Why An Interactive Website And Online Registration Process Were Essential To Our Center's Disaster Readiness

by Jim Shields @enrollsmart


About a decade ago, I noticed many States starting to require childcare centers to create a disaster plan.  During that time, we were still in the business of operating centers and, we created our disaster plan and posted it as required. 

By operating in the Midwest, tornados were a recurring threat and, the catastrophic EF5 tornado that struck Joplin, MO in 2011 sent shockwaves through us because there were several notable destructions of childcare centers during the disaster.

We began reviewing our disaster plan to make sure that it addressed some of the most critical issues to deal with in a disaster when it comes to childcare centers: Survivability, Accountability and Family Reuniting.

Because we had developed an online registration process with e-Forms, we had contact information for emergency contacts as well as identifying child photos accessible and, backed up online and, this was a critical part of our disaster recovery capability.

Our family data was backed up on what's called a "cloud server." This would allow us to not only recover from a disaster much more quickly but, it would give us (as well as emergency responders) access to child and family data should the center suffer catastrophic damage and information is lost.

Our website was also an essential way to communicate our disaster plan to parents during the registration process.  


Jim Shields is the Enterprise Architect for Enrollsmart and, he has more than 15 years of childcare center ownership and management experience.

Enrollsmart supplies interactive websites and full-end technology to small and medium-sized childcare centers across the country.  Parents can search for childcare, view virtual tours and, apply for childcare from our main website.  To learn more about Enrollsmart, visit our information page at https://www.enrollsmart.net/childcare_software/index.html 









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