What Kumon's Digital Check-In Requirement Actually Asks For (and What It Doesn't)
Kumon North America requires digital student check-in and check-out by 31 October 2026. There is a lot of second-hand interpretation circulating between centre owners, so this is the plain-English version: what a compliant digital record has to do, and what it does not have to do.
We run a centre too. This is how we read it, in three requirements.
Requirement 1: each arrival is tied to one student
The record has to identify the student, not just the family and not just the session. Two children in the same family on the same day are two separate arrivals. That is the whole reason a printed scan card per student works well: the card carries the identity, the scan carries the time.
What it doesn't mean: parents do not need new accounts or logins to satisfy the record. The check-in happens at the door, not in an app.
Requirement 2: arrivals and departures are timestamped
Check-in alone is half a record. The requirement covers check-out too — which is the part paper binders never captured well, because leaving is the moment nobody is watching the desk. A compliant digital record stores both directions with times attached.
What it doesn't mean: nobody is asking you to track minutes inside the classroom. In and out times are the record; what happens between them is teaching, not paperwork.
Requirement 3: the record can leave the system
A timestamp on a tablet is not evidence until you can produce it. If a head office visit, a parent question or an audit needs the attendance history, you need to print or export it. A system that keeps records but cannot produce a report does not clear the bar.
What it doesn't mean: you do not need a real-time dashboard for head office. You need the ability to hand over a clean record when asked.