Facility OS
Status: specification and partial build. The ratio, attendance, and parent-update modules share the data spine already running in the learning apps. Subsidy-portal integration depends on state systems with no public API today.
Green is earned, not assumed. Read the room tiles: green is in ratio with attendance reconciled, amber is drifting, blue is quiet hours. The same signed events that colour the tiles fill the state subsidy paperwork and the licensing file on their own. Compliance stops being a Friday project because it was never allowed to become one.
Every room, one tile
Each status carries a word and a shape, never a colour alone, so it reads the same to a director with colour-blindness as to anyone else (WCAG 1.4.1).
| Tile | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ● In ratio | Attendance reconciled. Staff-to-child ratio inside the licensed line |
| ▲ Drifting | A pickup running late. A ratio one child from the line. Somebody should look |
| ◆ Quiet hours | Nap or closed. Reduced ratio rules apply and are being met |
| ■ Out of ratio | Over the line now. Who is free to cover, and where, is on the same screen |
What it runs
| Module | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance and access | Check-in and check-out signed and timestamped. Authorised-pickup list enforced at the door | Paper sign-in sheets are the record most centres hand an inspector. This one cannot be backdated |
| Live ratio state | Room-by-room staff-to-child counts from attendance and staff presence, with pre-violation alerts | One call-out creates a compliance crisis in most centres. Here the room turns amber before it turns red |
| Subsidy reconciliation | Expected subsidy per child matched against what the state actually paid. Discrepancies named, per child | Centres lose real revenue to manual reconciliation. Nobody should learn they were shorted months later |
| Licensing file | The state rulebook mapped to the centre's licence type. Certifications, inspections and renewals tracked with lead time | Missouri alone carries over a thousand rules across multiple rulebooks. The binder becomes a live document |
| Inspection packet | One action generates the complete compliance documentation from records already signed | No scrambling before a visit. A mock-inspection view shows what an inspector would find today |
| Meal tracking | Meals logged against attendance for food-programme claims | Another report that writes itself from events the centre already has |
| Parent updates | Check-in confirmations, milestones, and daily notes from the same record the teacher sees | Nothing a teacher has to type twice. Nothing a parent has to guess about |
Why by-products, not paperwork
- One record, many reports. Attendance, ratio, subsidy claims, licensing evidence and parent updates are views of the same signed events. A teacher records a thing once.
- Signed means defensible. Every event carries a signature and timestamp on the data path, using our sister company's open-source attestation layer (how it works). A record cannot be altered after the fact, which is what an inspector, an auditor, and a subsidy office each need to be true.
- Local first. The classroom hub keeps working when the internet does not.
- No hostages. Published pricing. Cancel without a phone call. Your data exports with you.
The problem it is built against
- Subsidy payments fail in the real world. In 2024 a state software change left Missouri child care providers waiting months for subsidy payments. State officials apologised to the Board of Education in August; the backlog was still not cleared by the October deadline. Around 1,800 provider accounts were under review and providers testified to lawmakers that they were close to closing. Missouri Independent, Aug 2024 · KCUR, Oct 2024
- Incumbent software punishes leaving. Better Business Bureau complaint records for the two largest childcare platforms document renewal charges customers did not expect and cancellations that require a scheduled phone call. BBB, Procare · BBB, Brightwheel
- Subsidy integration exists, but it is attendance upload, not reconciliation. At least one incumbent (Playground) uploads attendance to state subsidy portals in eight states through KinderSystems' KinderConnect. What no platform we found does is the other half: match what the state paid against what the centre was owed, per child, and name the discrepancy. That is the gap. See the state landscape below.
The state subsidy landscape
Most states run subsidy attendance through a vendor portal, and the largest vendor is KinderSystems (KinderTrack for agencies, KinderConnect for providers). Missouri's portal is CCBIS, issued by DESE's Office of Childhood at no cost to subsidy providers; it captures time and attendance and initiates payment from that data (DESE, payments · DESE, CCBIS).
| State | Provider attendance portal | Third-party upload documented |
|---|---|---|
| Missouri | CCBIS (DESE Office of Childhood) | Yes, via KinderConnect |
| Arizona | DES | Yes |
| Indiana | CCA Attendance (CCDF) | Yes |
| Iowa | KinderTrack CCA portal | Yes |
| Louisiana | EdLink CCAP | Yes |
| New York | CCTA portal | Yes |
| Texas | TX3C (Child Care Connection) | Yes |
| Virginia | PASS portal | Yes |
Source for the eight-state list and the upload mechanism: Playground, Manage & Submit Subsidy Attendance Data. The provider requests API access from KinderSystems, receives a provider ID and group password, and uploads attendance from the operator's software.
What this means for Facility OS.
- Attendance upload is a solved integration in these states. We build to the same KinderConnect path, starting with Missouri's CCBIS, and do not claim it as novel.
- Reconciliation is not solved by any of them. The state pays 10 to 15 days after invoices enter its system (DESE); when the 2024 backlog hit, providers had no tool that told them, per child, what was short. Signed attendance events on one side and state remittance data on the other is the product.
- States outside the KinderSystems footprint need their own integration, one at a time. We do not claim national coverage.
Licensing rules are state-specific. The rule engine ships with Missouri's framework first, because that is where the pilot is, and is built to load other states' rulebooks the same way. Missouri DESE, Child Care Licensing.
Facility OS is a specification and a partial build, not a deployed product. Attendance upload to state portals is a documented path in eight states and will be built against Missouri's CCBIS first; per-child payment reconciliation against state remittances has not been built and depends on remittance data the state exposes. Competitor claims above are limited to what public complaint records document; specific price-increase percentages and complaint-frequency figures from internal research are not reproduced here because they could not be independently sourced.
Sources
- Missouri Independent, Aug 2024. https://missouriindependent.com/2024/08/06/missouri-education-officials-apologize-for-ongoing-backlog-of-child-care-subsidy-payments/
- KCUR, Oct 2024. https://www.kcur.org/education/2024-10-23/missouri-wont-meet-deadline-to-clear-months-long-backlog-of-child-care-subsidy-payments
- BBB, Procare Solutions complaints. https://www.bbb.org/us/co/denver/profile/computer-software-developers/procare-solutions-1296-37002012/complaints
- BBB, Brightwheel complaints. https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-francisco/profile/computer-software-developers/brightwheel-1116-876411/complaints
- Missouri DESE, Child Care Licensing. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-licensing
- W3C WCAG 2.2, 1.4.1 Use of Color. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/
- Playground, Manage & Submit Subsidy Attendance Data. https://help.tryplayground.com/en/articles/6991485-manage-submit-subsidy-attendance-data
- Missouri DESE, Child Care Subsidy Payments. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-subsidy/payments
- Missouri DESE, CCBIS. https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-subsidy/ccbis