Kids Programs Overview
The Kids feature gives your church a complete, safety-first way to run any program for children — Sunday Bible Club, weekday youth nights, Vacation Bible School (VBS), music or worship training, and anything else.
Built around three principles:
- Parents control their child's data. Only the parent (or another authorized family adult) can enroll a child or generate a check-in QR.
- Every drop-off and pickup is logged. No one walks out with a child without a record.
- Pastors and ministry leaders run the programs; admins set the policy. Roles are enforced both in the app and on the server.
What's included
| Capability | Who uses it |
|---|---|
| Create and edit kids programs (Bible Study, Music, Youth, VBS, Other) | Church admin or assigned program organizers |
| Enroll a child in a program | Parent (in the Member app) |
| Generate a child's check-in QR | Parent — QR rotates for safety |
| Scan kids in at drop-off / out at pickup | Program organizers (in the Admin app) |
| Manual check-in when a parent forgets the QR | Program organizers |
| "Pickup without phone" override using emergency-contact verification | Program organizers |
| View today's roster and per-program attendance | Organizers + admins |
Roles that can run a program
Only members holding one of these roles can be assigned as a program organizer (the app and the server both enforce this):
- Senior leadership — church admin, pastor, elder
- Youth Leader
- Ministry Leader
Members with any other role can still enroll their own children as parents, but they can't run a program. If you don't see a member in the organizer picker when creating a program, their role needs to be updated first — see Member roles.
Program kinds
Every program is tagged with one of:
| Kind | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Music | Choir, instrument training, worship-team prep for kids |
| Bible Study | Weekly Bible club, Sunday Bible class for kids |
| Youth | Teen / youth nights, youth groups |
| VBS | Vacation Bible School (a one-off multi-day program in the holidays) |
| Other | Anything that doesn't fit the above — crafts, sports, mentoring |
The kind shows up as a label on parents' enrollment cards so they can quickly tell programs apart.
How parents see it
In the Member app, every parent has a My Kids screen where they can:
- Add a child (name, date of birth, allergies, emergency contact)
- Browse the kids programs your church offers
- Enroll a child in a program
- Pull up the child's secure QR for drop-off and pickup
- See pickup history
Parents only see active programs (see Manage Programs for the active toggle).
What's next
- First time setting it up? Start with Kids Setup.
- Creating or editing a program? See Manage Programs.
- Running drop-off / pickup on a service day? See Check-in and Pickup.