cradleOS now has clear pricing tiers. The Free plan gives you check-in/out, child and family records, messaging, daily activity logs, attendance, and incident reports for up to 20 children. Upgrade to Pro for invoicing, reports, staff scheduling, enrollment pipeline, ratio compliance, photo sharing, and unlimited children and classrooms. Global search also respects your plan — Free users see a helpful teaser showing how many extra results are available on Pro.
Staff members who are also parents can now switch between their admin and parent roles without logging out. Admins can link employee and parent accounts together from the new Dual Roles tab, and the system handles permissions for both roles seamlessly.
cradleOS now includes staff-to-child ratio requirements for all 50 US states, each validated against official regulations with source links you can verify yourself. Your state's rules are automatically applied based on your center's location, and the interactive walkthrough shows exactly how compliance monitoring works for your classrooms.
A major upgrade to how cradleOS handles sensitive information. Parental consent is now tracked with a full COPPA-compliant data deletion pipeline. Sensitive medical fields are encrypted at the application level. Employees must acknowledge a data use policy before accessing child records. Emergency consent signers are tracked on every child record with visible badges showing who signed and when.
Admins can now manage their center from any phone or tablet. The mobile view features a floating bottom tab bar for quick access to Home, Students, Employees, Messages, and a More drawer for everything else. Full messaging support, center switching, and Cmd+K search all work on mobile.
The teacher mobile app got a major refresh. A new section-based dashboard organizes everything by classroom. Teachers can now view classroom details, see their weekly schedule, and send messages — all from the same app. Onboarding tours guide new users through the key features on first launch.
Employees can now be assigned to multiple centers. Admins can transfer staff between locations or add them to additional centers without creating duplicate accounts. The employees dashboard card is scoped to the selected center so you always see the right team.
Employees can now request schedule changes directly from their app — add shifts, update times, or request removals. Every request goes through an admin approval workflow before taking effect, keeping your scheduling organized while giving staff more autonomy.
The reports library expands from 9 to 14 types. New additions include Lead Funnel (track prospective families through your pipeline), Accounts Receivable (outstanding balances at a glance), Medical Audit (allergy and medication records), Classroom Aging (age distribution across rooms), and Parent Engagement (activity and communication trends).
Never miss an expiring certification again. The Employees dashboard card now shows alerts for certifications that are expiring soon or already expired. Staff can upload certification documents directly from their profile.
Conversations between the same parent and staff are now automatically merged so you never lose context. Mark multiple conversations as read in one tap. Parents can now send messages by default, and admins can control messaging permissions per app.
When we ship something big, you'll see an interactive walkthrough on your dashboard. Walkthroughs now have shareable links, and you can replay or snooze them anytime from the dashboard. The onboarding tour also got smoother with better step navigation.
Fixed several screens that were hard to read in dark themes — consent cards, acceptable use modals, and the profile page all now use theme-aware colors. Hardcoded Tailwind colors were replaced with theme tokens across all three apps for consistent appearance in every theme.
Fixed a Safari-specific race condition where service worker updates could be missed. The update notification no longer reappears after being dismissed. Mobile layouts were rebuilt to eliminate the white bar at the bottom of iOS PWAs, and the bottom tab bar now floats correctly on all devices.
The parent mobile app got a complete makeover. Your new home screen greets you by name and shows all your children at a glance with live attendance status rings. Below that, a single activity feed shows everything happening across all your kids — meals, naps, photos, check-ins — sorted by time so you always know what's going on right now.
Teachers can now log meals, naps, potty breaks, and photos right from their phone. Pick a child, choose the activity type, add a note or snap a photo, and it shows up instantly on the parent's feed. Quick and easy, no desktop needed.
Signed into the wrong app? No problem. cradleOS now automatically detects your role and takes you to the right place — parents go to the parent app, teachers to the teacher app, and admins to the desktop dashboard. No extra logins needed.
Parents and employees can now delete their own accounts from the Profile page. It walks you through a clear three-step confirmation so nothing happens by accident. If you have an outstanding balance, you'll be asked to settle it first.
The billing section on the admin dashboard now shows all invoice statuses — not just paid ones. The billing card has been refreshed with an inline invoice list so you can see outstanding, sent, and overdue invoices without extra clicks.
Fixed the employee schedule chart not lining up correctly, payment details sometimes showing the wrong child name, and a visual glitch with progress bar tooltips getting squished on smaller screens.
Kiosk device tokens are now short 5-character codes instead of long random strings, making them much easier to type on tablet devices during setup.
Parents can now check in at a kiosk by scanning its QR code with their phone. Swipe from the left edge or tap the hint pill to open the scanner — no separate app needed.
Parents now have their own dedicated dashboard with sections for each child, billing, incident reports, and test results. When enrolling a new child, staff can link or invite a parent right in the flow — and parent invites have moved into the Families panel for easier access.
