Elementary School Pick-Up Policy

[richmond282]

Each student is assigned a #. The parents have a tag to hang on their rear view mirrors w/ the # on it. They pull up to a designed colored cone. A teacher calls the # out on a walkie-talkie. The child reports to their colored cone. Another teacher loads them in the car. It sounds comlicated, but works well for a school that has virtually no parking for parents.

 

[DisneyKT]

We go in and sign out DD. They dismiss the pickups first then the buses. The walkers go last so the crossing guard can stop the traffic for the kids.

 

[danalee]

Parents park in fron lot (away from buses) and go into the lobby of the school and wait to be "buzzed" in. Once in, you sign out your child (there name, your name & relationship) you must be on the "parental Pick-up List" from the start of the year.
Then they call students by name to report to inner lobby, you get your child and go.
Sounds long and complicated but its quick and painless, lol!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

At our elementary there is a "circle drive" behind the school. Theoretically, parents are to drive north, turn right, enter the circle, get their child, exit (RIGHT turn ONLY) and go on their way. It SHOULD work. But it doesn't, because lots of people are too special for rules.
They park in the circle, they turn left to exit, they park up and down both sides of the street so traffic can't get through and (my favorite) they skip the circle entirely, pull up parallel to the school and lay on the horn until a teacher escorts the child out into the STREET and puts him/her into the car! Idiots.

DH usually picked up DS, so he would park down the street where it wasn't crowded and walk up to get DS. On the days I would do pick-up I went through the circle drive. DS would just have to tell a teacher "There's my mom." and come get in the car.

Now DS is in middle school and it works basically the same way, only there are a couple of administrators who help keep the cars moving in the circle drive and the kids just disperse without having to tell anyone.

 

[MM27]

At my school no children are bussed. The district only busses kids in prek-grade 2. After that it's up to the parents to drive them or they walk. When we dismiss our classes, each grade goes out a different door. Parents wait at the door where their child is dismissed and the teachers just release them there. If there is more than one child in a family, the kids just walk around to the door where their parent is waiting. We don't sign kids out unless the parents pick them up before dismissal time.

 

[PenskeSth1]

All the car rider children sit out by where the car rider pick up is. There is a small bench where most of the Kindergarden children sit and then 1st-5th sit up on the sidewalk under the porch. The parents pull in the driveway and as they pull up the P.E coach reads the name of the child off the paper hanging from the rearview mirror and what grade they are in. He then uses his little hand radio to call the teacher with the headset to let her know my childs name and grade, she calls his name and then another teacher loads him in the truck. There is one way in and one way out. The line usually goes out the driveway and down the road.

We use to have three different areas of pick up, but they changed it to just the one this year.

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

At dds school there is a circle drive in front. All grades are walked out by thier teacher to the front of the school.

There are three after school programs on property. They each have thier own area. As the teachers pass those areas the students leave the line to go to thier program.

In the front there are designated areas for each grade level to gather. There is one bus, which also has it own designated area. Parents pull into the drive and pull up to thier area. The teacher then confirms who is picking up the child and will open/close the door for thier student. It is fast now that the first few weeks of school are over.


OP - what was your old policy & what is your new one?

 

[Becky2005]

Ours is pretty straight forward -- this year is a bit different since the entire school is bussed across town since our regular school is under construction this year. I got the memo how to do the pick-up but it's confusing, so I hope to never have to do it.

Normally....we have 2 pick-up lots that the parents can pick-up at. The younger grades tend to come out one door, so when I have 2 kids...the older one walks over to the more crowded lot unfortunately. The kids all wait & have to watch for their cars, then 5th grade patrols open the door, kids get in, patrols close the door & you drive off. If all goes well...it's just one big loop of cars.

