Kid Pickup Mixup

It's perhaps everyone's worst nightmare: Going to pick up your kid at school and finding out he's missing. That's what happened to one family down in Jacksonville, Florida. When the aunt of a four-year-old boy arrived to take him home from school, he was nowhere to be found. Another boy's grandfather, it turned out, picked up the wrong kid (!), put him on his bicycle, and then pedaled clear across town with the poor, confused child. When the man got home, his wife saw that her hubby made a big time blunder. Luckily, both boys were safely reunited with their respective families.

But still ... zoinks! Having just dropped my 6-year-old niece off at school for the first time, I was kind of in awe about how the kids were just flowing in with seemingly not much adult supervision. I'm a little more neurotic than most folks, so I just figured I was being a tad overprotective. But then I read a story like this and nearly hyperventilate at the thought of something like this happening.

So how well supervised is your child's school drop off and pickup areas? Is there a list of approved adults who can claim your child? Do the teachers actually check I.D.s? Any good or bad experiences you've had that we can all learn from? Please share with the rest of the class ... and also be sure your child's grandfather knows what he looks like.

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Comments

[KF]

My mother is a foster parent and once asked me to pick up a Kindergarten student after school. I had met the boy once several months before. I went into the school and said I was picking up the child for my mother who had called to let them know her daughter was picking him up. There were two kids with the same first name sitting on the bench. The secretary tried to send the wrong child with me. I am staring at the children pretty sure that the big one was the child I had met in the past but doubting myself since the secretary kept insisting that the smaller child was the foster child. I finally asked the children what their last names were.

[KF]

My mother is a foster parent and once asked me to pick up a Kindergarten student after school. I had met the boy once several months before. I went into the school and said I was picking up the child for my mother who had called to let them know her daughter was picking him up. There were two kids with the same first name sitting on the bench. The secretary tried to send the wrong child with me. I am staring at the children pretty sure that the big one was the child I had met in the past but doubting myself since the secretary kept insisting that the smaller child was the foster child. I finally asked the children what their last names were.

[KF]

My mother is a foster parent and once asked me to pick up a Kindergarten student after school. I had met the boy once several months before. I went into the school and said I was picking up the child for my mother who had called to let them know her daughter was picking him up. There were two kids with the same first name sitting on the bench. The secretary tried to send the wrong child with me. I am staring at the children pretty sure that the big one was the child I had met in the past but doubting myself since the secretary kept insisting that the smaller child was the foster child. I finally asked the children what their last names were.

[Layla]

No horror stories, thank god, but yes the pick up and drop off times at our elementary school are very hectic and there is no order or procedure at all! Pretty scary!

[Melissa Garrett]

At my kids' elementary school, you have to fill out a form in the beginning of the year indicating who is allowed to pick up the child. Then they check ID AND ask the child, "Do you know this person?" Visitors must sign in and wear a visitor badge to be able to walk to a child's classroom. At the end of the day, teacher escort the children to the buses, and none of them leave until all the kids are accounted for. I'm lucky in that my kids attend a smallish rural school where everyone knows everyone.

[Angela V.]

I guess because we live in a small town, they are pretty lax here. The school is locked and you have to press a button and talk to the secretay, who in turn buzzes you in, but every time I go there, they just come on the intercom before I can say anything and say, "it's unlocked!" They act like they have security measures in place, but they don't enforce them. I always stay until my child is safely in the building and arrive for pick up before she comes out. But I pity the parents whose kids ride the bus!

[Tara]

I work at an elementary school. Pick ups are very organized. During registration parents who will be picking their kids up regularly are given a numbered hangtag. Teachers check the number against the name of the child when they're picked up. When kids are picked up early, the parents (or whoever) has to be buzzed into the building and then the secretary checks their ID before releasing the child. The major problems we had at the beginning of the year was 2 kids accidentally got on the wrong school bus. Little kids have a hard time remembering their bus number, especially during the chaos of the end of the school day.