Check In / Check Out is a PCR Educator CMS widget that lets a student, a staff member, or an authorized pick-up identify themselves at a screen and check in or out for the day. Schools commonly deploy it as a self-serve attendance kiosk on a laptop, a tablet, or a wall-mounted touch panel. The widget is configured entirely from the standard page editor, with no developer involvement, and it can optionally write period and daily attendance.
Setup happens in the CMS page editor, so configuring the widget requires an account with permission to edit CMS pages.
Schools deploy the widget for:
- Morning carpool and after-school care check-in stations
- Athletics, field trip, and extended-day program rosters
- Late-arrival and early-dismissal desks at the front office
- Optional automatic period attendance for late or early-departure students
Setup at a glance
From the page editor:
- Open the CMS page where the kiosk will live, or create a new page.
- Click Add Widget, then User, then Check In / Check Out.
- Open the widget Properties dialog with the gear icon and configure Sign In Type, Operations Type, Program Type, the button text, and any of the optional customizations described below.
- Save the widget. The kiosk is live immediately.
- On the device itself, sign in once with a staff or operator account before leaving the kiosk unattended. The widget only renders for a signed-in session. Once the device is signed in, any number of students sign themselves in and out against it.
To write Late, Absent, and Leaving Early stamps automatically, which is recommended for schools that want period attendance from the kiosk:
- Add a second widget to the same page: Parent/Student Attendance Entry.
- In its Properties, set Late Type, Absent Type, Leaving Early Type, and, optionally, Daily Attendance Type to the attendance discipline types your school uses.
- Save. The kiosk now writes period attendance automatically when students check in or out.
For full configuration of the partner widget, see CMS Widget - Parent/Student Attendance Entry.
Sign-in modes
Each kiosk supports one or more of the following sign-in methods. Enable as many as appropriate with the Sign In Type property. When two or more are enabled, a pill row appears at the top of the kiosk so the user can choose. With one enabled, the row is hidden.
| Mode |
When to use it |
| Username |
Standard PCR Educator username and password, the same credentials students use to log in to the portal. Works on shared family devices. |
| Name + PIN |
The student types their first name, last name, and 5-digit PIN. Best for younger students with no portal login. |
| PIN |
PIN only, and the fastest option. Requires PINs to be unique across the school database. Recommended for high-throughput stations. |
| Student ID |
Numeric student ID, typed on the on-screen keypad or scanned from a printed barcode. The slot count and maximum length come from the school's configured ID width. |
| Staff ID |
Numeric staff ID, typed on the on-screen keypad or scanned from a printed barcode. It works like Student ID, but it searches the staff roster, and its slot count comes from the school's staff ID width. Enable it for a faculty or staff sign-in kiosk. |
| Alternate ID |
A second numeric ID stored on the student record, such as a badge number or an RFID short-code. It lets families reuse a badge that does not match the official student ID. The value is looked up against the alternate ID field on the student record, and ambiguous values are treated as not found, so a student never accidentally signs in as someone else. |
One kiosk can offer student and staff sign-in together. The widget records each check-in as student or staff from the mode the person used: the Staff ID mode records a staff member, and every other mode records a student. Staff check-ins are recorded against the staff roster. They do not send notification emails, and the period attendance integration applies to student check-ins only. Staff sign in through the Staff ID mode, because the Username, Name + PIN, PIN, and Alternate ID modes resolve against student and household records.
Pick one default with the Default Active Mode property. That pill is highlighted on first load. The kiosk also remembers which pill the user last touched and restores it after any submission, so a barcode scanner station that opens to Student ID stays on Student ID after each scan.
Optional: period attendance integration
Placing a Parent/Student Attendance Entry widget on the same page changes the kiosk from a record of who is on campus into a full attendance writer. On every successful student check-in or check-out, the kiosk will:
- Write Absent stamps for any scheduled periods that ended before the student checked in, which fills the gap.
- Write a Late stamp for the period in session at check-in time.
- Write a Leaving Early stamp for the period in session at check-out time.
- Optionally stamp every period after the check-out as Absent, when the school enables it.
- Optionally write a single daily attendance row when a school-level type is configured.
