Late Pick-Ups from Elementary School

[Anonymous]

I can't seem to find a clear policy on this. If you have an elementary school child that needs to be picked-up from school at the end of the day, how much time do you have to do it? And what if you're late?

[Anonymous]

You need to pick your child up at dismissal time. If you’re late, it means staff who have other places to be stay with your child until you get there. Please don’t be that parent.

[Anonymous]

If you're late, your kid gets stressed out. I still remember that from being an elementary schooler.

[Anonymous]

Our school got out at 3:25 but it took at least 10 minutes for those at the end of the carpool line to reach the front. So there was a little wiggle room. But beyond that, the staff is left waiting with your child.

[Anonymous]

Once or twice? A staff member will stay with them but at some point emergency contacts will start getting called sooner and I don’t want to scare you but then CPS or the police.

[Anonymous]

You need to ask the specific school. Some will put your kid in aftercare and charge you for it, some will just wait if it's a one time thing, some will call CPS at a certain time. But this would be after calling every phone number they have for the parents and any other emergency contact.

[Anonymous]

I’ll give an example. Our school’s dismissal time is officially 3:50. We walk students down to the doors starting at 3:45. Most parents are already waiting there when we arrive. By 4:00, we take the few remaining students whose parents haven’t arrived to the office, so their parents can be called.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't seem to find a clear policy on this. If you have an elementary school child that needs to be picked-up from school at the end of the day, how much time do you have to do it? And what if you're late?

Now you gotta tell us if you’re asking for yourself or if that’s the situation at your school.

[Anonymous]

At our school, 15 minutes after end of day, remaining kids get left at the office. Office staff work longer and can keep a not very careful eye on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 15 minutes after end of day, remaining kids get left at the office. Office staff work longer and can keep a not very careful eye on them.

Forgot to add: Parents have to come inside to get these kids. They won't be sent out.

[Anonymous]

You will be judged

[Anonymous]

Don't be that parent. Pay for afterschool care.

[Anonymous]

The first time a parent is more than 15 minutes late we chalk it up to a one time incident that you can't always prevent from happening. However, when it starts becoming a pattern you 100% will be judged.
I once had to stay at my elementary school with a third grader until 5:15pm which was almost two hours after dismissal. Nobody on the emergency contacts would answer their phones. I was very close to calling the police when the mom finally arrived. Unlike private schools, we can't charge guardians for being late in picking up their children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to ask the specific school. Some will put your kid in aftercare and charge you for it, some will just wait if it's a one time thing, some will call CPS at a certain time. But this would be after calling every phone number they have for the parents and any other emergency contact.

At what time? And what does CPS do?

Aftercare would be fine, but that's not an option for all kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't be that parent. Pay for afterschool care.

I'd love to, but they won't take all kids.