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School registration is surprisingly complex—it’s not just that registrations need to be processed, but that each of your students has different registration needs. For example, student A might need to enroll in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class, an advanced math program, and your afterschool program. On the other hand, Student B needs to register for a before-school swimming class and a remedial reading program.
With such a wide variety of educational needs—as well as attendance, student fees, communication, fundraising, and more—to stay on top of, managing your school’s registration process can easily become a major source of stress. Luckily, tools such as school registration software are available to make the registration management experience easier.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about school registration software:
- What Is School Registration Software?
- 4 Tips for Choosing the Best School Registration Software for Your School
- 5 School Registration Software Features to Look For
- 10 Best School Registration Software Solutions for 2025
With the information and tips in this guide, you’ll be fully equipped to choose a solution that streamlines your school’s registration management and allows you to get back to what matters most—working hard to help all of your students learn and grow, no matter their individual needs.
Are you ready to find your solution? Let’s dive in!
What Is School Registration Software?
School registration software is a digital tool that helps administrators, teachers, and other school leaders with scheduling and class enrollment, before and after school program management, payment processing, attendance tracking, fundraising, marketing, communication, and reporting. In other words, a school registration solution can help you organize every part of a student’s school experience, from when they first enroll to their last time in your afterschool program.
With the right solution, your school will experience many benefits, including:
- More time for teachers and administrative staff to spend working with students and larger school goals instead of tedious administrative tasks
- The ability to customize your school’s registration process
- Less stress and disorganization
- Easier and more secure payment processing for all student fees and other payments
- Fewer filing cabinets overflowing with paper forms
- Reduced IT support costs
It’s also helpful to know the difference between school registration software and a student information system (SIS). An SIS is where you store and organize individual student data related to grades, attendance, and more. School registration software, on the other hand, is a platform that allows you to streamline registration and other administrative tasks that fall outside the purview of individual teachers’ classrooms. Ideally, your registration management solution will be able to easily integrate with your SIS!
4 Tips for Choosing the Best School Registration Software for Your School
Before choosing your school registration management software, you’ll want to thoroughly vet each of your options to find the one that best meets your school’s needs. In this section, we’ll give you some actionable tips for doing just that to help you feel prepared to make a smart investment in a tool that can truly help streamline your registration process:
1. Identify your school’s specific needs.
Just as every student is different, so is every school. Your school’s location, specific demographics, and student age range can all affect your registration needs. For example, your school may not have the resources to offer a before or afterschool care program, or you may have special afterschool sports programs that other schools don’t. These unique characteristics will affect how you shop for a school registration solution.
This is why it’s important to work with your fellow administrators, teachers, and parent leaders at your school to identify your needs. For example, you might decide you need a solution that offers secure payment processing for all types of payments or provides tools for fundraising events.
These needs will make up your “shopping list” for your software solution and give you a clear idea of what features to look for as you consider individual providers. It may also be helpful to identify which needs are critical and what might be nice to have but won’t make or break your shopping decisions.
2. Consider your software budget.
The reality of working in education is that you have limited amounts of funding to invest in software. You’ll need to consider your budget while shopping for your solution. You’ll likely need to involve your district office and school board to determine the amount of money you have to work with. It may even be appropriate to collaborate with your PTA or PTO to fundraise so you can get the solution you need.
Note that some solutions will require a flat fee upfront, while others charge your school on a monthly or annual subscription basis. In addition, some features may be optional or cost extra to set up.
3. Look for a user-friendly solution.
School registration software should make your job easier. As you consider individual solutions, we recommend doing the following:
- Read reviews to understand how user-friendly each platform is.
- Learn what support and training, if any, your chosen provider offers (some providers charge extra for these services).
- Look into how your new solution integrates with your school’s current tools (such as your SIS).
The last thing you want is to pay for a registration management solution that you don’t know how to use and end up wasting your time and school’s money. Do your due diligence to learn how the platform works and what support is provided before signing a contract!
4. Examine all of a solution’s features.
Not every feature a software provider offers will be relevant or useful for your school’s purposes. Get to know your chosen platform’s features, and work with your fellow administrators and teachers to decide whether those features will truly help fulfill your school’s needs and better serve your student body. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at the features you should watch for as you shop.
5 School Registration Software Features to Look For
As mentioned, some school registration management software features will be absolutely critical to streamlining your school’s internal processes and cutting down the time spent on administrative tasks. Other features might be great bonuses that you can leverage to fundraise or better communicate with school families, while some might not be helpful at all.
Let’s walk through five essential features your chosen provider should have:
- Registration document upload capabilities: Some solutions only offer digital registration, restricting families’ abilities to fill out paper forms in-person during registration week. An ideal solution will allow users to easily upload documents so that you can accommodate everyone’s needs.
- Student upload service (SIS Integration): Your solution should seamlessly integrate with your school’s SIS, allowing you to automate student uploads and update your new student database on a regular basis. Some solutions will even allow you to create welcome letters for new students to help create a great first impression as they begin their educational journey at your school.
- Flexible and secure payments: Your school may require fees for class trips, clubs, laptop insurance, athletics, and arts and family and consumer sciences courses. To accept and track these fee payments, you’ll need to be able to securely process multiple payment types, including credit card, ACH, e-check, and cash. Your registration management software should also allow you to manage PTA/PTO membership dues, fundraisers, and event tickets and merchandise sales.
- Digital attendance tracking: Ensuring students are attending class and that they’re safe on your campus is a top priority. With the right solution, you’ll be able to record attendance, facilitate parent check-in and check-out, authorize pick-ups, and have quick and easy access to emergency contact information.
- Before and after care tools: Before and after school care programs are essential services for families in your school’s community that enrich a child’s educational experience and provide parents with peace of mind while they work hard to provide for their children. Look for software with features that allow you to enroll students in your before and after care programs, handle billing, adapt to schedule changes, and keep students safe by tracking their locations and digitally checking them in and out of your programs.
As you look for these features in each solution you consider, pay attention to how easy it is to fully leverage each feature. Having these essential features won’t do you any good if you’re unable to tap into their potential.
10 Best School Registration Software Solutions for 2025
1. CommunityPass
CommunityPass offers comprehensive, cloud-based, and easy-to-use school registration software. Our solution is designed for all kinds of schools and education-related organizations, including public schools, private schools, charter schools, community schools, adult education programs, parent-teacher organizations, and before and after care programs.
Our all-in-one software contains a robust suite of useful features that streamline, simplify, and automate your school’s processes. Here are just a few of the features we provide:
- Online registration and purchases
- Integrated payment processing
- Instructor websites
- Before and after care management
- Digital attendance tracking
- Student information management
- Fundraising and donations
- Marketing and communications
- Comprehensive reporting
In addition to all these features and an easy-to-use interface, CommunityPass also offers setup services, phone and online support, and training (including webinars and videos). We’ve been building solutions to meet school registration needs for over 20 years—contact us to see how we can help your school today!
2. GoSignMeUp
GoSignMeUp offers registration management software for classes, workshops, and training for various industries and organizations, including K-12 schools. This provider offers personalized service that includes simple online registration, class rosters, and student portals, helping organizations spend more of their valuable time on instruction, not administration.
3. Regpack
Regpack helps businesses and organizations grow their revenue by processing registrations and collecting payments directly on their websites. Through their school registration software, your organization can offer secure online registration, helping you increase enrollment and simplify operations.
4. Enrollsy
If you bring people together through classes, programs, workshops, camps, or trainings, Enrollsy is made for you. Used by a wide range of industries, this school registration software eliminates manual data entry and disorganized forms to reduce errors. Plus, you can quickly and easily fill enrollment spots, promote your school’s offerings, and customize the system to fit your specific needs.
5. DreamClass
DreamClass is a modern school registration software system, offering paperless admission, digital gradebooks, and online admission payments. Aside from admissions and attendance features, it also comes with class scheduling, lesson plans, grade entry, and tuition payment tools for a well-rounded solution to common school issues.
6. Jumbula
Jumbula is another registration solution built for classes, camps, childcare, and afterschool programs. It allows you to take complicated tasks and break them down into individual components. For instance, it breaks enrollment down into registration forms and waivers, capacities and waitlists, and payment plans, coupons, and discounts. Through Jumbula, access flexible planning to reach more families and grow your programs.
7. Udio
Udio is a class management system that caters to both education and business audiences, mainly in the wellness sphere. Dance schools, gymnastics schools, sports coaches, and yoga and wellness businesses can all benefit from working with this registration software. With this cloud-based platform, you can automate bookings, schedule classes, manage class sizes, assign instructors, and more to grow your organization.
8. Scribbles Software
With Scribbles Software, you can streamline K-12 student records and enrollment and engage families with a single cloud-based system. They offer two solutions: school registration and enrollment software and records management software. Their registration and enrollment capabilities allow you to manage required application documentation, configure enrollment programs that meet your school district’s needs, and provide a simple registration process for families with multiple children.
9. AfterSchool HQ
AfterSchool HQ is a management platform that provides solutions that help organizations provide enriching experiences for kids. While they specialize in helping manage youth programs, they also have solutions for other educational organizations, such as charter schools and afterschool programs. Use their school registration software to customize online registration and offer secure online payments for a smooth, streamlined process.
10. JotForm
Less of a traditional school registration software, JotForm is a system that enables you to generate powerful forms that get your administrative work done. It offers a report builder so you can construct professional-looking registration forms branded to your school—and you can collect payments and fees directly through your form! If you’re just looking to create polished forms that simplify registration, JotForm is a great choice. But, if you’re looking for additional important features, it might not be the right provider for you.
Additional Resources
Managing all the moving parts of your school’s registration processes is no small feat. Each student has different needs that must be addressed, and ensuring that everything runs smoothly can be taxing, even for the most experienced administrators.
By investing in school registration software, you’re investing in your school’s future, enabling you to move forward with more efficient and effective processes. Leveraging the right tools can help you quickly get back to what matters most—providing the students in your community with a world-class education that can prepare them to succeed in life.
If you’re interested in learning more about school management, check out the following resources:
- Promoting Financial Stewardship: 4 School Accounting Tips. Financial management is another large stumbling block for schools. Explore school accounting best practices to keep your finances in tip-top shape.
- 3 Ways to Engage Your School Community with Technology. School tech isn’t just for making your life easier. Discover how you can create a tightly-knit community with technology.
- CommunityPass’s Guide to the California Department of Education’s ELO-P. The ELO-P is a grant given by the California Department of Education to local education agencies. Learn how to apply and secure ELO-P funding here.
