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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.
School starts at 8:45. There are a few cars in line if I arrive as early as 7:50.
School ends at 3:30. There are cars starting to line up by 2:40. It's a very long line that circles around the parking lot and extends down the street, but it is pretty efficient once school dismisses. It probably takes 10-15 minutes to complete the kiss and ride once the dismissal bell rings.
The elementary school where I used to teach had several different systems over the years. The latest system was that the parents parked their cars, in the parking lot or on the street, and walked to pick up their children from where the teachers were waiting with their students. Each grade level waited in a different spot either outside or inside (on rainy or cold days) the school. That school had/has almost 500 students and about 300 to 350 students either ride the buses going home or vans going to day care centers. Perhaps 25 students walk to their homes in the immediate neighborhood and 50 students attend after school day care at the school.
The morning system was a little different but multiple cars pull up at once, students very quickly get out of the cars and go to the playground. I recall that it takes about 20 minutes for all the cars to go through the drop off line. The principal and teachers are monitoring the line, and remind students and parents to say good bye in advance and be ready to get out of the car right away when it is their turn, so the drop offline moves quickly.
I imagine that it would be a huge mess, and a very lengthy procedure, if all 500 students were dropped off and picked up by their parents at the same time.
Last edited by germaine2626; 09-05-2019 at 09:52 PM..
Is there school bus service in your district? I've taught at some pretty huge middle schools. There were always some issues at the start of the year as people got used to the routine, but many students rode the bus. Cars were not allowed to pull into the drop off circle starting 40 minutes before school (or until all buses had left after) to allow for the buses, nor were they allowed to stop and block traffic on the street the buses came in on (the police officers assigned to the school helped with traffic flow in the morning.) Parents had to drop off somewhere else along the perimeter of the school at the street. Some came early. Others carpooled. Others walked. Others would let off in the neighborhood across the street from the school and let the kids walk. If someone wanted to give extended hugs and kisses, they could find a legal parking space somewhere, and handle it that way.
Obviously some of these solutions work better when you're talking older kids rather than kindergartners. That said, if the issue is that every family is driving their kid in rather than taking the bus, that's a hard one to solve...
Last edited by kitkatbar; 09-06-2019 at 11:07 AM..
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.
Our kids take the school bus.
For the high school, we do drop off in the morning, but because we have one in band, they go in a different door from the front door. The younger one takes the bus home. The older one gets picked up after band practice so not during the afternoon pick up time.
My elementary school has about 980 students and we have four buses. A good percentage of students come from out of boundary and those use kids and ride.
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Our district schools are the same way, although we have busses. There's a school where a main road in the neighborhood is COMPLETELY impassable 45 minutes before school, and 45 minutes before school ends, and if you live on that street, you just have to know you can't exit your driveway or enter your driveway during that time.
A lot of parents are stay at home, or they have a flex schedule that allows for that kind of time commitment.
OP - can the parents who have to work just put their kids on busses? OR, park a few blocks from the school and walk the kids in, thus negating the need to be in the drop off line? Surely there's a method for kids who walk to school to get into the school.
I also live in a suburb. When my children were in elementary school and middle school, most took buses or walked. Mine usually took the bus too, but sometimes, I would have to do the pick-up, less often the morning drop-off. The area closest to the school building with a circular driveway was designated for the buses, except for the middle of the day. Parents who drove their children had to park their car down the block or if there were no sidewalk spots available, park in a municipal parking lot and walk.
Interesting responses.
The district does have busses, Im not sure of reason why parents drop off rather than ride the bus.
There are no sidewalks, the school is down a road with no parking on either side of the road. No sidewalks either. The earliest a child can be dropped off is 7:20, so you can't drop your child off early.
Teachers have bus duty, but only have to be there by 7:20 as well. If a teacher gets there right now later than 7AM, many times the traffic is so backed up, the teachers can't get to the parking lot. Currently teachers are working 7AM til at least 4PM. (teaxhers also have lunch with students and recess duty every day. (4 days a week they get a planning period for 45 minutes while the students are at specials).
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