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Most schools limit the earliest kids can be dropped off because of budget reasons. They have to pay staff to be there.
The lack of sidewalks, and I'm assuming crosswalks, is likely discouraging walkers, if there are any neighborhoods within walking distance of the school.
Probably there isn't an easy solution for this one, other than for more kids to take the bus, which would get cars off the road, or for families that live near each other to carpool. But obviously, that comes down to personal choice, rather than anything the school could do.
Alternatively, parents could park wherever street parking is available, walk their kids in after 7:20, and walk back to their car. Probably not anyone's favorite solution, but IMHO one two-lane road as the only way in or out is a hard one to overcome, especially when everyone wants to drive their own car.
Most schools limit the earliest kids can be dropped off because of budget reasons. They have to pay staff to be there.
(snip).
It isn't just budget reasons, but legal liability as well. I'm a retired teacher. Our school day for teachers started at 8 AM and classes started at 9 AM. We had supervision on the playgrounds starting at 8:45 AM. That was when buses and parents could drop off the students. Our school also had before and after school child care, for a fee, which ran from 6 AM to 8:45 and from the end of school to 6 PM.
It seemed like every year a couple of parents would routinely drop their children off at the school playground at 8 AM or 8:15 AM (sometimes even earlier like 7:30 AM) and expect "someone" to be watching their children. Usually the principal would just inform the parents that their children could not be on the playground unsupervised and the parents would stop doing that but occasionally we had to get the police and/or Children's Protective Services involved. We teachers were always told that if we (school staff) know that children are outside unsupervised and we don't address the issue we (the school district-ultimately the taxpayers) would be liable for any injuries or problems that resulted.
Our district has no buses so it's either walk or parents drive. There are also few sidewalks except directly in front of the schools and no crossing guards except at the elementary school entrances, so the only ones who walk live right next to the school. Drop offs in the morning are usually not too bad for the parents because most have their kids ready to go, usually no more than a couple minutes. Unless there's a couple of band kids ahead of you. They always have to get out and open the back to unload instruments which takes forever.
That's the unload time. Unfortunately they located a couple of the schools along key routes which really creates a traffic snarl in the morning because cars and kids are entering and exiting the school into some of the main traffic flow in town. Unfortunately there really aren't good routes around.
Afternoon pickup is a different story. Cars start lining up about 215 for 3 PM dismissal. Basically nothing moves in that area until after the back up clears. They group the kids by grade and parents are supposed to pull to a different door depending on grade. But some parents can't seem to get the hang of it. Then the teachers call the kid when your car pulls up (you get a sign to put in the passenger window). So you have to wait for them to bring each kid to the car. Just really slows things down.
Funny thing is, if you are picking up, they won't release the kid into the car without verification (I understand why) but if the kid is registered as a "walker" they simply release the kids on their own first. A lot of whom simply walk a hundred yards and get in a car. Seems to me that defeats the whole purpose of verifying which car they get into and also puts a bunch of kids walking right into all the traffic snarl.
In our area when a parent drops off or picks up a child from school they call it car circles. This year it is unbelievable. School starts at 7:45. The monitor starts moving the line along at 7:20. Parents are in line at 6:55 because it takes so long to get thru. (Parents needs to hug kids, do this or that)- it has been taking over 45 minutes in the morning. Several parents are in jeopardy of losing their jobs because they are late to work.
The first day of school parents were in line for 2 hrs 15 minutes at the end of the day. (all kids go to the cafe- parents have a sign in their car with their childs' name- the monitor outside radios to the cafe for joe smith to go to space 1. John Does goes to space 2 and so forth). The kids don't listen for their names to be called, although it is quiet in the cafe. School has been in session for 3 weeks, and it takes about 45 minutes at this point. The school is on a 2 lane road in a suburban development. The police have come several times because their is a backup of 75 cars blocking the road.
I've talked to parents at neighboring schools and the backup is the same.
I'm curious what you do in your district.
I just don't get the parents who drive daily. That's why there are buses. My kids rode the bus daily until they or one of their friends could drive in junior or senior year of HS. I took them in occasionally if they missed the bus or they had something going on before school, but that was not often. If I was in danger of losing my job, I would either get in a car-pool or just have the kids ride the bus.
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