We have a brand new elementary building and when they were designing the building they actually thought about this process before the final draft. We have 4 parking areas. Two at the front, one at the side and one behind. They also installed gates that are closed before dismissal so there is only one way in and one way out.
Dismissal begins with K at 3:20. Those riding the bus go to the cafe. and those walking or being picked up stand at the exit door, near their rooms, where their teachers waits with them until someone comes to the door to get them.
First grade is then dismissed at 3:21. Those riding the bus go to the cafe. The walkers and those being picked up walk to the side entrance where they wait to be picked up.
Second grade is dismissed at 3:22. Those riding the bus go to cafe. Walkers and those being picked up go to the side door with their teacher where they are dismissed.
Third grade is dismissed at 3:23. Again the same.
Fourth grade is dismissed at 3:24. Those riding bus stay in their room till bus # is called. Walkers and those being picked up exit the rear doors where they are dismissed.
Fifth grade is dismissed at 3:25. The same as 4th.
Then the buses start arriving around 3:30. A teacher stands outside. When a bus arrives, the notify the office with the use of the walkie talkie system that connects the buses, the bus office and the school office. The students are then escorted by a teacher to their bus. The buses are called one at a time, waiting until the previous bus has all passengers.
This system seems to work well. Of course, as previously stated, the parents always seem to be in too much of a hurry to watch where they are going.
In the mornings it runs a little differently. The buses deposit the students off at the side door, which leaves the two front parking lots open for parents dropping off. These two are the only ones open in the morning and have several teachers supervising the areas. Parents are not allowed to enter the building except by being "buzzed" in through the office. This has been very hard for some parents to understand

Can you stand one more Mom??? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Our new builings driveway was on a three different desks and took six months to approve and STILL is crazy!!
Our school has let up some of the craziness by dissmissing the kindergarden classes a full 10-15 minutes BEFORE everyone else. With 100 kids that has helped traffic A LOT!! First through fifth is then dismissed and finally the jr and high school is let out 10 minutes later. Bused children are on teh buses and ready to leave by 3:45 (final bell is 3:30). I have a AM kindergarden student and my oldest is in Jr. high so I wait till 3:45 to pick her up.
Talking to other parents at our school and observing on the days I am there too early, it's not the order of the driveway or the traffic, it's the lack of care some parents take coming and going! We all understand it's 3:30 and lessons/soccer/dance/etc starts at 4:00 but HEY you could take 5 minutes to see my van and drive like you took a class on it!! lol

We have a seperate lane for buses and and lane for parents which is always impossible to drive safley through until the school coned off the spots near the corner and in front of the sidewalk crossing the driveway (YES, people were parking in FRONT of or ON the crosswalk or so poorly you couldn't drive by to leave. Believe it or not what also helped is the day our Dare officer was parked in the lot! MAN was it great that day coming and going!!! lol

ANYWAY.... we do have teachers and staff EVERYWHERE directing traffic, stopping cars to let busses through, crosswalks, etc. Sheets have gone home telling parents how traffice flow is suppose to work (ha!) and well...it's an issue that will always be there.
The different dismissals have really helped and they stopped it for one week and we had the most parents at a school board meeting in years!

Okay back to the laundry... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thank you for your response! I have received several emails from across the nation with their school dismissal procedures. This is the best discussion forum and everyone is so generous to send and share info.

Our school has 500 EC - 5th grade students.

Early Childhood parents must physically come into the office to pick up their children.

Kindergarten teachers bring out their students about 1 minute prior to the bell. (This is to give parents a chance to find their little ones before 600 other students come out.) Parents must be there to meet them outside their classroom. If they bus, they may go straight to their bus. Walkers with older siblings in school wait for their brother or sister to pick them up.

1st - 5th: Get let out by their teachers.
Bussers can go straight to their bus, which arrives before the end of school. This is a dedicated turn around area for busses only. NO Students and NO Parents are allowed to go through the turnaround area.

Parents picking up their students have 2 options. They can park in the parking lot and go up to the school sidewalks to pick up their kids; or, they must form a line around the perimeter of the parking lot, advancing to the sidewalk at the edge of the parking lot. Parent volunteers are there to assist kids into their vehicles, (and keep others from running through the parking lot unescorted.) Then, and only then when you are at the sidewalk at the edge of the parking lot may you pick up your kid. (Kind of a Curb Side Service.) No children are allowed to walk through the parking lot to get to their cars if their parent is not with them.

While the 'pick-up through the parking lot circle' (for lack of a better word for it)is time consuming for parents, it is ensuring the safety of our children.

Walkers may walk home, but they must not go in the bus lot, parking lot, or cross anywhere but crosswalks. If anything, keeping the crosswalks staffed is probably the most difficult. It is not unusual to see our principal out there directing traffic.

At our p-4 school (508 students) The taechers line up the bus students in the correct lines (we have 2 bus area loading zones. If you arepicking your child up (we have no walkers) you must sign your child out at the office and wait in the caf then you exit at the gym dor (front door is a bus loading area) This seems to work well for us.

Anotheer way might be to dismiss at dif times by 5-10 minutes that way either the buses are loade and gone before the walkers get out might free up som needed paking.

I have a few concerns with some of these posts...here's what we do here.

first the bus students are brought to the gymnasium- where they line up by bus...a bus room "attendant" which is a teacher, on a roating weekly basis is in the gym, and brings the kids down to the buses when they arrive.

The buses pick up kids at door #1.... back side of the school-

Walker's and pick ups are let out of door #2... EVERY teacher is outside, except for the teacher on bus duty...

this is a K-4 school, with 190 kids...7 different buses..

The only problem I can find in our way is that the school is at the end of a street. directly across from the school is a street- which turns up past the school- so you can make an L and end up back on the "main" street (does this make any sense?)....

i have a problem with parents driving down that L street, and lining up on both sides of the street waiting for the kids....this is the same L where the walkers walk...and now that snow banks are over the kids heads, it's hard to see them....

I think it helps that we have every teacher cept 1 out with the walkers/pick-ups...and the fact that the buses are not allowed down those streets. works good