Child check-in - operation

Introduction

The Check-In system is purpose-built to help register and check children and young people into groups quickly and securely, and then just as easily, check them out again at the end of the session, helping leaders stay on top of who's in their session and ensuring each child is returned to the correct responsible adult when they're checked out.

The Check-In system can be used by regular children, serving team members and visiting families. It can be used at a child registration point in both staffed or unstaffed configurations or by leaders running in-room check-in/out on a portable/smart device, or a combination of both. The Child Check-In system adds an attendance record for children, visitors and teams to the Children module, providing an all-important safeguarding record and comprehensive attendance reporting to monitor growth in this vital area of ministry.

When used with a compatible Brother label printer (see the related Child Check-In Configuration support article), and controlled on a group-by-group basis, the Check-In system can produce child name badges, parent pick-up badges, room badges and team badges - or it can be used without any badge-printing, perhaps for a mid-week youth gathering where you wish to maintain attendance but your youth is too cool to wear badges!!!

The system is incredibly versatile, enabling you to effectively manage every aspect of a safe session, including adult-to-child ratios, handling children/team members moving between groups during a session and any restrictions you may wish to enforce around group room capacity (preventing further check-ins once capacity is reached). Importantly it's easy to use, scaleable and secure – your leaders, parents/carers and visiting families will love it!

Before continuing, we encourage you to first read the related support article on configuring the Child Check-In system, which explains how to customise the Check-In system, group settings, and how to configure the check-in device and printers.

In this article, we'll focus on the user experience for your children/youth team members - how to start and run a session to register and check children into their groups.

Starting a check-in session

Before children and the team can be registered and checked in, you must first start the session. Where multiple check-in devices are being used, you'll start the session on one device, and the other devices will join that active session. Once a session has been started you can then test your printer by producing a test label.

To use the Child Check-in system, a User must be either an Administrator or have Connect permissions - see our related support articles for adding and managing users.

Launch the Child Check-in system in any one of the following ways: –

• In a browser, by entering your ChurchSuite account URL - account.churchsuite.com/connect (where the account is your subdomain name) - you can bookmark the Child Check-In URL
• In a browser, by clicking the ChurchSuite Connect "quick link" on the Dashboard page in ChurchSuite
• In a browser, by clicking the Go to Child Check-in button located on Children > Attendance > Sessions
• In a browser running the Child Check-in "kiosk mode" shortcut that you created when following the guidance in our "Child Check-In - configuration" support article
• By using the Android Connect app, available from the Play Store, on a compatible Android device - see the related Connect App support article. There is no Connect app for iOS devices.

Once logged in to ChurchSuite Connect, select the Check-In application. Whether the other Connect applications are shown will depend on your user permissions and the ChurchSuite modules that you subscribe to - the other applications are designed to be used at a weekend service Information Point - see our related 'Connect' support articles for further information.

You can now select to start/join a session, choosing from one of today's session templates - or start a New Session. In the example below, there are two Sessions today (derived from the session templates we created in the previous section of this article) - click on a session to start or join the appropriate session.

However, if starting a New Session - perhaps because none of the listed Sessions applies - enter a session Name and select the Gathering attendance is to be added for. Remember, it's also not necessary to include a "date" in the session naming convention as the date (and check-in time stamp) is already part of the attendance data that will be recorded for each child/group for the session. For further information about session names, see the previous section of this article. Clicking + SHOW OPTIONS surfaces the same default session settings explained earlier in this article, which you can override if you wish. Click Start Session.

Starting or joining a session opens the check-in page ready to receive parents/carers, children and team members.

At this stage, it may be helpful to test your printer. Click into the Admin area, entering the Admin PIN when prompted - the Admin PIN is set in your Children module settings in the Check-In Options tab. We've produced a separate support article that explains all the Admin Area functionality.

Click into the Session section and select Print test.

On the Print test pop-up, select between Child or Team – example badges of the selected type are displayed - and click the Printer icon to test that the printer and label settings are working as expected. Refer to the Child check-in – configuration support article for further guidance on setting the printer and label settings.

Checking in children – overview of the user experience

There are several ways a parent/carer can locate their child in the Check-In system. Depending on the child Search Fields you have enabled in the Children module's Check-In Options (see the related support article), they can enter the child's first name or last name or the full or last four digits of their phone number (either mobile/cell or landline of the child or any linked primary parent/carer of the child); or, if you have enabled a barcode scanner (see the related support article), they can scan their barcode or QR code and locate their children that way.

Click each child to be registered and/or checked in from the search results. Children are checked into their assigned group in the Children module. If a child has not previously been assigned to a group, the child will be checked into the appropriate group based on the child's date of birth and the group entry/exit criteria. They are also added to that group's Member list in the Children module.

