K-12 · Visitor management

School visitor screening API: a sex offender check before the badge prints.

A school visitor screening API for K-12 front offices and the software that runs them. Scan the visitor’s ID, send the name and date of birth, and get a scored answer across 58 US sex offender registries — with the registry photo for staff — while the visitor is still at the window. $0.15 a check, no minimum.

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// Called by the kiosk once the ID barcode is parsed.
const BASE = 'https://api.offendersearch.app';
const headers = {
  'X-API-Key': process.env.OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY,
  'Content-Type': 'application/json',
};
const post = (path, body) =>
  fetch(BASE + path, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers,
    body: JSON.stringify(body),
    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(45_000),
  }).then((r) => r.json());

export async function screenVisitor({ firstName, lastName, dob }) {
  const query = { firstName, lastName, dob };
  const [registry, criminal] = await Promise.all([
    post('/v1/search', { query }),
    post('/v1/criminal/search', { query }),
  ]);

  // An answer that is not whole is never a clear one.
  if (registry.counts.sourcesIncomplete > 0) {
    return { action: 'hold', reason: 'incomplete' };
  }
  const review = registry.records.filter((r) =>
    ['dob_match', 'year_match', 'age_match'].includes(r.matchState),
  );
  if (review.length > 0) {
    // Quiet alert to trained staff, with the registry photo.
    return { action: 'alert', searchId: registry.searchId, review };
  }
  return {
    action: 'badge',
    searchId: registry.searchId,
    criminal: criminal.records, // your site policy decides what these mean
  };
}

Why schools check

School visitor management sex offender check — the gap it closes

Staff, substitutes and long-term volunteers are screened when they are hired or onboarded. The people who walk through the front door on an ordinary day mostly are not: a parent dropping off a forgotten lunch, a grandparent at a class performance, a contractor fixing the HVAC, a vendor delivering supplies, a chaperone joining a field trip. A staff-only screening policy never reaches them.

A registry check at sign-in closes that gap. It also catches what a single-state search misses: a person registered in another state is invisible to a lookup of your own state’s registry, while one call here searches 58 US registries — the 50 states, DC and the US territories.

Commercial school visitor systems such as Raptor, LobbyGuard and CENTEGIX build a registry check into sign-in. This page is for the teams that need the check as an API: districts and charter networks running their own sign-in app, ed-tech and student-information platforms adding a front-office module, and visitor management vendors serving K-12.

Workflow

K-12 visitor screening workflow — front office to classroom

01Visitor presents an ID at the front-office window or kiosk; the barcode gives name and date of birth.
02The app checks the district’s own lists — custody orders, no-trespass notices, banned visitors. Those stay in your system.
03The app calls POST /v1/search with firstName, lastName and dob.
04Completeness first: if counts.sourcesIncomplete is above zero, the front office treats the visitor as not yet cleared.
05No candidates: print the badge with name, photo and destination; log the searchId.
06A candidate: a silent alert to the designated administrator with the registry photo from images[] and the matchState.
07The administrator confirms identity against the photo and date of birth — away from other visitors and students.
08The district protocol decides: escort, a supervised visit, or entry refused, and who is told.
09Sign-out closes the visit, so the office always knows who is in the building.

Who to check

Who a school visitor screening API should check

Different people at the window need different checks. Hiring checks belong to HR and run as FCRA orders, not at the front desk.

Visitor	Check at the desk	Between visits
Parent or guardian at drop-off or pickup	Registry check on first sign-in; again per district policy	A person monitor if the district re-checks regular parents
Classroom volunteer or room parent	Registry check on each visit, or once plus a monitor	Person monitor, $3 a month
Field-trip chaperone	Batch-screen the roster before the trip	—
Contractor or vendor	Registry check, plus a criminal search where policy uses one	Person monitor for long jobs
Guest speaker or event visitor	Registry check at sign-in, or a batch from the invite list	—
Substitute teacher or new hire	Not a visitor check — an FCRA hiring check	FCRA order (FCRA Orders API)

Field trips and events

School volunteer and chaperone screening in one batch

When the list is known in advance — chaperones, a career-day roster, volunteers for a school fair — screen everyone in one request the week before.

curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/batch \
  -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/csv" \
  --data-binary @chaperones.csv

# chaperones.csv — one row per adult on the trip
# firstName,lastName,dob
# Dana,Whitfield,1979-02-03
# Luis,Ortega,1985-11-20

# Each row comes back in input order with its own
# status, counts.sourcesIncomplete and records[].

Up to 1,000 rows a request, CSV or JSON, billed as one call per row. The screening dashboard takes the same CSV for a front office with no developer — see bulk sex offender search and batch.

On a match

Handling a sex offender match at the school front desk

Alert quietly, never at the window

The visitor and anyone in line see nothing. The alert goes to a designated administrator’s screen or phone, with the photo and the match basis.

Confirm before acting

A dob_match on a registry that publishes a full date of birth is strong. year_match, age_match and name-only results are leads: compare the photo first.

Follow the written protocol

State laws differ on whether and when a registrant may be on school grounds, and some set conditions for parents. The response to a confirmed match belongs to district policy and counsel.

