You don't need the kiosk to take attendance — staff can check children in and out directly. It's the simplest way to run morning drop-off and afternoon pickup.
Two ways to do it
- In Classroom Mode (the main way): open a classroom and tap Check In / Check Out on each child as they arrive and leave — right next to the live ratio and present count. Ideal for running morning drop-off and afternoon pickup a room at a time. Any child with an allergy on file carries a red allergy badge here, so you see it as they come through the door. Marked someone absent and then they turn up? Their card offers Arrived — check in.
- From a child's profile: open a child and use the Check In / Check Out action for a one-off.
The Families list is a read-only directory — attendance is taken in Classroom Mode (above), at the kiosk, or from a child's profile, not from the roster.
The check-in window
Either way opens a quick Check In · Check Out · Absent picker:
- Pick the action.
- Who is signing? defaults to Staff Member (Me) and records your name automatically. Switch to Parent / Guardian to record who actually dropped off or picked up.
- Adjust the date and time if you're logging it after the fact. Absent lets you add a reason.
- Optionally capture a signature on screen (e.g. when a parent is signing) — it's saved with the record. Staff check-ins here are never blocked on this, even if your center requires signatures at the kiosk (see below).
Every entry is time-stamped and attributed, so you get the same clean audit trail as the kiosk — just recorded as a staff check-in.
It all lands in one place
Staff check-ins and kiosk check-ins update the same attendance record, so your live ratios, classroom counts, reports, and the family daily summary stay correct no matter how a child was checked in.
Set your approach in Settings → Check-in & Pickup. Require Pickup PIN is the switch: on, and guardians and authorized pickups get PINs and can use the kiosk; off, and PIN check-in is closed and staff take attendance themselves. Staff check-in works either way. That screen also has a Require Signature at Kiosk Check-in toggle: turn it on and the kiosk (and QR self check-in) require a signature before a check-in or pickup goes through. Staff check-ins here are never blocked. It's also where you pick how staff count toward ratios — Automatic (the default), Assigned staff, or Staff check-in.
Open overnight? For 24-hour centers, a visit that starts one evening and ends the next morning is one visit — check the child out whenever they're actually picked up, even after midnight, and it closes cleanly.