The only problem is when parents decided to get out of their car in the car line -- so you have this parked car that shouldn't be there in the line of moving traffic backs things up & causes problems. Usually if it caused too much problem, the Principal (who is always out there at the beginning of dismissal time) would go direct traffic and then when the parent would come to their car, would inform them they are NOT to do that. Usually, it mostly happens in the beginning when there are new parents and they don't quite get the car line concept...you never see it happen in the winter because the parents don't want to go stand out in the cold waiting for their child to come out the doors. They just pull up. If your child isn't out when you get to the spot, they will just tell you to pull up & wait there (which is OK because then people can get around you & the kids can keep loading) OR you can choose to park.

Now, you CAN park and walk across to pick up your child(ren) but they are not allowed to go into the parking lot without you. I tended to park as my older DS tended to not even get out of the school until the patrols were already dismissed. I don't know how many times we asked the teachers on patrol to call the office to have him paged to come to X lot.

If you are a student in the car line & your parent hasn't come about 20 minutes after dismissal time, the teachers take you back in with them to the office & calls start being made.

The bussers are dismissed before the walkers/car riders so they go to their spots in the gym, a teacher goes out & calls the bus numbers in the order they are in the line up & out the kids go.

If you are in Kindergarten, then a parent has to pick them up either the teacher waits with them in the car line or they have to see you. They can't just take off & walk home by themselves. Anyone from 1st - 5th grade can though.

So far, it's been working this way for at least 10 years that I've been having children in the school & I'm pretty sure it was already done that way before my first one entered.

 

[disneydance]

When I was in elementary school (4 years ago as we go till 6th grade) we would wait outside in a covered area outside our parents cars would drive up and we would raise our hands once we saw them and they would excuse us once all the cars had gone to a hault.

 

[Planogirl]

DS only attended 5th grade in this area but his school had walkers, bus riders and pick ups. If you picked up you either waited in a long line of cars or parked and walked up to the side of the school where the 3rd through 5th graders came out with their teachers. DS would recognize me and off we would go.

 

[MoniqueU]

Bussing isn't big here at all. Mostly the people that are bussed are special ed. Some kids walk home but most get picked up.
They just let them all loose except maybe the K's who have to have someone be it a sibling or a parent come meet them and even that I am not sure about.
We used to have a dirt lot across from where the K rooms were and alot of parents would park there to get their littler kids.
Now that is all built up with houses and our parking lot is full to the brim with teachers cars.
So basically the bell rings and all hell breaks loose. You have parents double parked, doing illegal u turns and blocking other parents in.
The Jr High and High school are just as bad. They all have staggered dismissal times but even that doesn't help.
One of the reasons my DS is going to private school is that 2000 students in a high school all standing in the road like morons at the end of the school day was just too much for me. His small catholic school has a looping parking lot and while it gets crowded the parents down there have more manners then the ones where my girls go to public school.

We have 2 sides to the school and you can pick up out in front or on the side. Kids dart in between cars and it is just a zoo. I don't see a solution for it with that many parents picking up calling kids by name or getting out of your car with no place to park wouldn't work.

 

[Michelle67]

Our school is really tiny and obviously this wouldn't work at larger schools. But what we do is that we have to park and walk into the school, and we are allowed to stand in the corridor outside the office (just inside the main entrance). That hallway crosses with another just after the office. Bus riders are sent out first, then the teachers walk their parent pickup kids down. They stop and line up along the walls on three sides of the + made by the two hallways, while parents are on the fourth arm. When the child sees his/her parent they tell the teacher, teacher makes eye contact with the parent, and the child can go. It's relatively painless.

At our old school (another city) it was an insane and frightening free for all. Parents parking on both sides of the street and in the middle of the street, yelling at the kids to run across (which meant they were running out from between cars to cross the street), people weaving around in the oncoming lane trying to get past the cars parked in the middle of the road (because they would actually park there and wait, or even get out of the car, not just stop there while the child jumped in) without hitting the kids running all over the place. It was a mess.

 

[Sleepy]

Several years ago the elementary school my son went to had a ridiculous policy for pick ups. A parent had to go inside the building and sign the student out in the library......everyday! It was a pain. I mean, why didn't they show that sort of concern for walkers? Those kids could just walk out the front door and disappear. I was glad when my son started middle school.