Log every check, clear ones included

Store the searchId with the visit. When a parent, a board or an auditor asks whether screening ran on a given day, the log answers.

Districts

District-wide school visitor screening across campuses

A district or charter network runs one account for every campus: one policy, one bill and one stored history of every check. Issue a separate API key per campus app or environment and rotate or revoke any one without touching the others. Front-office staff who are not using an app can run the same search in the screening dashboard, with teammates added at no per-seat cost.

For regular visitors — weekly volunteers, the same contractor all term — a person monitor is checked continuously and alerts by email or webhook when a registry status changes, so a change between visits does not wait for the next sign-in. Staff and volunteer onboarding is covered separately on sex offender screening for schools and childcare.

Cost

School visitor screening cost per campus

Registry checks only. Computed from the published schedule: $0.15 a call, $0.11 past 2,000 in a calendar month.

Site	Visits	Checks a month	Monthly cost	Per check
One elementary school	~30 sign-ins a day × 20 school days	600	$90.00	$0.15
One high school	~60 sign-ins a day × 20 school days	1,200	$180.00	$0.15
District of 12 campuses	~40 a day per campus × 20 days	9,600	$1,136.00	$0.12
District of 50 campuses	~40 a day per campus × 20 days	40,000	$4,480.00	$0.11

No seats, setup fee, minimum or contract. Summer months with no visitors cost nothing. Full schedule on pricing; the cost comparison with other providers is on affordable background check API.

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Law and policy

School visitor screening laws — what is and is not required

No federal statute requires a school to screen visitors. Visitor screening is set by state law and district policy, and both vary. The federal law most often cited as the school background-check law, 20 U.S.C. § 7926, does not mandate checks at all — it bars helping a known abuser get a new job.

That makes the district’s written policy the controlling document: who is checked, which result means an escort, who is notified, and how long the log is kept. California restricts how Megan’s Law information may be used, including for education, unless the use protects a person at risk or another law authorises it (Penal Code § 290.46(j)) — have counsel confirm how a deployment there fits. A visitor check is a safety check at the door; it is never the basis for a hiring decision.

Making a hiring decision? Use an FCRA workflow.

FCRA workflows are built primarily for tenant screening and hiring decisions. If a result will help decide whether to hire someone, the check has to run as an FCRA-regulated consumer report, with a permissible purpose, consent, accuracy controls and a dispute path for the person. Our standard search and API are not a consumer report. FCRA workflows run through FCRA Partner Access, for background check companies and screening platforms under a written FCRA agreement.

FCRA pricing is quoted per partner, so contact us for pricing.

Build or buy

School visitor screening API or a packaged visitor system?

You are…	Our pick	Why
A district or charter network with its own sign-in app	OffenderSearch API	One call from your app, your own kiosk design, your own data retention.
An SIS, ed-tech or front-office software company	OffenderSearch API	Inside your product, priced per call so the cost follows usage across your customers.
A visitor management vendor entering K-12	OffenderSearch API	58 US registries in one call, plus the vendor overview on sex offender screening for visitor management systems.
A district already using a packaged school visitor system	OffenderSearch API alongside it	Covers what a built-in check may not — batch rosters, monitors for regular volunteers, and a criminal search on the same key.

Our pick: OffenderSearch — one HTTPS call searches 58 US registries, with a published price of $0.15 a check, no seats and no minimum.

FAQ

School visitor screening API questions

How does a school check visitors against the sex offender registry?

The visitor’s ID is scanned at the front office, the sign-in app sends the name and date of birth to the API, and the answer — searched across 58 US registries — comes back before the badge prints. A possible match goes quietly to an administrator with the registry photo.

Do schools have to screen visitors?

No federal statute requires it. School visitor screening is set by state law and district policy, both of which vary. Check the rules in the states where you operate.

Which visitors should a school screen?

Most district policies cover any adult going past the front office: parents and guardians, volunteers, chaperones, contractors, vendors and guest speakers. Staff and substitutes are screened as hires, through FCRA checks, not at the desk.

Will common names flood the office with false alarms?

Not if you send the date of birth. It narrows the search to the person in front of you, and matchState tells staff whether a candidate matched on a full date of birth, a year, an age, or a name alone.

Does it find visitors registered in another state?

Yes. One call searches 58 US registries, so an out-of-state registration surfaces at the window just as an in-state one does.

Can we screen field-trip chaperones in advance?

Yes. Send the roster as a CSV or JSON to POST /v1/batch — up to 1,000 rows a request — and review any candidate before the trip. Each row is billed as one call.

How much does school visitor screening cost?

$0.15 a check, $0.11 past 2,000 checks a month across the whole account. A school with 600 sign-ins a month pays $90; there is no seat, setup or minimum charge.

Can a parent who is on the registry still visit?

That depends on state law and district policy, which differ. The API answers who is on a registry; the district’s protocol decides what happens next — an escort, a supervised visit or a refusal.

Do you work with Raptor or other school visitor systems?

We have no partnership with any school visitor vendor. The API can be called from any system that can make an HTTPS request.

School visitor screening API — try it on 25 free checks

No card, no sales call. Then $0.15 a check, $0.11 past 2,000 a month.

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The OffenderSearch APIs. One account, one key, one bill.