This article walks you through configuring your center's geofence in Playground, setting your address, choosing your radius, and deciding which features enforce the boundary.
What Is Geofencing?
Geofencing lets you draw a virtual boundary around your center. Once set up, Playground uses that boundary to control who can check students in or out and who can unlock doors, based on whether they're physically within that boundary when using the mobile app. You set the boundary by entering your center's address and a radius in meters, and Playground handles the rest.
Set Up Your Geofence
From your Admin Dashboard, click Settings in the left sidebar.
On the General tab, locate and click the Geofence row.
In the Address field, type your center's address and select it from the search results. The map will update to show a pin at your center's location.
In the Geo distance field, enter the radius of the geofence in meters. The circular boundary on the map will update to reflect the distance you enter.
Use the Map or Satellite toggle to switch views and visually confirm the boundary looks correct for your location.
Click Save to save your address and radius settings.
🚨 Geofencing requires location access to be enabled on each user's device. On iPhone, go to Settings → Playground → Location and select While Using the App or Always. On Android, go to Settings → Apps → Playground → Permissions → Location and allow location access.
🚨 Geofencing requires the Playground mobile app build 605 or later.
Configure Geofence for Attendance Check-In
The Requires geofence to check in setting controls who must be within the geofence boundary before they can check students in or out on the mobile app.
On the Geofence settings page, locate Requires geofence to check in.
Click the drop-down and select one of the following options:
None: No geofence restriction on check-in.
Parents: Families must be within the geofence to check in or out.
Staff: Staff must be within the geofence to check in or out.
Parents and Staff: Both families and staff must be within the geofence to check in or out.
Click Save.
🚨 If you select Parents and Staff, any staff member who clocks in from outside the geofence on the mobile app will be blocked. Make sure your geofence radius is large enough to cover any locations where staff legitimately clock in.
Configure Geofence for Door Locks
The Require geofence for door locks toggle controls whether mobile app users must be within the geofence before they can unlock doors through Playground.
On the Geofence settings page, locate Require geofence for door locks.
Toggle the setting on to require users to be within the geofence, or off to allow door unlocks from any location.
Click Save.
💡 For more on managing door locks and access hours, see Manage Door Locks in Playground.
Configure Door Access Settings
In addition to the geofence settings, you can manage door access hours and permissions from the Integrations tab.
From your admin dashboard, click Integrations in the left sidebar.
Click Manage next to Door locks.
Under Door access hours, you'll see two settings:
Manage access for each door individually: When toggled on, you can control access for guardians and staff on a per-door basis. When toggled off, staff access is managed through roles only and guardians can only access doors through the kiosk.
Staff door access via roles: Displays which staff roles currently have access to the Door Access tab on the mobile app.
When Manage access for each door individually is toggled on, each door will appear below with options for Guardians and Teachers. Click Edit access hours next to either to set the access level. Choose from the following:
Cannot unlock this door: Blocks access entirely.
Can unlock this door at certain times: Restricts access to specific days and
times you define.
Can always unlock this door: Grants unrestricted access at any time.
Click Save access hours when you're done.
💡 For centers using door access, kiosks can be configured to unlock doors without recording an attendance event. This is an internal setting that must be enabled by the Playground support team. Reach out to support if you'd like this turned on for your center.
View the Access Log
Each door has an Access log that shows a full history of every unlock attempt. To view it, click View log next to the door. The log shows the time, user, source (Kiosk or Direct), status, and any errors for each attempt.
FAQs
What unit is the geo distance in?
What unit is the geo distance in?
Meters. Enter the radius as a number in meters — for example, 100 sets a 100-meter boundary around your center's address.
Can I set different geofence settings for check-in and door locks?
Can I set different geofence settings for check-in and door locks?
Yes. The check-in and door lock settings are independent. You can require geofencing for door locks without restricting check-in, or restrict check-in to parents only while leaving door locks unrestricted.
Geofencing isn't working — what should I check first?
Geofencing isn't working — what should I check first?
The most common reason geofencing doesn't work is that the Playground app does not have permission to access the device's location. On iPhone, go to Settings → Playground → Location and set it to While Using the App or Always. On Android, go to Settings → Apps → Playground → Permissions → Location and allow location access. Once location permission is granted, geofencing should work on the next check-in or door unlock attempt. Also confirm the user's app is on build 605 or later.
A family says they couldn't check in even though they were at the school. What should I check?
A family says they couldn't check in even though they were at the school. What should I check?
First confirm location permissions are enabled on their device (see above). Then check that your geofence radius is large enough to cover the drop-off area. GPS on mobile devices can have slight inaccuracies, so a radius that's too tight may block users who are physically present. Try increasing the radius by 20–30 meters and ask the family to try again.