Government

Schools see growing adoption of visitor management kiosks

In order to handle security concerns, schools are increasingly using kiosks to manage visitors.

Photo: Adobe Stock

February 24, 2026 by Richard Slawsky

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Schools around the world have long relied on a familiar front-office routine: a visitor signs a paper log, a secretary makes a phone call and someone hands over a temporary sticker badge. In an era defined by heightened safety expectations, tighter staffing and more complex custody and access requirements, that manual process is increasingly being replaced by visitor management kiosks that verify identity, document the purpose of a visit, print badges and notify the proper staff.

These systems, now common in districts across the country, are part of a broader shift toward "managed access" environments in which schools and other facilities can instantly answer a fundamental question: Who is in the building right now, and why are they here?

Why schools are turning to kiosks

Specific deployment numbers are difficult to come by, but industry research indicates the global school visitor management system market will top $3.5 billion in 2032, triple the $1.2 billion market size in 2023. The driving force behind that growth is straightforward: schools want better control at the front door without turning the front office into a bottleneck.

There are multiple documented cases in the United States where unauthorized individuals accessed school campuses or buildings and created a safety concern, ranging from trespassing and aggressive behavior to weapons possession and attempted entry.

In 2023, for example, a former studententered Houston's Bellaire High School without permission with a gun in his backpack. He gained access after someone let him in through a side door and was later taken into custody by school police. There were no reported injuries.

At a high school in Sedgwick, Kansas, in April 2025, two unauthorized adults attempted to gain entry onto campus grounds, wandering and trying multiple doors before eventually being escorted off by school administrators. And in November 2025, an unauthorized man remained inside Dare County, North Carolina's Manteo Elementary School undetected for nearly 45 minutes, raising concerns over visitor monitoring.

Although schools don't publicly release statistics on unauthorized access to campus facilities, it's clearly a concern. The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 97% of schools control access to their buildings, requiring visitors to sign in, check in and wear badges.

Increasingly, access control is handled by a self-service kiosk.

Eliminating the opportunity for errors

Along with students, faculty and staff, schools see a host of visitors throughout the day. It could be a parent picking up a sick child or dropping off the notebook that the child left at home. It could be a vendor delivering food to the cafeteria or new computers for the classrooms. It could be maintenance workers arriving to fix a copy machine that's not working, or an HVAC system on the fritz.

Whatever the reason, a typical school day will likely see dozens of visitors dropping by.

In the past, access control was typically the job of whoever happened to be working the front desk when a visitor arrived. Unfortunately, that system is fraught with errors. The desk worker might not write down a visitor's name correctly, or they might get fooled by a well-crafted fake ID. A visitor might say, "I'm just dropping off field trip money for my child" or "I forgot my badge; I'm with maintenance."

Or they say, "I'm just going to be here for a second." The staff member waves them through to avoid slowing things down or to avoid confrontation. Social engineering, or tricking people through manipulation or charm, is the most common way to circumvent access controls, and people often bend the rules out of basic politeness.

A kiosk, on the other hand, applies the rules the same way every time.

"The reason why we implemented the kiosk system is due to us realizing that our previous method was creating an unacceptable wait time at reception and providing far too many opportunities for errors to occur," said Don Poh, group CEO of Lorna Whiston Schools in Singapore, in an email interview.

"Our intention was to create a safer environment while also improving our day-to-day operations with minimal added work for our staff members," he said. "The kiosk provides a fast and efficient way for visitors to enter their information, and it immediately produces a name tag. This created a positive, consistent first impression for parents and other visitors throughout the entire school."

Others echoed that sentiment.

"I first became acquainted with school visitor kiosks through a district that was piloting one following a near-miss," said Ganesh Iyer, founder of customer experience delivery design firm CX Everywhere, in an email interview.

"Because the front office was short-staffed that morning, a parent who came to school walked directly into a hallway," he said. "No damage, but it prompted a tough conversation about process shortfalls."

The kiosk wasn't rolled out as a tech upgrade, Iyer said; it was a reaction to an inconsistent performance caused by too many manual steps that relied on whoever was at the desk.

Providing consistent control

Kiosks have been used for access control and visitor management for years, in venues such as corporate offices and government buildings. With an ever-increasing number of school-related safety incidents, it's no surprise that education is a growing market.

Names offering kiosk solutions for the school visitor management space include well-known companies such as Meridian Kiosks, RedyRef and Advanced Kiosks. Others focused specifically on the school market include Raptor Technologies and School Gate Guardian.

A modern school visitor management kiosk typically combines a touchscreen with an ID scanner, camera, and badge printer. A visitor checks in, the system captures required data such as name, destination and the reason for their visit, and the kiosk prints a badge that can include a photo, timestamp and visit type. Some systems will notify the person the visitor seeks to meet by text or email.

Many school-focused platforms include automated screening against restricted-visitor lists, such as custody restrictions, trespass notices, or district-defined banned lists and in some solutions, checks against registered sex offender databases.

Once a visitor is in the system, repeat check-ins can be as quick as confirming identity, selecting the reason for the visit and printing a badge. Some systems also support QR-code invitations or preregistration to reduce time at the desk.

In addition to visitor management, districts increasingly use the same kiosk infrastructure to track late arrivals, early dismissals, volunteer check-ins and contractor access.

In Central Florida, for example, some schools have installed "tardy kiosks" to track late arrivals. Late-arriving students check in at an attendance office kiosk, which instantly prints a tardy pass with the teacher's name and time, while syncing in real time with the school's student information system to immediately update attendance data. Administrators say tardiness has decreased since the kiosks were deployed because students now take greater responsibility for getting to school on time.

Schools in Tucson, Arizona, are testing a "digital hall pass" system for students who leave class during the day. Students request a pass from a teacher, which is logged in the platform using their student ID; the system records the destination and tracks their return when they check back in with the teacher.

And schools in Middletown, Connecticut, recently implemented a kiosk-based system for tracking student attendance. Upon arriving at the school, students scan an ID barcode at a kiosk to check in for the day. The system can also take payments for student fees.

The ever-present privacy tradeoff

The use of visitor management kiosks has raised legitimate concerns when it comes to data privacy. Scanning IDs and collecting visitor information creates a sensitive dataset that must be secured, retained appropriately, and handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws and district policies. Schools need to be transparent about what is collected, how long it is stored, who can access it and how it is protected.

There is also an ongoing debate among school IT and security professionals about whether these types of solutions provide real risk reduction or simply create "security theater," a perception of safety that may not actually exist.

At the end of the day, the combination of a locked entryway, trained staff, and clear procedures is the primary way to keep students safe. When it comes to a kiosk-based visitor management system, the value isn't just security, it's consistency. That consistency matters in a school environment where procedures can drift when a new secretary starts, a substitute is covering the desk, or the office is overwhelmed during arrival and dismissal.

About Richard Slawsky

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