Waiting for parents

[seastarmath]

Sorry, but I need to vent. I VOLUNTEER my own time to stay after school to help kids that need it. I have the parents sign that they will pick up their child no later than a given time. Today, I had a parent return the form but state that she would not pick up her child until an hour after the time stated on the form. (I told her she couldn't stay as the letter states if children are not picked up by such and such a time, they are out of the program.) We have to stay with the children we keep after until they are picked up. I always have kids who are not picked up on time.:angry2: The administration goes home and we are left with kids whose parents have forgotten. (Of course, they encourage us to tutor kids free of charge on our own time and make us feel guilty if we don't. But will they stay to make sure the kids are picked up? Not on your life!) Legally, we cannot give the kids rides home ourselves and I wouldn't do it anyway. But I have to stay until they are picked up and need to ask another teacher to stay also the world being what it is today. I really resent parents thinking they can intrude upon my personal time without a blink.:angry: Of course they never apologize. They think I am their personal babysitter. I am getting so tired of being treated like less than the professional I am. Makes me really mad.

[Just ducky]

I do hope that your school enforces the rule about not being picked up, then they are out of the program. We have a Title I after school math program and we have run into that problem as well. Several parents seemed to "stretch" the time to begin with, but when the first child was removed from the program because his mother was late three times (and not just "fashionably") the rest of the parents seemed to take us seriously.
While there are problems that arise, it is more than an inconvenience to the person in charge of the child. Many times one of the math staff has scheduled some kind of appointment or meeting, but one of us would be willing to stay without complaint if there was the courtesy of a phone call or something to let us know what was going on.
Last year we even had a parent tell us that she didn't realize that the child was not at home when we called to have her come get her child. Did she not pay attention to the fact that he did not return home at the end of the regular school day?? She did sign him up for the program. We do not just randomly keep children at the end of the school day.

I do admire the people staying though. A few years ago, I had stayed late to work on something and when I got ready to leave there was a student at the front door. It seems that the teacher/coach of his basketball team just left him at school. (After all there are night time janitors on duty, so the student was not alone.) UGH!!! Needless to say, I waited with the child.

[irish223]

We've had similar problems at my school with clubs. We are (supposedly) allowed to dismiss a child from the program if the parent is late 3 times.

We've also called the police on a few occasions when the parent is significantly late, we can't get in touch with them, and their emergency contacts cannot pick up the child.

[teacher5]

Putting on the form that if the parent or contact person does not call or cannot be reached within approx. 15 min. of dismissal time, then the police will be notified. Also warning the parent or guardian that repeated offenses of this type of child abandonment will cause school authorities to report these incidents to child protective services or similar government agencies. This discolosure has worked quite well where I work. One or two parents abused it, and the word got out about the consequences. One parent stopped the teacher abuse and the other parent pulled their kid out of the program. I feel sorry for the kid, but teachers count, too!

[Brit]

I BET that worked! See, that's how I'd like to handle it in my head, but IRL, I think I'm too much of a softy to call the cops. I'd probably seeth internally, but not act. I need to develop some guts. Good on ya for having that system in place and using it.

Do the cops respond positively, or does it irritate them?

[teacher5]

We have a local police dept. The kids even know one of them because he often comes to visit them at school programs. We have only needed to call them once or twice in the past year. Parents really don't want the consequences.

[MissTeach]

We have the same problem. One year when my husband was coaching, he had a parent that was more than two hours late...twice. My hubby hated to kick the kid off the team because the boy really loved playing and he had never been in any type of club or sport before. So my husband decided to contact the boys grandfather the next time the parent was late. The parent was really really mad, but they weren't late again.
Last week, after an out of town football game, one of the boy's parents wasn't there to pick him up. The parents had been at the game, so the coach told the boy to call them, but the boy said, "It'll be a while cause my mom wanted to go eat at Red Lobster after the game." Two and a half hours later the parents came to get the kid. When the coach started toward the car, the dad hollered at the kid to hurry up because he didn't intend to explain himself to the coach. The coach let the athletic director handle that situation!

[kingrichie]

I know of some programs that charge parents $20 per 15 minutes that they're late to pick up their child. When I'm in charge, I just call School Police to take the child into custody. The parent can pick up their kid at the district office.

[Dhe Poet]

I have a herniated disc in my back causing my sciatic nerve to give me great pains. I crawled to my childrens teachers' classroom. The first teacher gave me a seat with wheels and brought everything closer to the door and thus didn't make me take unnecessary steps for she was so sympathetic of my discomfort. I told her she would make a fine nurse at my doctors office. LOL She let me borrow her chair to get to our next classroom way down the hall. Thank you Ms. Beldin.