Rooted Care · Live in production · Founding cohort

One platform for the way a center actually runs.

A unified operational system for childcare directors managing attendance, meals, staff, families, compliance, and the rhythm of every day — without a tech team, without enterprise pricing, and without stitching ten apps together. Built with directors. Improving every week. Olive Root Tech walks every step of the rollout with you.

· One center · ten pillars · zero stitched-together tools ·

Everything a childcare center runs on, in one place.

From the kiosk at drop-off to CACFP claim cycles, immunization audits, and the parent broadcast that goes out before naptime — every pillar of how your center operates, already wired together.

🏛
Operations
Daily attendance, classroom rosters, drop-off & pick-up, naptime, schedules.
Parent communication
SMS & email to all active families · daily highlights · weather closures · pickup auth.
🗂
Administration
Staff roles, parent permissions, audit trails — director-grade control without complexity.
Automation
Tuition reminders, immunization-expiry alerts, late-pickup escalations — without you remembering.
📁
Child records
One canonical file per child · allergies, meds, immunizations, IEP/IFSP if applicable.
📊
Reporting
Attendance, CACFP claim packets, immunization rosters — inspector-ready in minutes.
🧭
Workflows
Visual drag-drop builder for waitlist intake, incident reports, parent surveys.
💝
Family engagement
Tour follow-up, waitlist nurture, monthly newsletters that get opened.
💵
Financial
Tuition tracking · CACFP claim cycles · reimbursements · parent statements.
Built-in assistance
Drafts the parent broadcast · summarizes the day · pre-fills forms · stays out of your way.

And you don't roll it out alone. Olive Root Tech delivers implementation, customization, automation, training, support, and continuous innovation — so you can keep running your center while we set everything up around it.

· One day. Eight touchpoints. ·

A childcare day,
as Rooted Care sees it.

6:30 AM Drop-off Parent taps kiosk. Allergies, meds, and pickup auth surface for staff.
9:00 AM Breakfast Meal count entered once. CACFP claim line builds in the background.
10:00 AM Activities Staff log incidents, milestones, or photos. Parent feed updates live.
11:30 AM Lunch Same one-tap meal count. Allergy substitutions flagged automatically.
12:30 PM Nap Quiet hours. Director catches up on staff compliance docs in 4 mins.
3:00 PM Snack Final CACFP meal entered. Claim recap on screen by 3:05.
4:30 PM Pickup Authorized adults confirmed by photo. Parent gets the day's update.
6:30 PM Close-out Daily report auto-built. CACFP claim ready for the week. Director leaves on time.
· Founding center: Big Mama's CDC · Ward 7 DC · Director time saved per day: ~2.5 hours · Paper forms eliminated: 11 of 14
· Walk the dashboard ·

A real day in Rooted Care.

Eight tabs · one day at a Ward 7 childcare center · click through and see what running it actually looks like.

rootedos.com/dashboard · childcare
Live · founding center #001
Morning Roll Call Tuesday · May 28 · 12 children expected
7:15 AM
AJ
Amari J.
Age 4 · Room: Sprouts
peanut
In · 7:08
DM
Destiny M.
Age 3 · Room: Acorns
In · 7:12
KW
Kai W.
Age 5 · Room: Roots
EpiPen
In · 7:14
JT
Jaylen T.
Age 4 · Room: Sprouts
In · 7:15
NS
Nia S.
Age 2 · Room: Acorns
Expected 7:30
MC
Maya C.
Age 3 · Room: Acorns
dairy
Expected 7:45
JB
Joshua B.
Age 5 · Room: Roots
Expected 8:00
AS
Aaliyah S.
Age 4 · Room: Sprouts
Expected 8:00
EJ
Elijah J.
Age 3 · Room: Acorns
Expected 8:15
ZH
Zora H.
Age 4 · Room: Sprouts
Expected 8:30
MA
Malachi A.
Age 2 · Room: Acorns
Expected 8:30
SG
Solomon G.
Age 5 · Room: Roots
Out today
Attendance status Live count · Auto-updates as parents check in
8:42 AM
8/12
Checked in
3
Still expected
1
Out today
67%
Headcount
By room
Acorns (ages 2–3)3 of 5 in
Sprouts (age 4)3 of 4 in
Roots (age 5)2 of 3 in
Missing check-ins 3 children · sorted by expected arrival time
9:14 AM
JB
Joshua B. · 14 min late

Parent: Renee B. · Expected 8:00 · Last seen yesterday 5:42 PM pickup

AS
Aaliyah S. · 14 min late

Parent: Marcus S. · Expected 8:00 · No advance message today

EJ
Elijah J. · Expected at 8:15

Parent: Vanessa J. · Sent SMS at 7:50: "Running about 15 min late, sorry"

Auto-SMS reminder fires for any child not checked in 15 minutes after expected arrival.