All writes respect a same-user audit gate, so teacher-entered attendance is never overwritten, and prior kiosk stamps can be cleanly cleared when the student returns the same day. For the full setup of the partner widget, see CMS Widget - Parent/Student Attendance Entry.
Late and early departure thresholds
Many schools have rules such as "a student more than 20 minutes late is marked Absent" or "a student leaving in the first 30 minutes counts as Leaving Early, and beyond that it is a normal departure." The kiosk supports both with two integer properties.
| Property |
What it does |
| Late Absent Threshold Minutes |
When set to a positive integer, on check-in: if the student arrives more than this many minutes after the current period started, the current period is stamped Absent instead of Late. Set to 0, the default, to disable. |
| Leave Early Threshold Minutes |
When set to a positive integer, on check-out: the current period is stamped Leaving Early only if the student is checking out within this many minutes of the period starting. Past that point, no Leaving Early stamp is written. Set to 0, the default, to disable. |
Both thresholds measure minutes elapsed since the current period's nominal start time, using the school's schedule data. If the student has no scheduled period at that moment, such as during lunch, before school, or after dismissal, the thresholds do nothing and the kiosk falls back to its default behavior.
Customization options
Beyond the sign-in modes and thresholds, the widget includes a broad set of properties for tailoring messages, behavior, and presentation. The most commonly used:
| Property |
Purpose |
| Operations Type |
FullCycle (Check In and Check Out), In only, Out only, or In and Out without cycle pairing. |
| Default Active Mode |
Which sign-in pill is highlighted on first load. Useful for single-purpose stations. |
| Automatic Check In Out |
Auto-toggles between In and Out based on the student's most recent state, which is useful for one-button carpool stations. It applies only when Operations Type is FullCycle. |
| Auto Reset Seconds |
How long the success card stays on screen before the form returns for the next student. The default is 6 seconds. Set it to 0 to leave the success card up until the next student signs in. |
| Check In / Check Out Success and Error Messages |
All visible text is school-customizable: the welcome message, the goodbye message, the not-found prompt, the already-checked-in warning, and more. |
| Show Student Photo |
When enabled, the success card displays the student's school photo so staff can visually confirm the right student checked in. |
| Auto Clear Future Absences On Return |
When a student who was checked out, and stamped Absent for later periods, returns the same day, this clears those Absent stamps automatically so teachers can mark fresh attendance. |
| Stamp Future As Absent |
On check-out, stamp every period after the check-out time as Absent. This is opt-in per school. |
| Program Type |
Restricts the kiosk to a single program, such as Morning Care, After School, or Athletics, so a multi-program campus can run distinct kiosks for each. The widget requires a Program Type unless the page also has a Parent/Student Attendance Entry widget. |
What students see
On every kiosk the experience is the same: large touch targets, no scrolling, and no logins to remember unless the school chooses Username mode.
- A row of sign-in pills at the top, hidden if only one mode is enabled.
- The matching input panel below, which is a numeric keypad for ID or PIN, a username and password form for Username mode, or a name and PIN form for Name + PIN.
- Large Check In and Check Out buttons.
- After submitting, a calming success card with the school greeting, the student's name shown prominently, and their photo and profile (Name, ID, Grade, Status). The form returns automatically after the configured timeout.
- On error, the form stays in place, the typed value is preserved so the student can fix a typo without retyping, and the error message displays in red.
Best practices
- For high-traffic stations such as carpool, enable a single sign-in mode, either PIN or Student ID, so the pill row hides entirely. Fewer taps mean faster lines.
- Pair Alternate ID with a USB barcode scanner mounted at the kiosk so students can scan an existing school badge with no typing, as long as the barcode value is numeric and fits within the configured slot count.
- When using the Late Absent Threshold, set it to match the school's published Late versus Absent policy, for example "20 minutes late is Absent." Communicate the rule to families in your handbook.
- Pair an Auto Reset Seconds value of 3 with a kiosk on a public touch screen to keep the next student's experience clean. Use a higher value, 8 to 10, where staff want time to read each success card.
- Test with at least one student account from each grade level or school division before going live. Different schedules can expose configuration gaps.
Need a hand?
Your PCR Educator account manager can walk you through a setup tailored to your school's carpool, after-school, or athletics workflow, including custom sign-in messages and visual styling. Submit a ticket from your Customer Portal, or email support@pcreducator.com.