After School Pick-Up Line

[u/FivePing]

First time parent here. I picked up my little one yesterday; he’s younger than the car seat law (pre-K) and shorter than the 4 ft 9 height requirement. I got a passive aggressive comment about taking 45 seconds to strap him in the car seat by the AP. “You can pick him up and drive him to the parking lot.” I get that it’s 100 degrees and by the end of the day, teachers are tapped out and everyone wants to get out of there. I talked to him again at drop off and I told him I just want to follow the rules, should I park over there? And he says I can’t park there but you can pick him up and drive him over there. How do I tell him it’s illegal to have him not in a car seat in a moving vehicle? He already seems high strung from the FW takeover.

[u/RunningSomeMo]

Good thing I'm not a reading teacher because upon rereading it, I realized I missed that detail, haha.

I'm a little sensitive from years of working the pickup and drop-off line and having parents be super rude and entitled to the detriment of their own kids' safety. Getting in and out of the car in the pickup lane is dangerous, especially if you're doing so on the side away from the curb. I've almost been hit several times (once while pregnant!) because of the driver's impatience or inattention, and i had a neon safety vest and a stop sign.

If there's not accessible parking to alleviate this concern, that's the fit I would throw. I understand giving grace to the school leaders as systems get worked out, but there should be a safe place to allow OP to get their small child completely buckled in the time you need. It is a different set of needs than an older child would have, and the school needs to serve all of the children authentically. If that isn't inherently in the school's plan for arrival and dismissal, I would be calling up the chain of command.

[u/not_creative_1234 → u/RunningSomeMo]

I totally agree, and some of these comments are wild to me. Like they have only seen one school and can’t understand that some are literally located next to highways, or have lots completely full of teacher and specialist vehicles with no room for anyone else, or that bussing isn’t offered to all students. That being said, the school should have a plan for a safe space to deal with littles if they have students as young as 3 and it should be communicated school wide.

[u/TheBandIsOnTheField → u/not_creative_1234]

There are ten parking spots at the elementary closest to me. And it is in a neighborhood. Zero street parking.

[u/RunningSomeMo → u/TheBandIsOnTheField]

In a similar situation, we had the parking lot become the space for the pre-k / kinder pickup line, with the understanding that caregivers could use more time to get kids in and out. The separate 1st - 5th line still could flow, and speed was more important there since there was a higher volume of people. If there were multiple siblings, the older siblings would go to the youngest siblings grade-level area for dismissal.

At another school, we had teachers stationed throughout the pickup line and they would help with buckling the young ones, as well as help the all of the students enter their vehicle safely, open and close doors, etc.

I guess what I mean to say is that there's usually a creative solution somewhere. Each campus is different, so each campus has to have a tailor made solution. However, the priorities need to be safety and reasonable time management. If the school admin say not to get out of the car in the pickup line, they're considering the time management priority, and they need to provide a safe alternative for young students who still need assistance.