School lost and found - your thoughts?

I find it depends on the item. A no name brand, dirty hoodie gets tossed in the lost/found box in the hallway for kids to look through themselves. A well looked after under armor hoodie will be kept at the front desk and sometimes even an announcement on the pa system. If a name is written on the tag inside someone usually goes and finds the kid. We are a small town/school. Ie: the jr high is only 4 homerooms. My son has a common name but the only one with that first name. It wouldn't be hard to track him down if he left his backpack. Only jr kid with white/grey Under Armor one.

It should be up to the kid that loses the item (or their parents) to check the lost and found, not the responsibility of anyone else to track them down. If they know whose it is, and are kind enough to notify them, fine. But it shouldn't be anyone's 'job' to do so.
If you don't care enough about an item to check the lost and found, why should anyone else care if it gets returned to you?

Last year was my DD's first year of school. She brought home the wrong lunchbox (same design as her's - the lunchboxes were all lined up together so she just grabbed the wrong one). I had written DD's name inside her lunchbox, but the box she brought home didn't have a name. She took it back the next day and her teacher sent her to the office to check lost & found. I was surprised that no one brought her's back to her since it had her name in it. Glad I read this. I get it now.

Haven't read all the responses, but my primary school where I work has a lost and found corner in the cafeteria dining area. PTO members will occasionally sort through and hang larger items like winter coats on a coat rack specifically for that purpose.

After 15+ years working there, I am still astounded at the number of high-end winter coats and jackets that go unclaimed, and that have no identifying labeling on them.
My kid's name was written in sharpie in all of his coats and jackets for as long as he'd let me! My lunch lady crew will even flag down kids to retrieve coats/jackets if we find them with names in them.

If my elementary school child was missing a Lands End or Under Armour jacket, I would know it and be looking for it.

I think most people do not realize how "just a few minutes" can add up for school staff. My school is quite large. To gather, check for names and deliver to the office all of the items "lost" just during lunch would take well over an hour. Then somehow the students would have to be notified that their items are waiting for them. How? First you have to look up the child's schedule and then email the teacher. If the teacher doesn't check her email during that period, she has to write a reminder for the next day. One lunchbox, with a name written inside, could easily cost five minutes of productivity. Doesn't seem like much until you multiply it times the 50-60 items that are "lost" over the course of three lunch periods. Would anyone really rather five hours each day go to tracking down owners instead of answering the phones up front, grading papers in the classroom, scrubbing the tables in the lunchroom?

I have a raincoat in my room that hasn't been claimed. I don't know when it was left, but over the course of a week I have over 200 kids that are in my room. It could belong to a current student, one of my club members, someone that came in for tutoring or a friend that came with any of the above. If it is still there on Monday, it will go to the lost and found. When I discovered the coat, in a corner, folded up, I had to walk out of the building to shake off the water caught in the folds. I'm not by an outside door. That took about 4 minutes. Looked through for a name (tag, pockets, folded up homework, etc.). 1 minute. Hung it up (grabbed one of my hangers, found a magnetic hook to put on my board). 2 minutes. Seven minutes for one item in my room. In seven minutes I can grade one class set of quizzes. As it is, I work "off the clock" for hours each day. There isn't enough time to get what I NEED to get done as it is. I would appreciate it if my child's teacher took the time to make sure her raincoat didn't get mildew growing, but I'd never expect it.

Our school is low income, I am pretty sure that 50% of the clothes with names are names of previous owners, not the kids that actually own it now.  
Also, it all sounds easy the way you described it, but who takes the item to the office?  A student?  Would have to be someone responsible and wouldn't dawdle, but even so that is taking time out of the classroom.  You are assuming the school has a student aide  for when the item has been looked up- none of the elementaries I have worked at had one.  You are also assuming the office staff have nothing better to do then look this info up or are not busy when the item is dropped off.  I don't recall ever walking into our office and having the staff just sitting there waiting to look up an item.  They are typically on the phone with parents, filing paperwork, dealing with sick kids, or doing something else that is actually their responsibility.  If they are busy it either distracts them from their work or the person has to wait to ask their question, have it looked up, etc, etc.  
i don't get the big deal with just taking an item to lost and found and leaving it there.  There is no arguing that is the least time consuming process, and everyone (children and parents) know it exists and if something is missing that is a reasonable place to look for it.  If it is important to the parent or child they will make or find time to check.  

YES!! I placed a lost book at the front of the class on the white board. Students are staring at it ALL hour. After a week of subbing in this class I raised the book in the air each hour and asked if it belonged to anyone. Sure enough, it belonged to a girl in 3rd hour. She sits in the first seat of the row and didn't see the thing!

I can see it both ways. Ideally, kids would know they are missing something and go looking for it in the lost and found. But, that doesn't always happen. For example, when my oldest was in K or 1st grade, I realized that we were missing a coat in early fall, but I had just gone through things and put the coats that were from the previous year into storage and gotten the bigger ones out. I assumed I had just put it in the storage bin with the rest of the stuff. Several months later we were at the school for an event and I saw the coat (it was a distinct color) sitting in a bin for kids who forgot coats that day. I believe that DS must have worn it to school one day when it was cold in the morning but not in the afternoon, so he didn't realize that he had forgotten it. I was happy to have it back. Since our school is smaller, it would have been nice if someone would have just looked at the name and given it back to him.

my boys were both bus students so i wasn't often in the school. but i took special trips just to troll the main lost and found, the class basket and the gym (and always found something of ds1's). i would never expect a teacher to keep track of crap i can't keep track of! lol! and i have to lol because it drives.me.batty. lunch is sent in plastic grocery bags now, food in recycled cream cheese containers, crackers in the cracker bag if it's the end of the box... uh huh.

our school has parent volunteers that hang up jackets/hoodies, sorts shoes, mitts, etc and then bags and donates after several reminders a couple time of year. there is often some higher end stuff in there (columbia jackets, uggs).

I think it's unreasonable to expect school staff to sort through and return lost items. There are only so many hours in the day and the amount of lost items at a school can be overwhelming.

I always thought that putting your name on an article of clothing was a way for you to identify your belongings if there are multiples of said item. If labeled, you'd know exactly which blue sweatshirt belongs to you out of the several that could be in the lost and found pile, for example. I would not expect someone to just track me down to return the item.