Elementary School Dismissal Chaos

[Somers Isles]

I need help brainstorming...

My school's dismissal procedure is not bad... but I'm just curious if there's something better.  For those of you who deal with elementary school dismissal, can you elaborate on how it goes?  Do you like it?  Any ways to improve it?  If you're a parent, how do you feel about the process?  If you're a teacher, how do you feel about it?


Thanks for the insight!!!

*and just to clarify, dismissal as in when the whole school ends for the day, not when you pick up your child for a dental appointment during the day. 

[Somers Isles]

At my school students gather in one of two places... auditorium or the gym.

Auditorium = parent pickup. Students sit in various sections by last name. Parents line up, walk in, find the clipboard with their child's name on it (alphabetized), sign their name under today's date, then when the child sees the parent (or vice versa) they join and head for the door. It's kind of pandemonium initially because of the rush of parents, but after about 5 minutes it's less hectic. It's a huge auditorium though so everything is spread out and there's plenty of room to move. The thing I don't like is that initial 5 minute chaos... if something bad were to happen, it'd happen then...

Gym = students sit in lines (walking or bus). Once the principal gives the go ahead, teachers walk their walking line down various routes in the neighborhood or teachers escort students to their bus to head home.

[wheresmyspatula]

The kids that go to aftercare at the school are dismissed from their classrooms to the library. Bus riders line up in the main hallway. Walkers and parent pick ups are taken to the cafeteria. Parents can wait in the cafeteria for their kids or wait in the drive up queue, walkers exit from the back door of the cafeteria to walk home.

It's a little hectic but I like that I can wait in the cafeteria for Jack instead of standing outside in the heat/cold plus it gives me a chance to say hi to his teacher and other parents. There are usually 30 or so of us waiting in the cafeteria for the kids.

[Deleted]

At the kids' school in Canada most kids ride the bus so they line up by bus number and board the appropriate bus. The walkers leave after the busses.

Our school here is secure with one gate and 2 doors that are always locked with the exception of entrance/exit times at the beginning of the day, lunch (coming and going) and end of the day.

At the end of the day the main gate is unlocked for 10 minutes. Parents wait outside the main gate. Kids are released class by class (pretty rapidly) and are collected outside the gates by their parents/caregivers. There are generally at least 2 teachers inside the gate.

To enter the school outside the gate hours you must ring a bell and staff will come and unlock the door with a key (you need a key to unlock a door or gate from the inside).

It's a small school, a third of the size of our school in Canada.

ETA: best guess in Canada is that out of 500ish students, less than 20 are picked up at end of day. If you do that, you must first go to the office to sign yourself in and then sign your child out. It is discouraged to pick up at the end of the day regularly.

[Idani]

DS1 is in Kindergarten. They get dismissed at 2:55 vs 3:00 with the rest of the school and they go to the main lobby area where they need to be picked up by an approved adult. They remain with their specific class until that happens. For the rest of the school 1-4th. Each grade uses a specific exit door where the parents have to wait outside. It seems really organized and has always been non eventful when I do it. We have a fairly large elementary school. In our so called city there are 4 elementary schools with about 600 kids at each school. So it seems to be fairly organized for the amount of kids leaving at once. Also about 95% of the kids walk or get picked up. We only have two actual buses that do pickup and it's in a different area completely.

[Deleted]

In order of dismissal-
*After school care kids are dismissed to the gym
*Parent pick ups are dismissed to the cafeteria- parent picks up the kids ID at the sign in desk and hands to a teacher as they leave with the child (supposed to make sure each adult is only taking the kid they should be taking and no kid leaves alone)
*Bus kids are dismissed in groups of 3 busses by bus number. Each bus kid has a bus tag on their bag that says what bus they are supposed to ride. Teachers validate numbers and line them up and escort them to the right bus.

[kimandhuck]

Our schools are way different that everything posted here.

Bus riders go to the right side of the school where the buses are lined up waiting for the kids.

Car riders go to the front and sit. Each parent has a "tag" kind of thing with their kid's name, and the teacher will say "Jane Doe, go to the Green Frog" and the teacher standing at the green frog cone will open the car door and get the kid in.

Daycare kids go to the lunch room and wait for the person from daycare to pick them up.

[Somers Isles]

Jan 29, 2015 14:34:36 GMT -5 Idani said:

DS1 is in Kindergarten. They get dismissed at 2:55 vs 3:00 with the rest of the school and they go to the main lobby area where they need to be picked up by an approved adult. They remain with their specific class until that happens. For the rest of the school 1-4th. Each grade uses a specific exit door where the parents have to wait outside. It seems really organized and has always been non eventful when I do it. We have a fairly large elementary school. In our so called city there are 4 elementary schools with about 600 kids at each school. So it seems to be fairly organized for the amount of kids leaving at once. Also about 95% of the kids walk or get picked up. We only have two actual buses that do pickup and it's in a different area completely.

I like the idea of having separate exit doors... just reducing the number of kids and adults in one place seems like it'd be more organized.  We could even organize it so siblings used the same door. 

Our school is very particular about documenting who picked up the child and making sure we know that the adult is on the list of approved people.  We have a lot of custody issues in my school so it's not rare for a non-custodial parent to try to pull a fast one and pick up their child when they shouldn't... and the child, especially the young ones, usually don't act as if anything is wrong because the adult is at least a familiar face.  So I imagine if we have separate exits, certain people could still have a clipboard for attendance and signing.  hmmmmm

[Idani]

Jan 29, 2015 14:49:22 GMT -5 Somers Isles said:

Jan 29, 2015 14:34:36 GMT -5 Idani said:

DS1 is in Kindergarten. They get dismissed at 2:55 vs 3:00 with the rest of the school and they go to the main lobby area where they need to be picked up by an approved adult. They remain with their specific class until that happens. For the rest of the school 1-4th. Each grade uses a specific exit door where the parents have to wait outside. It seems really organized and has always been non eventful when I do it. We have a fairly large elementary school. In our so called city there are 4 elementary schools with about 600 kids at each school. So it seems to be fairly organized for the amount of kids leaving at once. Also about 95% of the kids walk or get picked up. We only have two actual buses that do pickup and it's in a different area completely.

I like the idea of having separate exit doors... just reducing the number of kids and adults in one place seems like it'd be more organized.  We could even organize it so siblings used the same door. 

Our school is very particular about documenting who picked up the child and making sure we know that the adult is on the list of approved people.  We have a lot of custody issues in my school so it's not rare for a non-custodial parent to try to pull a fast one and pick up their child when they shouldn't... and the child, especially the young ones, usually don't act as if anything is wrong because the adult is at least a familiar face.  So I imagine if we have separate exits, certain people could still have a clipboard for attendance and signing.  hmmmmm

My kindergartner is my oldest so I don't know a lot of specifics on the older kids, but from what my friends say and from what I can see the teachers or the teacher aide for each class stays with their particular class until everyone has been dismissed to an adult.  Iam assuming they also do some sort of check as we had to fill out special forms the beginning of year and I do see teachers with clipboards at the exits.