Providers in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Texas, and Louisiana can use Playground to submit their attendance information to the State for Child Care Assistance and Subsidies.
This works for
Indiana's CCA Attendance
Iowa's Child Care Assistance KinderConnect Portal
Louisiana's EdLink Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP)
Missouri's Child Care Business Information Solution (CCBIS) portal
New York's Child Care Time and Attendance (CCTA) portal
Texas' Child Care Connection (TX3C)
Take attendance in Playground
Playground must have student attendance data to upload attendance to your portal. Click here for more information on how to take attendance as an administrator or how to allow parents to sign their students in/out.
Connect to KinderConnect
Prefer to watch a video? Click here
Playground integrates with KinderSystems to make uploading your child care assistance & subsidy attendance data a breeze. Whether you're an at-home child care or child care center, see the steps below to learn how to upload all your attendance data with just a few clicks!
🚨 This guide assumes you have been taking attendance on Playground and that you have not uploaded any attendance data for the given period.
🚨 Providers need to contact KinderSystems to request enabling the API with Playground. At that moment, the support team will give the provider their provider ID and their Group Password.
💡 If you are in Indiana, you can add multiple Provider IDs via the same process; you'll see multiple fields when adding in the IDs. Reach out to Playground Support via Support chats if you have further questions on multiple Provider ID support.
Navigate to the Settings tab in your Admin Dashboard.
Under the General tab, in the Center section, you'll see a State setting that allows you to toggle to different states. Make sure your state is selected.
Once selected, this setting will save automatically.
Click the Integrations tab on the left-hand side. If the Integrations tab does not appear, Playground is not integrated with your state's system.
Click on CCA Attendance.
Enter your CCA Provider ID and click Save.
This can be found on the state subsidy website. If you can't find your ID, please reach out to KinderConnect for help.
Submit your attendance data
💡 If you are in Indiana, click here.
Watch the 1 minute video to see instructions on submitting your attendance data.
Click on the Integrations tab and then click CCA Attendance from the list. You should then be in your Playground CCA portal.
Whether you have 5 students data to upload or 50, Playground turns the entire process into just a few clicks. Some things to note:
Double check your data. It can not be edited once you submit it.
Attendance can't be uploaded via Playground if you've already submitted any data for that pay period via the KinderConnect portal. Please do not submit any data outside of Playground, and note that pay periods open up on the last day for the period.
You need to fix any attendance errors before submitting. For example, if a student is missing a check out for a day but they were checked in, you will need to correct that by pressing the Edit button on the attendance row before you are able to upload the data.
Indiana Attendance
Prefer to watch a video? Click here.
As of June 2024, Indiana attendance data can be submitted through Playground! Follow the steps below to submit your attendance.
💡 The integration cannot be used until the first period you selected when you chose Playground as a CCMS for uploading attendance data within I-LEAD.
From your admin dashboard, click Integrations on the left sidebar, then click CCA Attendance.
The CCA Submission page will open. Select the attendance period you want to submit, and then click Get Attendance Data.
Attendance for a period cannot be submitted until the period has closed. The submissions can be made after midnight on the day after the period closes.
The attendance data may take a few seconds to load; then two columns will appear: CCA Student Name and Playground Student Name.
In the Playground Student Name column fields, search for the student's name to match them with the appropriate CCA Student Name. Some students may be linked already.
You will only need to do this once!
When all students are matched, click Continue to Preview and then click Confirm.
The students' attendance data will open. Click on a student's name to view each day of attendance data. Make sure that the status is listed correctly. See the status codes below:
P - Present - the student attended school
OD - Off Day - the student was not scheduled to attend school
AB - Absent - the student was scheduled to attend school but did not attend
Use the blue Mark Absence button if you need to mark a student absent for a day.
Once you've checked all student data, click the blue Upload to CCA button.
🚨 Attendance data can only be submitted once. Please double-check all data before submitting. If you need to modify your submission, you must contact the state directly.
🚨If your submission fails, it may be because the API is rejecting it due to a missing child. This usually happens when a provider has a child listed on their roster with active vouchers but has not informed the state that the child is no longer enrolled or has never attended. In these cases, the provider should contact their eligibility office to have the child's vouchers ended as of their last day of enrollment. Once the data is updated, the child will be removed from the roster, and the provider can resubmit. Providers can find the contact information for their eligibility office by clicking here.
Commonly Asked Questions
What data is sent?
Playground sends the following information
Who presses the submit button
Child ID
Parent ID
Attendance day
Signature times
If the student was absent
The note on the absence
Can I Submit the Data Multiple Times?
Iowa and Indiana - You may only submit the data one time. If you need to make changes after submitting the data, you must reach out to the state directly.
Other States - You can submit data as many times as you'd like, until you press the "submit" button within the KinderConnect portal. Each time you submit data it will overwrite the previously submitted data. Once you submit the data uploaded to KinderConnect, you will not be able to submit data from Playground for that time period again.
I'm Missing a Student on the Portal
If you believe a student receives child care subsidies but does not appear on the portal to map students, you will need to reach out to your agency to ensure they are properly enrolled in your school.
If the student appears to map to a student in Playground, but you do not have a Playground student to map them to, you can create them by following this guide on how to add a student to the portal
If you have any questions, contact [email protected] for assistance, or use our live chat feature.