Parents Request to school for early dismissal?

[Pea'sMom]

Wow, what s different system. Ours finish at 3.15, teacher chucks them out by 3.20 at the latest and they go home, however they travel.

It's like that at our school! Dismissal is 3:05...Kindergarten is dismissed at 3, everyone else is out the door at 3:05 on the dot! Buses take longer but that is totally a district issue.

OP I would talk with the school and let them know your situation. I would assume they could work with you based on whatever your schools end of the day procedure is. I can't imagine anything important is going on during the dismissal process. I would follow that up with a talk with the gym outlining what the school dismissal process will be for your kids. I'm not sure I would be OK with a gym that penalized my kids for finishing their school day and possibly being late. School first...gym second...

 

[bookworm]

. If you asked for early dismissal, how exactly did you word your request? And what kind of response did you get? I am not sure if it matters, but they are going into 1st and 4th grades.

I always discussed it with the classroom teacher the year prior so going into that year , it was never an issue. I also made arrangements to pick them up prior to any of the end of the classroom stuff ...the class was dismissed at 3:10 and I got them at 2:30...my kids were in private school so I don't know if that made it easier but their schools were wonderful.

 

[Ali'sMom]

Our elementary was so opposite! Sometimes the bus would make it to the bus stop before school actually even got out...

 

[3LittleGymmies]

I e-mailed the principal and he said YES to them releasing at 3:20. This is 15 minutes prior to actual "dismissal", but most of that time is probably the students actually getting ready to dismiss, not doing school work. PHEW! Thank you all for your advice/support.

 

[Jenny]

So he is saying that basically it takes 40 mins to get the school ready and out. What a waste of time. Glad your dd doesn't have that. Our kids line up in the classroom ready and when the bell goes they come out and parents collect them from the door. At High school they just go home by themselves.

 

[Sasha]

Glad you found a solution! That is quite the commute you have.

And I had no idea there were US schools dismissing in such long formats. We are in the US and they just all run out when the bell rings (or, trickle out, if you are an 8 year old girl gabbing with your besties as you pack up - lol). They don't even line up before that. Very interesting!

 

[3LittleGymmies]

That's how it was when I was little!

 

[raenndrops]

We are not allowed to check out early either. If we do, the kids are counted absent from ALL of last period. Same concept if they are 1 minute late for school in the morning. It's like they missed all of 1st period. Last year was enough for us.....we will homeschool (virtual public school actually) this year! Starting tomorrow.

Our local school has a SIMILAR morning rule... but 1 minute late 3x in a quarter counts as a FULL DAY absent. So, apparently, the teachers are so good that in 1 minute (when a "normal" teacher is taking attendance), they are getting 1/3 of the entire day's information taught! WOW .
A half hour late or leaving a half hour early counts as a 1/2 day absent.
Good luck with your online schooling .

 

[cbifoja]

Our elementary kids aren't allowed to walk from school. I teach at a high school that is literally one block away in an area that only has three schools, a hospital, and some professional offices. And my child isn't allowed to walk on the sidewalk connecting our schools.

School dismisses at 2:40. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get all the bus riders out and THEN the car riders are taken out in groups of five depending on the car line up. So the teacher calls the kids for the first 5 cars, they load up and drive off. Everyone moves up 5 slots. The next five kids are called out and in the car they go.

My DD boards a bus, rides a route, and is then dropped off at my school. So she gets out of school at 2:40 but isn't in my classroom until 3:10. I could crawl on my hands and knees and get to her school quicker than 30 minutes!

And her principal is EXTREMELY inflexible. No special arrangements for any reason. All kids have to be treated the same regardless of special circumstances. Drives me insane.

 

[COz]

I'm feeling exceedingly grateful for the Australian school system's general flexibility and lack of complicated dismissal procedures right now!

 

[cbifoja]

I'm feeling exceedingly grateful for the Australian school system's general flexibility and lack of complicated dismissal procedures right now!

Yes, but on the plus side.....kangaroo attacks? VERY rare in America.

 

[COz]

Yeah, we need really big umbrellas for the drop bears too!

 

[cbifoja]

Koalas?

 

[COz]

Yeah, but it's a joke. They don't fall out of trees on to people and we'd only say drop bear to tease someone not from Australia

BTW: Most people also wouldn't see a kangaroo except at a zoo (unless you lived away from cities) and emus are evil creatures with sharp beaks that will come up and steal your food (no, they don't roam the streets either)

 

[jessmomto2]

I find the staggered release odd too. My kids school lets everyone out at 3:15 onto the playground and they walk, or wait for the bus or parents from there. There is supervision on the playground until 3:40 so I usually wait to get my son until 3:30 so that it has cleared out and I find parking unless it's a theater day for him and then I need to get him right at 3:15.

 

[lovegymnastics22]

Our school ends 15 min before gymnastics begins so DD LVL3 is at every practice between 15-30 min late. The gym knows that is the deal. School comes first and I want to set that tone with her at 7. Maybe I'll feel different as she gets older.

 

[pullover]

I am probably in the minority on this board but I would never let me kids leave school early for gymnastics on a regular basis (we would do it once in a blue moon for a meet or something but never 4x per week or even 1x per week for that matter) -it sets the message that gymnastics comes first and school second. I also would much rather they miss a little gym time than a little school time!

 

[pullover]

I am probably in the minority on this board but I would never let me kids leave school early for gymnastics on a regular basis (we would do it once in a blue moon for a meet or something but never 4x per week or even 1x per week for that matter) -it sets the message that gymnastics comes first and school second. I also would much rather they miss a little gym time than a little school time!

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Regarding the deadly Australian drop-bears and kangaroos mentioned above, I was told that there are deadly spiders that hang out on shower rails and leap on unsuspecting people mid-shower. I suspect that this may not in fact be entirely true but it did put me off the whole idea of visiting Oz when I was a teenager

 

[MBJ974]

We were in this exact same situation...gym change, 1 hr. drive, school letting out when practice began, trying to coordinate our schedule with teacher and principal, the go-ahead to leave school early, actually leaving school early (elementary), etc... From our experience what worked best was not leaving school early, but adding in an extra day of practice to make up for the lost time.