It feels like threats to our children’s safety are increasing all around us. As a church, we’re trying to help overturn that, along with all other problems in our society, but we wouldn’t be good stewards if we didn’t do everything we can to protect the children in our church. Here are some of the top safety and security concerns with ministering to children in church – Make sure you have a solution in place for these…
Security Concern #1: Allergies / Medical Conditions
The incidence of food allergies has risen recently. This, combined with the fact that as churches grow it becomes harder to know the particular needs of every single child, can pose a significant risk to the security of your children. It’s counter-intuitive to view a tasty snack as a threat, but without proper knowledge of a child’s allergies, it could be just that.
t’s not enough for the nursery worker to 
just know about it – There must be a sticker or some visual identification on the child so that it’s obvious to anyone who comes in to help. This is one thing a child check-in system excels at. The system knows about any special conditions for the child and prints it on the name badge sticker every time they check-in. So no matter who is serving the children, they are aware of the conditions.
Security Concern #2: Abduction
This isn’t as simple as security from strangers and predators. Estranged spouses are the most common abductors, and your church security team has to be prepared to stop this. Unfortunately, these situations are the hardest to guard against, since the child knows the person and may even want to leave with them.
This is probably
the main reason churches implement a child check-in system. The system will generate a security number on the child’s name badge and on the parent’s receipt. When someone wants to pick a child up, you check the receipt, verify that the numbers match, and be confident that every child goes home with the right parent. For additional safety, you can use barcode scanning to ensure that only the people with valid barcodes can check kids in or out.
Security Concern #3: Abuse by Other Children
It’s probably the least pleasant threat to talk about, but other children can be a security risk. Whether it be bullying or other abuses, the sad truth is that kids can be as much of a danger to each other as adults can be to other adults. This risk increases when you have older, bigger kids mixing with younger children.
The goal is to make sure each child is in the appropriate room. A good check-in system will automatically assign kids to the appropriate room based on age or grade, and Excellerate Check-In can even show you a quick verification screen with the child’s picture, age, medical conditions, etc.. This is a perfect way to “allow” or “deny” a younger child to check-in to an older service, like “Teen church”, etc..
Do everything You can to be sure kids are safe at church
Excellerate check-in can ensure you have these top safety and security concerns covered, as well as:
- Parents feel confident that their kids are a top priority
- Eliminates the hassle and waiting of traditional check-in
- Retain more visitors with better follow-up
- Streamline event check-in
- Volunteer check-in
- Works in remote locations – internet not required
- Completely customizable
Make sure your kids are safe – take a look at Excellerate Check-In today!