A new "My Center" dashboard card gives you quick access to your center settings, kiosk devices, and audit photos — all in tidy tabs. Kiosks now also report health status, including camera connectivity and upload failures.
Creating invoices, viewing invoice and donation details, and composing messages now happen in smooth side panels instead of full-page navigations. Everything feels faster and more connected.
A new search bar in the header lets you find children, families, and staff across your entire center. Plus, hit Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K) to search, navigate, and create things instantly — invite parents, add employees, create invoices, and more without leaving the keyboard.
A new Reports section on the dashboard lets you pin your most-used reports for quick access. Kiosks can also now capture short video clips during check-in and check-out.
Fixed parents missing from billing dropdowns, classroom ratio cards showing wrong child counts, children grouped by the wrong classroom, and scroll clipping in the children tab.
Dashboard card complications (quick-glance stats) have graduated from beta and are now available for everyone. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have also been expanded with comprehensive legal content.
Sign in with your Google account for faster, passwordless access. One click and you're in.
The child detail view now shows attendance check-ins and check-outs right alongside daily activities like meals, naps, and photos — all sorted by time so you get a complete picture of a child's day in one place.
Incident reports on the child detail view are no longer in beta. All admins and teachers can now see a child's incident history directly from their profile.
No more staring at a blank screen while things load. Now you're greeted with a smooth, playful animation featuring the cradleOS logo. It's the little things that make opening the app feel great.
Parents now get email heads-ups for new invoices, payment confirmations, and upcoming renewals. Plus, there's a full payment history so families always know exactly where things stand with billing.
See a classroom ratio card on your dashboard? Now you can tap it and jump straight to that classroom's details. Fewer clicks, faster answers.
Need to store important documents? Now you can upload and manage files right inside cradleOS. No more hunting through email attachments or shared drives.
Your kiosk now snaps a quick photo whenever someone enters their PIN. Admins can browse all photos in the new Audit Photos page under Settings - see who checked in, when, and at which kiosk. It's like a visual guest book that keeps your center extra safe.
Enrolling a new child is now a breeze. A friendly step-by-step form walks you through the basics - classroom placement, health info (allergies, medications), and daily routine preferences. When you're done, you can instantly generate a code to share with the family so they can connect their account.
Click on any child, classroom, invoice, or donation from the dashboard and you'll go straight to the full details. No more extra steps in between. And the back button always takes you right where you left off.
No more blank screens when logging in or out. The app now transitions smoothly with a friendly loading indicator. Refresh-button-mashing is officially retired.
Your dashboard now shows staff-to-child ratios for every classroom at a glance. Color-coded badges make it easy to spot which rooms are looking great (green), getting close to capacity (amber), or need attention (red). If a room is short-staffed, you'll see that right away too.
The Leads tab was being a little shy and refusing to show up sometimes. We gave it a pep talk - it's working perfectly now.
Getting parents set up just got way easier. Invite emails now include a magic link - parents just tap "Create My Account" and everything is pre-filled for them. They'll even see which kiddos they're being linked to. The backup code is still there just in case (links expire after 48 hours).
Your leads now live right on the dashboard alongside Children, Classrooms, and Attendance. Check on prospective families without ever leaving your home base.
If you ever need to delete an account, you'll now get a clear, friendly explanation if something is preventing it - instead of a confusing error message. We believe in helpful explanations, not mystery codes.
We tidied up the menus so you can find things faster:
Already have bookmarks? They'll still work - we set up redirects for everything.
Three fresh reports to keep your center running smoothly:
Filter by date range and export to PDF whenever you need a paper trail.
The "Update available" notification is now rock-solid. Previously it could get a little confused and show up at odd times. Now it works exactly when it should - so you always know when a fresh version is ready.
The Employees card on the dashboard was throwing a tantrum instead of showing your staff info. It's back to its well-behaved self, showing headcount and who's clocked in. (Certification alerts are a Pro plan perk.)
Clock-ins, clock-outs, and breaks now happen exclusively at the kiosk. This keeps time records secure and tamper-free. Admins can still view timesheets and status from the desktop app anytime.
Your admin dashboard got a glow-up. Three beautiful cards - Families, Employees, and Billing - give you the big picture at a glance. Click one to expand it into a full panel with tabs, then click any item to dive deeper. Smooth animations make it feel snappy, and you can bookmark or share any view.
Employee invites were getting lost in the mail (oops). We fixed the hiccup - invites now send perfectly every time, and your new team members will get their welcome email right away.
Everything you need to manage your team, all in one place. Track job details and hire dates, set up pay rates and overtime rules, build weekly schedules with a calendar view, and manage time off (vacation, sick days, PTO - you name it). You can even store medical records and private notes for compliance. Your whole HR toolkit, simplified.