When using one-stage check-in a Check-In button is shown (see example below) but if using two-stage check-in, a Register button is shown instead. Click Check-in (or Register) to complete the process. If badges are to be produced for any of the selected children, these will now be sent to the printer, including any parent pick-up badge and room badge you have set in the session settings. The Check-In system will then auto-cycle back to the check-in page ready for the next parent/carer/child.

Checking in visitors

Visiting children can also be checked into groups following the same process. The visitor check-in process begins with the usual name search to make sure they're not already on the system - visitor details are retained for a period, so a returning visitor can be checked in without needing to re-enter their details. Matching search results will be listed, but where the search term is not matched, the Add visitor form is shown to collect the visiting child and parent/carer details. Some of the form fields are optional and can be enabled or disabled in the Children module's settings. See the related support article on Managing Visitors for further information. Clicking Add visitor will send a customisable Success email to the parent/carer email address (if supplied) confirming the personal details submitted through the form.

The visitor child is added and ready-ticked to be checked in. At this stage, a visiting family with multiple children add further children by clicking Add as a visitor - the previously-entered parent/carer details from the first child will be automatically populated into the form for each subsequent child added. Clicking Check-In or Register will check the visiting children in, record their attendance, and produce badges according to the group badge printing settings. The Check-In page then cycles back to the home page ready for the next parent/carer/child.

Notes for multi-site customers

• Visitors are added to the same Site as the Gathering to which they are being checked in. Visitors are assigned to the appropriate group in the Gathering based on their date of birth, the Group entry criteria, and the maximum age for the Gathering
• The child/visitor 'Search' will return matching results based on the permitted sites of the logged-in Connect user for the active Check-In session. If a child or visitor later visits another site, their details will not be found in a child search unless the logged-in Connect user also has site permissions for that site. In this way, user site permissions can be used to constrain access to search results where site-specific granularity is important or to maximise the search results across multiple sites where helpful

Overriding a child or visitor's default group

Sometimes, it is helpful to override a child's default group and check them into a different group, perhaps to be with a friend or sibling. You can permanently override a child's group at check-in or make a one-time override of a child's group in the Admin area after check-in by moving the child to a different group.

To permanently change a child's group, click the Unlock button in the top-right corner. Select the appropriate new group and click Lock to apply the change. The child is moved to the new group Members list in the Children module. Continue checking in the child in the usual manner.

To make a one-time override of a child's group – perhaps because they need to join an older sibling for one week only – check them into their regular group first. Next, access the Admin area, entering the Admin PIN when prompted. Navigate into the group and locate the child or visitor in the list. Using the action menu to the right of the child's details choose Move child.

On the Move child pop-up, select the new group to move the child to and click Confirm. This one-time move will not affect the child's assigned group shown on their profile record in the Children module.

Checking in children using group search

As an alternative to Child Search, Group search can be useful for in-room check-in where leaders need to see a list of all the children and previous visitors that belong to their group.

To switch from Child search to Group search select the Switch to group search option to enable this functionality (or to revert to Child search).

Select the Group from the drop-down list. The list of matching group members is shown. You can then tick names (like a register) to check each child into the selected group. Child and parent badges can still be printed and visitors can still be added in the usual manner.

You can scroll the list to locate a child to be checked in. For long lists, a helpful Search within the group is provided, and additional filters to show just Boys or Girls. Matching results are filters as you type in the search bar, but you also have the option to Add as a visitor or to widen the matching to Search all groups in the Gathering - perhaps to find a child that has been previously moved to another group.

Checking in team members

For those wishing to manage adult-to-child group ratios, team members will need to be checked in. The team check-in functionality can optionally produce team badges so that visiting families can more readily identify authorised team members when handing over children or if they have questions. Address Book contacts and children aged 11 years and older can be checked in as Team – those under this age will not be displayed in the team check-in search results. Under 18 team members are not counted for the adult-to-child ratios. Whether a Team badge is produced is determined by the session template settings or the Printing options set when a new Check-In session is opened - see earlier in this article for further information about adding session templates and opening a new session.

Team members check in just like children. Notice the Team option under the Next. Select Team and enter the team member name in the Search.

From the matching results select the Group that the team member will be assigned to for the session. Their previous group assignment will be selected by default, but any group in the gathering can be selected. Click Check-In and the Team badge is printed. The Check-In system then cycles back to the Child search page ready for the next child, visitor or team member.

Within the Check-in Admin area (see the related support article) a summary of checked-in team numbers is shown (the smaller number "+1" indicates an under-18 team member). An indicator shows adult-to-child ratio progress based on the currently checked-in children, visitors and adult team. The indicator changes from green to orange to red as check-ins reach or exceed the ratio specified for the group.

Back in ChurchSuite in the Attendance section of the Children module, just as with the child attendance data, team attendance is maintained. The Attendance list displays each Group 'at a glance' and the number of Children (including visitors) and Team (adults and under 18s) in attendance for the Date and Session.