Meal logging & CACFP claim Week of May 25 · Auto-building from meal counts
11:42 AM
Meal
Served
Rate
Today's total
Breakfast · cereal, fruit, milk
8 children
$2.22
$17.76
AM snack · crackers, water
8 children
$0.78
$6.24
Lunch · pending Logs at noon
$4.21
$0.00
PM snack · pending
$0.78
$0.00
Today's projected (8 children all meals)
$63.92
⚠ Allergy substitution flagged. Amari J. (peanut allergy) — lunch entrée substituted to baked chicken & rice. Auto-logged.
Parent communication One thread per family · day photos, billing, pickup auth
12:50 PM
AJ
Amari J. family · Tasha J.
"Thank you for the photos this morning — he's having such a great week!" 1 new
12:14 PM
DM
Destiny M. family · Latisha M.
"Quick question about the field trip permission slip — does it need to be signed today?" 2 new
11:47 AM
KW
Kai W. family · Marcus W.
You: "Kai had a great morning with reading group. Photos attached."
10:32 AM
NS
Nia S. family · Renee S.
Auto: "Tuition statement for May ready in the portal."
9:00 AM
Staff tasks & compliance Today's shift coverage · expiring credentials
9:30 AM
Morning roll call complete (8/12)
Directordone
Breakfast served & logged
Ms. Reneedone
Lead Sprouts circle time (9:30)
Ms. Tanyadue now
Lunch prep for 8 + 2 allergies
Mr. James11:30
Update Sprouts daily journal entries
Ms. Tanya3:30
⚠ Credential expiring

Ms. Renee — CPR certification expires June 28 (31 days). Renewal class options shared with her email this morning.

End-of-day report Auto-built from today's activity · ready by 6:00 PM
5:48 PM
Daily Report · Tuesday, May 28, 2026
Big Mama's Child Development Center · Ward 7 · Director: Mrs. T.
Children attended
11 of 12 enrolled (Solomon out)
CACFP meals served
3 (breakfast, lunch, PM snack)
Today's CACFP claim value
$63.92
Incidents
None
Late arrivals
2 (both ≤25 min)
Parent messages sent
17 (incl. daily updates)

Milestones

· Amari J. read his name independently for the first time.

· Sprouts room completed the seedling planting project.

Allergy substitutions logged

· Lunch: Amari J. (peanut) — baked chicken substituted for entree.

· Lunch: Maya C. (dairy) — almond milk substituted.

Director dashboard Week-of-May-25 summary · CACFP, enrollment, alerts
Live

This week's CACFP claim · so far

$187.43 + projected $86.18
Closing Friday at 6 PM. Two more meal days (Wed, Thu, Fri) project ~$273 total weekly claim.
68% of weekly projection

Enrollment

95%
11 of 12 enrolled · 0 waitlist · 3 inquiry calls this month

This week · attendance heatmap

M
T
W
Th
F
Sa
Su
Mon 100% · Tue 92% · Wed expected · Thu & Fri normal

Alerts & reminders

!
CPR expiring · Ms. Renee · 31 days
·
Inspector site visit scheduled June 14
Backup verified this morning · all data safe

Director sees everything · staff sees their tasks · parents see their child · auditors see what they ask for.

· This is the actual workflow shape — data shown is illustrative · live at Big Mama's CDC · apply for a childcare seat ·

· What the day above actually changes ·

Operational outcomes, measured.

These are the three numbers we track with every founding center. We publish them. If a center isn't seeing them within 90 days, the implementation isn't done yet.

▸ 01 · CACFP recovery $12K/year avg In unclaimed CACFP reimbursement DC OSSE Tier 1 rates loaded. Meal counts entered once. Claim builds itself. Most centers recover what they used to leave on the table. Source · industry est. + founding cohort data
▸ 02 · Director time saved ~2.5h/day Off paper. Off phone. Off WhatsApp. Eleven of fourteen paper forms eliminated at the founding site. Parent comms moved off WhatsApp into a single auditable thread. Source · Big Mama's CDC · post-deployment audit
▸ 03 · Staff onboarding < 1day to kiosk-fluent New staff trained in one shift The kiosk runs on what staff already understand: tap a name, tap a meal, tap a state. No keyboard, no software training week. Source · founding cohort training observation

What runs the day above.

