Join over 5,000+ child care centers already accelerating on Playground
Agency-wide operations
One platform for your entire program
Unlike legacy Head Start software, Playground isn’t just built for administrators. It’s built for everyone, including family advocates to health staff, teachers and directors.
Everyone works in the same system and sees the information they need
Robust communication features with families and staff
Enrollment teams manage all aspects of ERSEA
Family advocates support all aspects of family engagement including goals
Health teams including disabilities manage multiple child development supports
Education teams manage lesson plans, record attendance, meals and observations
Directors monitor compliance, reporting, and operations across every center
ERSEA & enrollment
Determine eligibility with confidence
Enter eligibility criteria and Playground automatically calculates income, applies housing deductions when applicable, and calculates the family’s percentage of the current Federal Poverty Level using the latest HHS guidelines.
Support income-based eligibility
Account for categorical eligibility
Store documentation alongside every determination
Selection & ranking
Rank applicants automatically
Configure your agency’s selection criteria. Playground then automatically scores applicants, ranks them, and gives your selection committee a prioritized list instead of another spreadsheet.
Configure criteria once
Automatically score and rank applicants
Give selection committees a prioritized list
Replace spreadsheet sorting
PIR readiness
PIR reporting that builds itself
Your team is already entering the information. Playground puts it to work—so you can verify any metric, improve data quality, and preserve reporting snapshots long after submission.
Click any metric to see the children behind it
Identify missing information and assign follow-up tasks
Create and preserve reporting snapshots
Improve data quality before submission
Family outcomes
Family partnerships that move beyond paperwork
Playground helps family advocates manage strengths assessments, partnership goals, benchmarks, and follow-up tasks in one place—so agencies can measure growth over time instead of relying on isolated snapshots.
Create goal templates once and share them across sites
Automatically assign benchmark reviews
Track progress throughout the program year
Measure family growth over time
Health & development
Screenings that lead to action
Manage developmental, behavioral, health, and mental health screenings from one centralized system. Configure schedules based on age, enrollment date, or custom rules to keep the ball rolling.
Support ASQ, ASQ-SE, Brigance, DIAL, DECA, LAP-D, PEDS, Denver, and more
Track completed, attempted, refused, and exempt screenings
Attach documentation, notify families, trigger referrals, and schedule rescreens
Care coordination
Manage incidents, concerns and referrals from beginning to end
A concern shouldn’t disappear into someone’s inbox. Playground tracks every concern from initial identification through resolution—whether it begins with a screening, illness, injury, incident, or staff observation.
Create referrals internally or with community partners
Track due dates, service dates, and outcomes
Automatically assign follow-up tasks so nothing slips through the cracks
Everything your agency needs to serve families better
From daily meal counts to secure family communication, Playground connects the workflows that keep Head Start agencies moving.
CACFP built into daily operations
Record meals alongside attendance, surface claim issues early, and sync attendance, in/out times, and meal counts with KidKare or MyFoodProgram.
Digital paperwork families actually complete
Let families complete enrollment packets, health forms, permissions, consents, and emergency contacts from their phone, with reminders, expiration dates, reviews, and corrections built in.
Built-in family engagement
Share photos, videos, meals, naps, learning updates, and messages in one secure app, automatically translated into each family’s preferred language.
Multi-site reporting without spreadsheets
Analyze enrollment, attendance, staffing, family goals, screenings, referrals, health, CACFP, and custom data across your entire agency or one center, classroom, or child.
of directors say Playground saves them hours every week
Based on data from 5,000+ centers.
