Your Parent-Provider Contract: 

How an Interactive Website from Enrollsmart Can Help You Enforce It 

By Kimberly Newman, Customer Success Leader @enrollsmart

Recently, one of our customers had us add his center's Parent-Provider contract to the electronic state forms that we built into his website and, he told us the story why.

First, let me explain how our websites are different: We have a library of State-by-State e-Forms that we build into each of our customers' websites and, our e-Forms capture actual signatures and create data files that replace paper files. An electronic version of our e-Forms is delivered to the center Owner/Director each time one is completed. Each form is and its data is saved to the cloud.

What this means is that each of the child admission, infant/toddler feeding/care plan, CACFP IEF and, other forms that we include on our customers' websites have every field required for their specific state AND the form requires parents/guardians to actually sign where required by their state. 

This is done with a finger, screen pencil, stylus or computer mouse.  Electronic signatures are accepted by nearly everyone everywhere. Whether you're signing for a package from FedEx or UPS or, visiting your doctor, e-Signatures are accepted today; it's just the way business is done.

All this being said, our client told us why he had us add an electronic version of his Parent-Provider Contract.  A circumstance arose where his center and another center were both claiming attendance for subsidy payment purposes.  There was a discrepancy as to which center should be paid, so the state agency wanted to see as much documentation as possible to support his center's claim.  Because he had a signed copy of his Parent-Provider Contract, he was able to include it for documentation purposes and avoid losing hundreds of dollars in subsidy payment. The state agency wound up paying both centers and holding the parent responsible for any overpayments.  

In addition to saving a center the storage and paper costs associated with having parents fill out paper or downloadable state forms, an online enrollment process that is truly electronic can help a center from a legal standpoint when it comes to enforcing its Parent-Provider Contract by having its contract included in the online enrollment process.


Kimberly Newman is Customer Success Leader at Enrollsmart.  Enrollsmart is the #1 platform for online enrollment, interactive websites and complete back-end technology for small and medium-sized childcare centers. Enrollsmart was built based on more than 15 years of childcare center ownership.  

To learn more about Enrollsmart, visit our childcare center information page at https://www.enrollsmart.net/childcare_software/index.html.
















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