Rooted Care · live · improving weekly
CACFP meal logging
▸ Live
Federal meal reimbursement workflow built around what staff actually do at meal time — not what an auditor wants the paperwork to look like later.
  • DC OSSE Tier 1 rates pre-loaded
  • One-tap meal counts per child
  • Allergy substitutions flagged
  • Weekly claim auto-built for review
  • Month-end recap exportable to OSSE
  • USDA component checks built in
Kiosk-first check-in / check-out
▸ Live
The iPad at the door is the operating system. Parents tap their child in; staff see allergies, pickup auth, and notes for that day at a glance.
  • Photo-based pickup verification
  • Real-time roster visible to staff
  • Late-pickup flagging
  • Sign-in for state inspectors (audit-ready)
Parent portal & comms
▸ Live
One thread per family. Day-of updates, billing, photos, forms — without giving anyone the director's personal cell phone number.
  • Single thread per family
  • Day photos, milestones, incident reports
  • Pickup authorization management
  • Tuition statements + receipts
Staff compliance tracking
▸ Live
Background checks, CPR, food handler, medication training — with renewal alerts before they expire, not after a state inspector asks.
  • Per-staff credential vault
  • Expiration alerts (30 / 14 / 7 days)
  • State inspector binder mode
  • Shift / scheduling integration
Workflow-aware assistance
▸ Live · early
An assistant that knows your roster, your CACFP rates, and your week. Ask it "what's the unclaimed amount this month" and you get an answer — not a generic search box.
  • Roster & CACFP context built in
  • Plain-language reports
  • Always cites what data it used
  • No data leaves the platform
Document storage
▸ Live
One place for licensing paperwork, immunization records, IFSPs, and incident reports — with the access controls a director actually needs.
  • Per-child & per-staff document folders
  • Role-based access
  • Immutable upload activity log
  • Encrypted at rest + in transit
· How we talk about compliance ·

Designed to support your compliance posture.
Not a checkbox vendor.

Compliance is a posture of the whole organization — your policies, your training, your records, your hardware, and your software. We won't claim "fully CACFP / FERPA / HIPAA compliant" because no software vendor honestly can. What we will say: the platform is engineered to support those workflows, with the controls and logs your state inspector and your auditor expect to see.

CACFP-aware FERPA-engineered HIPAA-aligned security operations-2 path

What the platform actually does

  • Per-user role-based access; activity log on every record change
  • Strong industry-standard encryption at rest and in transit
  • Immutable upload log for licensing & inspection records
  • Configurable retention windows per record type
  • Backup verified monthly · restore drill quarterly
  • Two-step sign-in required for director & admin accounts
  • US data residency on enterprise cloud infrastructure
  • Zero third-party AI data sharing on protected records

· Specific cipher, vendor, & architecture details shared under NDA on the founding call ·

· Founding cohort · seat #001 ·
We didn't have time for paper. Now I tap four buttons and the federal claim is ready.
Ward 7 · Washington DC · live since May 2026
▸ Live deployment · founding cohort #001
· Director questions ·

Before you book.

Do you actually support CACFP, or just say you do?
Yes — actually. DC OSSE Tier 1 rates are pre-loaded. Meal counts roll into a draft claim that mirrors what OSSE expects. We can also export to a printable claim if your state still wants paper. Founding center ran their first end-to-end CACFP claim through Rooted Care on May 23, 2026.
What states do you work in?
Live in DC. Onboarding-ready for Maryland and Virginia (same CACFP federal core; state-specific rate tables added at install). Other states quoted case-by-case — we'd rather get the rate math right than promise national coverage we can't deliver.
Can I keep using my current parent app?
If you're on one of the major childcare-platform incumbents — yes, in parallel during transition. Most directors stop paying the old vendor within 60 days because the unified roster + comms in Rooted Care covers what they were paying for. We don't lock you in either direction.
Are you FERPA / HIPAA certified?
No vendor honestly is. The platform is engineered to support FERPA and HIPAA-aligned workflows (per-person permissions, activity logs, encryption, retention controls). Compliance is the whole organization's posture, not a vendor checkbox. We help you build the posture.
What if I'm not yet licensed?
We're not state licensing consultants — but we'll point you to the right OSSE / MSDE / VDSS contacts, and many of the documents you'll need to produce for licensure can live in Rooted Care from day one. Several founding-cohort conversations are happening with not-yet-licensed centers.
What does pricing look like for childcare?
Monthly subscription tiers and one-time setup fee. Founding cohort centers get founding rates locked. See pricing for current tiers — managed-IT (network install) is quoted separately if you need it.
Do you serve centers outside the DMV?
Software-only deployments — yes, anywhere in the US. The DMV (DC / MD / VA) is where we do onsite implementation visits and training. Outside the corridor we do remote-only with shipped pre-configured hardware.
· Step one · Workflow audit ·

See your day,
before you change it.

A 30-minute call, a walk-through of your real day (CACFP, drop-off, comms, paperwork), and a written audit of where Rooted Care would actually move the needle. You keep the audit either way.

Book a Founding Call →