How to Set Up Care Number
Step 1: Pick Your Care Number and Add Phones
You start by choosing your Care Number. This is the number you'll give to schools, daycares, doctors, daycares, and anyone else who needs to reach a parent about your child.
Next, you add your existing personal phone numbers - one for you, one for your partner. These are the real phones that calls and texts will be forwarded to. Care Number doesn't replace your personal numbers—it sits in front of them, "directing traffic" to the right parent at the right time.
Step 2: Pick Your Schedule
You then choose how responsibility is divided up. Care Number currently supports:
- Alternating weekly schedules, where one parent is on duty for a full week and then it switches
- Daily schedules, where specific days of the week are assigned to each parent
For weekly schedules, you can choose exactly when the week starts (for example, Friday evening instead of Monday).
Step 3: Share the Care Number with Schools and Daycares
You give the Care Number to schools, daycares, doctors, coaches, babysitters, and family members.
In most cases, you'll want to set your Care Number as the primary contact number for both you and your partner in the school and daycare contact system. Your individual phone numbers should remain on file as secondary or backup numbers. This ensures routine communication flows through Care Number first, while personal numbers are still available if needed.
From the school's perspective, they are simply calling or texting a normal phone number.
What Happens When Someone Calls Your Care Number
When a school or daycare calls your Care Number, Care Number checks the current date and time against your schedule and determines which parent is on duty.
The caller hears a brief message to let them know who's being called:
"Now connecting you to Parent A..."
The call is then forwarded to that parent's phone. If it's Parent B's turn, the message reflects that instead. After the message, the call behaves like a normal phone call. When your phone rings, you'll see the Caller ID of the daycare or school, just like a normal call. If it isn't answered, voicemail works the same way it would for a personal number.
What Happens When Someone Texts Your Care Number
When a school or daycare sends a text message to your Care Number, that message is forwarded to the phone of the parent who is currently on duty based on the schedule.
Text forwarding is not a shared, two-way conversation on the Care Number itself. The message simply arrives on the correct parent's phone so they can see it and respond as needed. The key benefit is that the message reaches the right person automatically, without the sender needing to know who that is.
What Care Number Handles for You
Once Care Number is set up, you no longer need to:
- Tell schools which parent is responsible today
- Relay messages between parents
- Update contact info when schedules change
Ready to give it a try?
30 days free. Then $8.99/mo.