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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

The sign-in sheet: the usual fields, and where your state's rules are

Checked October 30, 2026

Most sign-in sheets have five columns: the child's name, the time in, the signature of the grown-up who dropped off, the time out, and the signature of the grown-up who picked up. Your state's child care licensing rules decide what a sign-in record must hold and how long you keep it, so look yours up before relying on any template. Childcare.gov lists every state's resources.

The five columns

  1. The child's name (first names are enough on a sheet everyone reads).
  2. Time in.
  3. The drop-off grown-up's signature.
  4. Time out.
  5. The pick-up grown-up's signature.

The sign-in sheet maker prints those five with your roster already on it.

Daily or weekly

A daily sheet is one page a day in portrait, easy to file by date. A weekly sheet puts the names down the side and Monday to Friday across in landscape, so one page holds the week. Pick the one your program files.

Your state's rules

States set what a sign-in record must include and how long to keep it, and the rules differ by state and by kind of program. We don't state any of them here. Look yours up through Childcare.gov's state and territory resources, or ask your licensing consultant.

Try this Keep a pen on a string by the clipboard. A sheet without a pen gets signed later, from memory.

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Sources

All guidesPreschool and daycare