Due to Planning Center's Terms of Service, children under 13 cannot log in to Church Center or chat over messaging. If you add children under 13 to a group, other members cannot see them in the Members tab. With those limitations in mind, you can create groups with children to keep attendance records if needed.
In Planning Center, there are three ways to track attendance for children:
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Use Check-Ins to track attendance.
Important
This is the most secure method of attendance tracking for children. Check-Ins records who checks someone in/out, shows names and photos of trusted adults, assigns unique, temporary security codes to match adults with children, surfaces medical notes and allergies, and has a built-in emergency texting feature.
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Add children's profiles as members of family groups.
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Create groups of children's classes. Often, this is for Sunday school-like purposes, where you only mark attendance and do not need labels/check-outs. The teachers can also have resources shared with them, like lesson plans or curricula.
Tip
Need to support the parents and guardians of a group of children? Create a parent group to share resources and allow them to connect to the parents of their peers!
To track attendance for groups of children, use Check-Ins, which allows a parent or volunteer to check children in. This process requires access to Check-Ins. If you don't have access, ask an administrator to take this step or give you permission.
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Create an event in Check-Ins and set up the appropriate times for the event and location for each grade/age.
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Gather the devices needed for checking children in and set up stations on those devices.
Tip
Have classroom leaders use a roster station to quickly take attendance and manage their classrooms!
Since children under 13 are hidden from the Members tab, create a group to account for all family members so you can track the attendance of adults and children without surfacing any child's information. The exception is that when a leader is viewing the group or taking attendance for an event, they will see the child's profile information to count everyone in attendance accurately.
Important
Members with attendance-taking permissions will also see children listed on the attendance roster for each event.
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Set up a parent group if you want to connect with parents through messaging or resources.
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Create a group type for your parent groups. This allows you to set a group type manager and filter to these groups.
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Create a group for each age range or grade you'd like to use.
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Add parents to the correct groups by allowing them to Request to Join, or use People lists and automations to add the right parents to the right group.