No one asked for my ID or had me sign anything when I picked my daughter up early from school- say something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh it can be so much worse! A former friend had like ten people as her emergency contacts for her kid, and was an alcoholic so used them all liberally. This kid would just run up to any of her mom’s friends who were near her school and ask if they were there to pick her up that day. The school let her leave with anyone.

It's good the kid had that large safety net for otherwise terrible circumstances. There is nothing wrong with having 10 pick up options. The bad part is the alcoholic mom.

[Anonymous]

Folks, you’re missing the entire point of this. The school has a procedure and it’s not following that procedure. This time obviously it was fine but the one time it’s not then it makes national news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I volunteered at a school office and asked for ids but also had to ask from people I knew very well which felt silly because I was told EVERY person must show ID. It is a little silly when you think about them all just walking out at release time.
There is only so much you can do but the MOST important thing to do is tell your kid not to leave with anyone except their parents/ grandparents/ your list. If someone in your orbit is an issue, tell the front office never to release your kid to them.

The bolded is my thought too...at regular release time, all the kids at our public who do not take the bus just run out and get into whatever car or leave with whatever grown-up. Soooooo.....

[Anonymous]

Does the receptionist know you by sight? I never get asked for ID, but the security guards recognize me. They may not know my exact name, but they know I'm a parent who comes to pick up a kid every day.

That's very different than if they def don't know you.

[Anonymous]

I think that yes, you are overly sensitive due to what happened in your childhood. I’m sorry that you experienced that. That said, I don’t think most kindergartners are unsafe to go home with their own parent, and in your particular situation you were called to the school (clearly from the approved contact list) rather than showing up at random requesting to do an early dismissal. Assuming your kid didn’t announce “that’s not my mom, I don’t know that lady” it is reasonable to infer you were the mom they called. Also, it doesn’t sound like your child has a “do not release to” list or special circumstance.

They are much more concerned about scanning IDs before letting a parent wander into the building versus a parent just waiting in the office who will not have access to the rest of the school or other students.

Yes they should have had you sign the child out for record keeping purposes. But this is not a small baby or toddler who would just leave with anyone. They’re not checking IDs at the car rider line or at the bus stops when they release the kid. It’s a good idea to speak to your own child about who is safe to go home with so they are clear.

[Anonymous]

Please do not complain to the school. You’ll get a lot of people angry. Unless my child’s form has a “do not allow” person, I would be totally pissed off if I had to show my id to pick my kid up. My kid can recognize who I am. Why would I need to show papers? That doesn’t seem safer. It’s bureaucratic and fascist.

Please, please do not saying anything!

[Anonymous]

Our school has an electronic system where everyone has a personal code they must input in the admin or teacher’s iPad to pick up a child. Seems a lot safer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that yes, you are overly sensitive due to what happened in your childhood. I’m sorry that you experienced that. That said, I don’t think most kindergartners are unsafe to go home with their own parent, and in your particular situation you were called to the school (clearly from the approved contact list) rather than showing up at random requesting to do an early dismissal. Assuming your kid didn’t announce “that’s not my mom, I don’t know that lady” it is reasonable to infer you were the mom they called. Also, it doesn’t sound like your child has a “do not release to” list or special circumstance.

They are much more concerned about scanning IDs before letting a parent wander into the building versus a parent just waiting in the office who will not have access to the rest of the school or other students.

Yes they should have had you sign the child out for record keeping purposes. But this is not a small baby or toddler who would just leave with anyone. They’re not checking IDs at the car rider line or at the bus stops when they release the kid. It’s a good idea to speak to your own child about who is safe to go home with so they are clear.

ITA. Please understand that those rules and protocols are really for when adults will be entering the school and interacting with students in the school.

[Anonymous]

Our MCPS ES makes parents show government ID. Email the Principal about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school has an electronic system where everyone has a personal code they must input in the admin or teacher’s iPad to pick up a child. Seems a lot safer.

It’s just more complicated, not safer. (It’s easy enough to hack the system if you really want to. Plus, guardians can forget or lose codes.) Why can’t we rely on the good old fashioned, “that’s not my dad!”

Sure, the school should take extra safety measures in the event of a contentious custody battle, but most families don’t have that.

Why create more needless work. Yes, I can definitely tell that there are many government employees on this board.

[Anonymous]

I think because they were expecting you (in fact, they called you) and that it wasn't a random pick up, that they probably slid a little on procedure.

I would just let it go, really.

[Anonymous]

Former admin here. Our school always asked for ID of parents if we didn't know them already and we run it through Raptor.

If there are custody/restraining order issues we ask parents to bring the court order and once or twice we put a picture of the stalker parent behind the desk to be sure to watch out for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school has an electronic system where everyone has a personal code they must input in the admin or teacher’s iPad to pick up a child. Seems a lot safer.

This is great!

[Anonymous]

OP here thanks for all the thoughts.

Our school actually does check at end of the school day pick ups- the person that picks the child up has a card with a code on it that matches the code on the child's lanyard and the person bringing the child to the car makes sure they match. So maybe that's why I've been used to and it seemed odd no one verified for the midday pick up from in the building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh it can be so much worse! A former friend had like ten people as her emergency contacts for her kid, and was an alcoholic so used them all liberally. This kid would just run up to any of her mom’s friends who were near her school and ask if they were there to pick her up that day. The school let her leave with anyone.

It's good the kid had that large safety net for otherwise terrible circumstances. There is nothing wrong with having 10 pick up options. The bad part is the alcoholic mom.

There are a lot of bad parts. It's bad that she never knew who was picking her up. It's bad that her mom put her alcoholic friends on the emergency contact list who were often late. Its' bad that sometimes people picked her up and decided to cosplay being a parent and took her wherever and nobody but them knew where she was. I could go on and on.