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Last Login: 3/11/2008 4:06:40 PM
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| I'm starting a sign-in/sign-out procedure for the Children's Ministry @ our church & I was just wondering what everyone else did in regard to child protection in this matter. We have 650(ave) in a Sunday morning service and about 100 kids from Nursery up to Gr.3. Lemme know! Thanks! 
Mark Myles
Director of Children's Ministries
Campbell River Baptist Church |
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Last Login: 5/22/2007 4:52:52 PM
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| | We use numbered wristbands as our current security system for check-in and check-out in our classrooms. Our wristbands have our church name and logo on it, along with a preprinted 6-digit number on it. The wristbands are printed in duplicates, so one wristband goes on the child and the matching wristband goes with the parent/guardian. Children are released only to the person presenting the matching wristband. We also use a generic sign-in sheet for parents to write in the child's name, age, and guardian's first and last name (along with special instructions or pager number if they take a pager). We're currently in the testing stages of using a computerized check-in system that pulls family information from our church's database. This system allows us to print nametags for children that already include a security number, and then it prints out a "claim" tag for the parents to present when they return to pick up their kids. What's nice about this system (once we work out the glitches) is that it allows us to track attendance and eliminates a lot of the paperwork that goes along with manual sign-in sheets. Hope this information is helpful to you. If you'd like, I could give you the contact information for the company we use to print up our wristbands.
Lucy Younis
Preschool Ministries Director
EastLake Community Church
www.eastlakechurch.com |
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| | | Forum Guru
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Last Login: 3/14/2008 3:59:12 PM
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| | Here are some tips from Children's Ministry Magazine: To limit your ministry’s legal liabilities, it’s essential that you maintain, at a minimum, the following documentation:
• The specific time and date the parent checked the child into and out of your ministry.
• All parental care instructions for each child.
• All medical or special needs concerns for each child.
• All communications to the parent regarding the care of a child under 18 months old.
• Who was responsible for and had access to each child.
• Scheduling records that show multiple adults in each room.
• Court-appointed custody restrictions.
• All incident reports regarding accidents, injuries, fights, discipline, and abuse.
Ensure that the legal guardians—and only the legal guardians—receive a copy of the report in writing.
CHECK IN KIDS
Many church leaders fail to understand that when parents hand over their children to the care of a church ministry, an unspoken legal contract has been established. The authorized guardian initiated the contract, and only the authorized guardian has the authority to end the contract. During the term of the contract, the ministry is fully liable for the welfare of each child within its care. Without a documented conclusion to the contract, ministry liabilities may be extended to circumstances beyond the ministry’s control, such as times when children pass through the hallways to find their parents.
Manual tracking of all the information you need means that check-in may take up to two or three minutes per child to complete. That’s an unbearably long time in a large church.Not to mention that additional time is required to conduct a secure child check-out. This problem is compounded by the fact that most ministries require a separate check-in and check-out for each child participating in age-specific ministry. One associate pastor of a large church recently lamented that it took a total of 35 minutes to check in his three children to their age-appropriate ministries, and three times he had to wait in lines.
Follow these suggestions to speed up the check- in process:
• Get complete information at your pre-
registration campaign. Have parents take the time at the beginning of your education season to provide all the information you need. Keep it on file in your office. Give classroom caregivers pertinent information such as kids’ allergies, special needs, or custody arrangements.
• Check in families instead of individuals. Provide at least one central location where families can check in their children. Once children are checked in, special guides can deliver kids to their appropriate classes as parents proceed to their education or worship area. Depending on the size of your church, you may need to speed up the registration process by having more than one area for families to register.
• Customize your registration area. To avoid long lines, break up your registration area by creating separate lines for different parts of the alphabet: A to H, I to P, and Q to Z. Families line up by the first letter of their last name.
• Provide quick registration for visitors. Always have a special registration area for new families so they don’t have to wait in a long line. Give families registration forms on clipboards with pens so they can complete their information before they reach the front of the line.
• Computerize your registration process. Technologies exist to help streamline a secure check-in process. The complexity of information that must now be recorded and accessed to ensure the proper care of children and the legal protection of the ministry may require the use of a database for information management. |
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| | Hi Mark - We have an average 100-125 children each Sunday. We use a dual tagging system for Nursery through Kindergarten. All visitors and new members must register in the Children's Ministry office at the entrance to the Preschool wing. As the parents fill out the registration form, we prepare a set of dual tags with the child's name on both tags. (We use a label maker for adding the names.) We then escort the family to the classroom. The parent keeps one tag and the other tag is clipped on the children's back. When they pick up their child, the tags are hooked together and clipped to a ribbon that we hang outside the classroom door. (The ribbon is stored in the classroom cabinet and is a very attractive way to organize the tags and makes it easy for the parents to locate their child's tags each Sunday.) Then next time they come to church, they retreive the tag from the ribbon and repeat the process. The parents must also sign in/sign out. We post a clipboard with a sign in/out sheet and the classroom teacher makes sure the parent notes whether they will be in worship or a SS class. The sign in/sign sheets are dated and filed in the Children's Ministry office. Lburney
Lisa B from NC |
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