 

[mumom95]

Kids being picked up by parents must wait in the cafeteria and parents must line up and sign their child out.

That's how it works in our school too.

 

[aprilgail2]

Our elementary school has changed our pick-up policy, one I didn't think there was a problem with. So, I'm wondering if anyone would share with me what the policy is at your school. I'm talking about the students who are picked up every day by parents, not walkers or busers.

If you do not take a bus home you are considered a walker at our school. After all the bus kids and busses leave then they let the non bus kids go. The parents wait outside the school- they can walk up to the front of the school or park someplace in the street and have their kids walk to the car. You have to send a note in saying your child will not be taking the bus and then they are a "walker" -they are all let out in one big group and its the parents responsibility (oh the horror-the school expects the parents to be responsible LOL) to be there on time to pick their child up if they don't want them to either hang around outside the school waiting for them or start walking home but one dismissal time comes out the kids go and they become the parents responsibility.

 

[golfgal]

WOW, all the sophisticated systems. I am amazed our kids ever made it out to the right cars. When our kids were in elementary school they were dismissed from school, ran out the doors and played on the playground until mom or dad or whomever showed up. The more experienced parents knew that if you waited for about 10 minutes after school let out, no traffic. In kindergarten the teacher walked the kids outside and waited with them for a parent unless they had an older sibling or neighbor kid then they went with that child.

The only time you had to sign your child out was if you were taking them out of school early.

 

[Madi100]

Can you tell us your old and new policy?

Our school is right next to a church. The church has a circular drive all the way around it. There is parking on either side. The old policy allowed parents to either park their cars and walk over to the end of a long sidewalk and wait for the students, or to get in a pick-up line that allows parents to remain in their cars. People are not allowed to park on the side of the church closest to the school to keep the area open for parents who are driving through and to keep it uncongested for the kids. When the bell rings, the teachers take turns walking the students down the sidewalk and anyone who has walked over to get their child, those kids are dismissed. I'd say this accounts for half the kids. The other half of the kids are dismissed as the teacher sees their car. Those are dismissed three at a time. I thought the system worked quite well.

The new policy is that the parents will all have to park now and walk up the sidewalk and wait outside the door to pick up their children. I have heard many reasons for this change, and maybe if they were consistent, I'd be handling this better. Some say that they don't want to have to worry about the liability of opening the car doors for the kids. Well, just don't open the car doors. Make it clear that that isn't going to happen. There is one other reason, that would have a simple solution (not sharing that one for safety reasons), and my favorite is that they don't want the kids to have to stand in the rain. So, instead, the parents will have to stand in the rain, wait for their kids, and then still walk their child in the rain to their car. So, the kids will be in the rain just as much. The parents will be in the rain a lot, because there is no shelter waiting outside the school. The only one this is going to benefit is the teachers who don't want to help anymore. It rarely rains. If anything, it is cold in the winters, and the kids all wear winter coats, hats, mittens, etc.

My biggest concern is for the parents who will have no option to get their child but to walk up that sidewalk. It does get slick in the winter time. And, elementary kids can handle that better than some of our older parents, grandparents, or people with infants or preschoolers.

 

[mjkacmom]

No busses. The kindy and first grade teachers tend to look out for parents, but after that, they are just released onto the lawn.

 

[Savsmommy]

Parents cars line up in 2 lines weaved through out the parking lot. Each parent has a sign they hold up saying the childs name and grade which a teacher says through the walkie talki. The parents are then given a number 1-8 and your child is waiting at the cone when you drive around.

 

[mnasmom3]

Interesting to see all of the different ways pick up's are done!

We have no bussing in our district with the exception of special ed students, so you can imagine the mayhem at our elementary! There is no good policy at our school but no policy seems to work. The bell rings and the kids leave the school. It's very "deja vu" at pick up time. You'll see the same people parking in the same spots, standing in the same locations, etc. That way everyone knows where the person picking them up is. It's a good mix of people who wait in their cars while the student walks out to them and others who leave their cars and stand near the building waiting for their student.