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Post by bigbundt on May 27, 2016 12:00:38 GMT
I have three kids still in car seats. Do you mean to tell me your elementary school ages child still cannot buckle and unbuckle himself? That seems...very odd. Technically he's pre-k so there's that. But honestly I've never told him he could try so that's on me, I'll have to ask him to try. though I'm not sure he has the finger strength to push the button, that sucker is a hard to push. Ours was hard to push too but she eventually got it.  She couldn't tighten the straps enough so I did have to reach back to do that but I was able to do that without getting out of the car, even when I was nine months pregnant. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 27, 2016 15:16:16 GMT
Technically he's pre-k so there's that. But honestly I've never told him he could try so that's on me, I'll have to ask him to try. though I'm not sure he has the finger strength to push the button, that sucker is a hard to push. At that age they should all still be in a car seat, so it seems more likely he's the only one who can't do it than that he's the only one still in a seat. In answer to your how would that work here question, it's a written rule that parents cannot get out of the car in the drop off/pick up line. Additionally, it wouldn't physically be possible for you to get out of the driver's side with the way our lane is set up. As I said earlier, a teacher walks your child to the car, the teacher opens the back passenger door, child gets in, teacher closes door, you drive away. You would have to park and walk over to your child's class, get him, and walk him back to your car at our school. There would be a full scale riot if you tried to slow down the pick up lane like that. At our school, they would get the kid in the car, you would continue forward to two spots at the very end of the pick up lane and at that point you could get out and buckle the kid if necessary before pulling away. It was far enough away from the last pickup point that other people who didn't need to buckle their kids could turn out from the end spot without waiting, and without being a hazard to the people getting out to buckle. With the way our car seat was designed, there was no way our kid at four years old could pull on that lower strap hard enough and at the correct angle while she was sitting in the seat to get the shoulder straps tight enough to keep her secured in the event of a crash. Also, I'm short (which means short arms!) so sitting in the front seat and trying to reach around the side of my seat and back at that odd angle to the seat behind me to pull on the strap hard enough wasn't happening either. Honestly, the delay was minimal and it was away from the end of the line. It only took a minute to jump out, buckle the kid, get back in and go. I will say that the day *after* my kid was finally set up to take the school bus home from preschool was a happy day in my life! It's so much easier to walk the half block to the bus stop and get her off the bus. This year DD has taken the school bus since the first day of school. So much easier. The only times I've had to pick her up from school have been the times I was there to drop something off for a teacher or to volunteer, and in those cases I was parked in the lot so we didn't have to wait through the long snaking carpool lane to leave. |
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Post by bianca42 on May 27, 2016 15:17:11 GMT
At my school, the process is the same K-5th.
First, on-site after-school care kids are released to the gym.
Second, they call the names of the kids getting picked up over the loud-speaker (actually, this year they started saying "everyday pickup kids" and then the names of everyone else. We have to sign the sheet that we're there to get them and a teacher releases them after they make eye contact with parent.
Last, they release the kids to the buses.
Our elementary school is a little more rural, so there are no walkers allowed.
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Post by myshelly on May 27, 2016 16:19:26 GMT
At that age they should all still be in a car seat, so it seems more likely he's the only one who can't do it than that he's the only one still in a seat. In answer to your how would that work here question, it's a written rule that parents cannot get out of the car in the drop off/pick up line. Additionally, it wouldn't physically be possible for you to get out of the driver's side with the way our lane is set up. As I said earlier, a teacher walks your child to the car, the teacher opens the back passenger door, child gets in, teacher closes door, you drive away. You would have to park and walk over to your child's class, get him, and walk him back to your car at our school. There would be a full scale riot if you tried to slow down the pick up lane like that. At our school, they would get the kid in the car, you would continue forward to two spots at the very end of the pick up lane and at that point you could get out and buckle the kid if necessary before pulling away. It was far enough away from the last pickup point that other people who didn't need to buckle their kids could turn out from the end spot without waiting, and without being a hazard to the people getting out to buckle. With the way our car seat was designed, there was no way our kid at four years old could pull on that lower strap hard enough and at the correct angle while she was sitting in the seat to get the shoulder straps tight enough to keep her secured in the event of a crash. Also, I'm short (which means short arms!) so sitting in the front seat and trying to reach around the side of my seat and back at that odd angle to the seat behind me to pull on the strap hard enough wasn't happening either. Honestly, the delay was minimal and it was away from the end of the line. It only took a minute to jump out, buckle the kid, get back in and go. I will say that the day *after* my kid was finally set up to take the school bus home from preschool was a happy day in my life! It's so much easier to walk the half block to the bus stop and get her off the bus. This year DD has taken the school bus since the first day of school. So much easier. The only times I've had to pick her up from school have been the times I was there to drop something off for a teacher or to volunteer, and in those cases I was parked in the lot so we didn't have to wait through the long snaking carpool lane to leave. There's nowhere to stop like that at our school. Once you pull away from the teacher you have to turn into the street. There's no way to pull aside without blocking all of the traffic behind you. |
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Post by mrssmith on May 27, 2016 16:46:20 GMT
All of the schools where I have taught lined the kids up and waited for pick-up. Daycare kids are sent to the gym since the buses go to the back of the school. At my current school the kindergarten dismiss at one side of the school away from the older kids. I've never heard of such a free for all as you've described. Very similar to ours. Kindergarten dismissal is over by their "wing" of the school, away from older kids. Buses stop over there as well (although the kids going to buses RACE to get there - I've seen some spills). Kids going to aftercare get walked over there (in school). Otherwise, parents line up outside and the teachers release the kids as they see the parents arrive. They always look for a parent/guardian/sitter. They are not let out through the doors until the teacher sees the adult picking them up. |
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Post by peasapie on May 27, 2016 16:53:17 GMT
It sounds like you have a lot of what we called "walkers" in our district. We would walk the children out and kids ran to their parents. If parent wasn't there they ran back to us and we brought them inside.
Dismissing as a group from classroom with no oversight sounds like a recipe for disaster.
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Post by Basket1lady on May 27, 2016 17:00:06 GMT
We're a military family, so there have been 5 different elementary schools for us. At each one, the kindergartners were escorted to the bus. For walkers, some schools you parked, went in, and got your child from the classroom and others they brought the child out to you. At none of them were the kindergarteners were unsupervised.
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Post by cmhs on May 27, 2016 17:06:59 GMT
Our school dismisses kindergarten a few minutes before the rest of the grades. They are dismissed one at a time to the pick up person and the teacher makes eye contact and waves to each parent to be sure they are aware their kid is on his/her way out. Our school is small so this works here. Might take forever at a larger school. Day care kids wait in the cafeteria until all their kids are dismissed and they leave together. Day care has a list of who they are picking up each day.
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She couldn't tighten the straps enough so I did have to reach back to do that but I was able to do that without getting out of the car, even when I was nine months pregnant.
