a direct listing link.
🚨 Only published listings can be shared with families.
From the Enrollment tab, select the three dots in the bottom right corner of the listing you'd like to share.
Click Share to access the link, QR code, and email invitation options.
Link: the link can be posted on your website or used in social media posts or emails.
QR code: add the QR to promotional materials to make it easy for prospective families to scan the code and access the listing.
Email invitation: send the listing via email to one or multiple prospective applicants.
Edit Enrollment Listings
From the Admin Dashboard, select Enrollment from the left-side menu.
Click the three dots in the bottom right corner of the listing you'd like to edit and then click Edit.
Navigate through the enrollment listing pages and make any updates required. To edit a plan, click the three dots to the right of the plan and then click Edit.
Enrollment form questions can be modified, added, or deleted. Be sure to click Save and Exit in the top right corner when you're ready to save your changes and exit.
Set-up Re-enrollment
Never Created a Listing
If you've never used Playground's enrollment feature, you'll be creating a brand new listing for re-enrolling families. Follow the instructions above to create a new listing.
Previously Created an Application or Enrollment Listing
If you've created an application or enrollment listing for previous school years, click the three dots in the bottom right corner of the listing you've already created and then click Duplicate.
The Duplicate listing window will appear where you can rename the new listing (we recommend including the year in the name so it is not confused with other listings). Select what parts of your previous listing you'd like to copy over. You can edit the new listing and publish it when you're ready to create a link to send to families.