Upgraded to Pro but features still looked locked? That's fixed. Now the moment you upgrade, Reports and Invoicing unlock instantly. No page refresh needed - just upgrade and go.
Managing leads just got faster. From any lead's page, you can log a call or email, set a follow-up reminder, or schedule a tour - all with a single click. Less busywork, more time building relationships with prospective families.
Pages load faster now. We brought our fonts in-house so the app doesn't need to reach out to external servers. Snappier for you, and better for privacy too.
We reorganized the menu so your most-used features are easier to reach. Students and Employees are grouped under "My Center," while Billing and Messaging each get their own tab. Colorful dots help you spot each section at a glance, and the mobile menu follows the same layout.
Parents can now see who signed their child in and out - right in the attendance history. Tap any session to see the signature, who signed, and when. Staff get a quick signature count in the roster too, making verification a breeze.
Parents can now add their own list of people who are authorized to pick up their kids - grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, you name it. Add their name, relationship, and contact info, and staff will always know who's cleared for pickup. Every change is logged for your records.
Doctor's appointment in the middle of the day? No problem. Parents can now check kids back in after an earlier checkout. Because real life doesn't always follow a straight line.
Importing children from a spreadsheet? You can now include the classroom name and kids will be automatically placed in the right room. If a classroom name doesn't match, no worries - the child still gets imported and you'll get a heads-up to fix it.
We cleaned up the messaging screen by removing read receipts. Less clutter, more focus on what matters - the actual conversation.
Messaging got a fresh new look. Sleek message bubbles, smooth animations, and a modern input bar make chatting with parents feel as natural as texting a friend. Back-to-back messages from the same person flow together beautifully.
Got more than one kiddo at the center? Parents can now link additional children to their account anytime. Just tap "Link Child," enter the code from your center, and you're all set. Multiple parents can use the same code too.
Small but mighty improvements to parent invites. Copy buttons now give you a satisfying little confirmation, and if you forget to select any children before generating an invite, you'll get a friendly nudge instead of silence.
Skip the copy-paste dance. When you generate a parent invite, just type in their email and we'll send everything they need - invite code, your center's name, their child's name, and a signup link. One click and done.
The desktop app was greeting some folks with a blank screen on launch. We fixed it - now the app opens right up like it should. Grab the latest version from the download page.
cradleOS now looks and works great on your phone and tablet. The menu tucks away neatly into a slide-out drawer, so you can manage your center on the go without squinting or scrolling sideways.
Fresh desktop app update with the latest goodies and bug fixes baked in. Head to the download page to grab it.
Switching from another childcare system? Now you can bring your billing history with you. The import wizard supports invoices and donations - so past payments, outstanding balances, and donor records all come along for the ride.
When editing a child's profile, the classroom dropdown now shows their current room - not a blank slate. One less thing to re-select every time you make an update.
The time clock is now smart about lunch breaks. If someone clocks back in after a mid-shift gap, it'll ask "Was that lunch?" Say yes, and it's automatically logged as a meal break. One less thing to track manually, and your compliance records stay spotless.
The kiosk got a big upgrade - here's what's new:
We gave the nav a spring cleaning. Reports and Kiosk Device management now live together under "My Center" - one place for all your admin tools.
Every email from cradleOS now looks polished and on-brand. Clean design, easy to read, and a professional feel that reflects the care you put into your center.
Your time clock history now looks the same whether you're at the kiosk or on your computer. Every clock-in and clock-out, perfectly in sync across all your devices.
Finding what happened and when just got easier. Filter your activity history by date, action type, or person - perfect for those "wait, when did that happen?" moments.
Stay on top of staff certifications without the spreadsheet headaches. See who's current, who's expiring soon, and what needs attention - all at a glance.
Staff PINs just got more secure. They now require 6 unique digits (no more "111111"), and each PIN must be one-of-a-kind at your center. Still quick to enter, just harder to guess.
Make cradleOS yours. Pick from 12 beautiful themes - 7 dark (Midnight, Forest, Pro and more) and 5 light (Rose, Lavender, Mint, Sand, and Playful). Your theme even syncs with your device's light/dark mode setting.
Your dashboard now comes with handy widgets - upcoming birthdays, compliance heads-ups, and quick shortcuts to your favorite tools. Think of it as your morning briefing.
Keep your account extra safe with two-factor login. Turn it on and you'll get a quick verification code by email whenever you sign in from a new device. Peace of mind in seconds.
Staff can now clock in and out with a simple 6-digit PIN at the kiosk. No passwords to remember, no fuss - just punch in your code and get on with your day.
Say hello to cradleOS - built from the ground up to make running your childcare center easier, safer, and a whole lot more enjoyable. Here's what's inside: