Transform everyday student interactions into actionable data.
Designed for K–12 environments, CR-One supports both physical and mobile credentials across the most important moments of the school day.
Video includes rendered product visuals. Reader light color may vary based on status and configuration.
Explore CR-One
A New Kind of Reader
From transportation to lunch to the library, each school day is made up of critical touchpoints that directly impact how students succeed and how administrators lead.
CR-One is an NFC reader built to connect these moments. It enables teams to capture and connect interactions across systems, turning everyday activity into structured, real-time insight. With deeper visibility into each interaction, teams can quickly identify issues, improve reliability, and reduce time spent troubleshooting in the field.
It integrates with the transportation and district systems already in place while also serving as an entry point into CI Solutions’ Badge ecosystem. Designed to scale from a single use case to fully connected campuses and districts, CR-One helps teams spend less time managing systems and more time supporting students.
From transportation to lunch to the library, each school day relies on key touchpoints running smoothly.
CR-One is an NFC reader built to connect these moments. It captures and connects interactions across systems, turning everyday activity into real-time insights.
It works with existing systems and scales from a single use case to connected campuses — so teams spend less time managing systems and more time supporting students.
Key Features
- Real-Time Visibility Across the School Day
- Context-Rich, Actionable Data
- Seamless Integration with Existing Systems
- Flexible Credential Support
- Centralized Device Management & Over-the-Air Updates
- Faster Troubleshooting & Improved Reliability
- Scalable Across District Needs
How it Works
A standard reader simply records that a tap occurred.
CR-One captures a snapshot of each interaction — who tapped, when, and where — turning everyday moments into meaningful data.
1.
Tap to Connect
Students tap their card or mobile credential on the CR-One reader.
2.
Interaction Captured
CR-One securely records the tap.
3.
Context Added
Each tap is enriched with details like time, location, and route.
5.
Actionable Insights
Administrators gain visibility into district operations and device performance.
Built for Every Campus Touchpoint
Transportation
Track ridership and monitor activity across routes, stops, and daily operations.
Campus Access
Support safe and efficient entry at key access points across campus.
Food Services
Enable faster, more efficient lunch transactions while improving visibility into usage.
Library & Resource Access
Simplify check-ins and track access to shared resources across campus.
Events
Manage access for school events, activities, and secured areas.
Student Services & Campus Operations
Support a range of campus workflows through a unified credential system.
Go Mobile
Badge Mobile is an app that gives students a secure, digital version of their school-issued ID, complementing physical cards to help administrators build flexible, scalable ID programs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a connected reader?
A connected (or “smart”) reader like CR-One doesn’t just scan a card—it communicates.
Each tap is securely captured and sent in real time to your systems, along with important context like time and location. This allows districts to move beyond simple check-ins and gain a clearer, more complete picture of what’s happening across campus throughout the day.
Why would a tap fail — and how does CR-One help?
Tap issues can happen for a variety of reasons — such as unsupported or expired cards, authorization rules, or system and configuration issues. In some cases, if a card isn’t read at all (for example, due to how it’s presented), no interaction is captured.
When a tap is successfully read but doesn’t go through, CR-One records detailed context about the interaction. This allows teams to review what happened, identify root causes, and resolve issues more quickly.
For deployments that integrate with partner systems, CR-One can also enable real-time responses based on tap data — such as alerting when a rider boards the wrong bus.
Where can CR-One be used across a district?
CR-One can be used across both transportation and campus operations, including bus ridership, campus access, lunch, library services, and event check-ins.
Districts can start with a single use case and expand over time. There’s no need to deploy it everywhere at once to see value.
As more readers are added, each device contributes to a more connected campus. Across schools, these connected campuses create a unified view of operations, giving district teams clearer visibility and more streamlined management at scale.
Will we have to replace our existing systems to accommodate CR-One?
CR-One is designed to work with the systems you already have in place.
It serves as the hardware layer that captures credential interactions, giving you the flexibility to choose how and where that data is used — whether that’s an existing transportation or district platform or CI Solutions’ Badge ecosystem. Credential formats, integrations, and workflows can all be tailored to your district’s needs, with no full system replacement required.
How does CR-One protect student data?
CR-One is designed to capture event-based interactions, not continuous location tracking. It only records data when a student taps a credential—logging the details of that specific interaction, rather than monitoring movement over time.
From a security standpoint, CR-One uses industry-standard NFC protocols (ISO 14443/15693) and transmits data over secure network connections (Wi-Fi, cellular, or wired). Sensitive data is not stored long-term on the device itself.
The data flows into a district’s identity and credential management platform, like Badge, so administrators maintain control over how information is stored, accessed, and governed.
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