This looks so weird to a NZer. So the cars are all showing up to the school's front entrance, one at a time?
My kids just walk down the road and round the corner so I don't really encounter much traffic. It'd be a bit silly to pick them up right in front of the school...
(ofc, most kids just walk or bus home - I unfortunately live further away so don't really have that option)
I think its done this way these days out of a concern for child safety. Especially with elementary age kids, the school needs to know who is picking up the kid. (You often have to have a thing with your kids name and grade hanging from your rearview mirror) They don't want to be responsible for strangers, or an estranged relative kidnapping a child.
They are also concerned about the kids walking through parking lots or the pickup line and getting hit by a car.
Those things happened enough times, and school districts got sued enough times that we end up with what you see above.
Good idea on the surface, but complicated in practice.
where is the labor/money coming from to sell those coffee? I don't know about you guys buy I rarely see people vote for a raise in taxes for any reason, especially in education.
teachers do not want parents to be there longer than necessary, parents are the number one reason why teachers leave their career behind. More parent to teacher contact, rather than just restricting to just emails, is a terrible idea
First of all wild that that's a thing at all. Why not school buses?
But secondly, weird name. It's not like it's parents being picked up, nor is it just parents doing the picking up. Unless the pick-uppers are split into different relationship queues? Is there a sibling pick-up line and a grandparent pick-up line running parallel to the parent pick-up line?
This isn't like putting a couple of 10 year olds on a commuter bus.
Schools will put 3 highschoolers in a tiny row together without an AC in peak 3pm heat and toss them around streets with heavily outdated seatbelts nobody wears. I've had to sit with half a buttcheek on the seat and hold on for dear life many times.
When there is an AC it might drip water on top of you.
Not to mention I've seen like 3 fights, one of which I was sitting next to the dude by chance.
I also had a time where they heavily underestimated how many busses they needed and every row was 3 kids to a seat and I had to stand in the isle for an HOUR until they could get a second bus. They wouldn't let us off and people on the bus had work they were scheduled to be at.
This isn't a like commuter bus, it's a prison bus packed with sweaty teenagers. This is why nobody in the US wants to use busses, because the only experience they've had with them has been AWFUL
edit: this turned into more of a personal vent of my school rather than a thought through response to your comment 😅
The flip side of this is when everyone is like "the USA could never rely on public transit, it's too big" ignoring that yellow schoolbuses go almost fuckin everywhere in this country, including to some crazy rural places
Also, wild, when I was a kid they just didn't have seatbelts at all lol. Minor, useless improvements ftw?
School buses in most areas have distance restrictions on where kids can be picked up. If you live outside those areas, you have to find some other way to get to school.
Our local schools also have a proximity limitation.
Within that range, you don't get a bus. Walk, bike, or get a ride. (Unsure what that is, as my children are still several years away from public school, as daycare doesn't run a bus)
With the US's current "kids walking alone is endangerment" climate, realistically that means all those kids get dropped off by car.
Having grown up rural, buses tend to shine. I had a 20 minute bus ride to and from town as it collected all the scattered children over there. Route changed yearly to accommodate new or leaving kids.
School ran a small fleet of buses covering the whole district.
Routine (within a 5 min window over the years) pickup and dropoff times, the same drivers for years, more or less the same roads.
Idk, I live in one of those “progressive hellscape / nanny state” places they’re always on about … every kid is guaranteed access to school provided by the county / state.
Some students are in a walk” jurisdiction, they can only cross a single road with a crosswalk or are outside of it and MUST be offered transportation to school.
There is no “you’re too far away”, kids walk even in elementary school, and busses are provided for everyone else.
The vast majority of the time you’d only be out of range because your kid should be going to a different school. Rural areas are kind of the exception. But in suburbia? That’s not very common.
For real, is they had one of those guys they have at football games walking up and down the line of cars with a tray of snacks, they would make a killing.
In the morning I think people are too much in a rush, but it's always congested so maybe.
Reminds me there's a local ice cream truck that is always outside the TK dismissal gate. They make bank, and if I didn't suspect they had a kid at the school I'd be a little upset. I mean it is predatory, but I'm not about to report a mom and pop ice cream truck, lol.
But yeah, where is the truck for parents? I gotta get all my goodies from the hole in the wall donut place (they have great homemade egg sandwiches, still only $6, up from $4 but still a good deal!)
I'm okay with it as long as they only take cash. Kids need an opportunity to make their own decisions with money and learn about not having enough to buy that thing.
My son used to go to the YMCA camp after school. It was on the school grounds. An ice cream truck would come and park outside the gate and the counselor's would let a few kids at a time go to the truck.
Appropriately so, several of the public schools in Portland have their own shaved ice, popsicle, and/or savory snack carts for events. (ie. OG hotdog type push-cart) All proceeds go directly to that school & its students. 🥰
35 replies
School pickup line in Alabama
There are like 70 unused parking spaces there that the kids could walk to. Or the parents could walk from to get their kid.
This looks so weird to a NZer. So the cars are all showing up to the school's front entrance, one at a time?
My kids just walk down the road and round the corner so I don't really encounter much traffic. It'd be a bit silly to pick them up right in front of the school...
(ofc, most kids just walk or bus home - I unfortunately live further away so don't really have that option)
I think its done this way these days out of a concern for child safety. Especially with elementary age kids, the school needs to know who is picking up the kid. (You often have to have a thing with your kids name and grade hanging from your rearview mirror) They don't want to be responsible for strangers, or an estranged relative kidnapping a child.
They are also concerned about the kids walking through parking lots or the pickup line and getting hit by a car.
Those things happened enough times, and school districts got sued enough times that we end up with what you see above.
Nobody is bothered about the fundrising part?
Good idea on the surface, but complicated in practice.
where is the labor/money coming from to sell those coffee? I don't know about you guys buy I rarely see people vote for a raise in taxes for any reason, especially in education.
teachers do not want parents to be there longer than necessary, parents are the number one reason why teachers leave their career behind. More parent to teacher contact, rather than just restricting to just emails, is a terrible idea
This directly leads to schools "not having buses for clubs and exams" btw.
Cheap child labour makes it go $$$$
As a European, reading "parent pick-up line" is so weird.
The entire post is as American as they come. Schools always talking about fundraising? Parent pick-up line?
Why are they picking up parents? 🤔
PUAs are invading schools.
Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans? (A parent pick up line)
First of all wild that that's a thing at all. Why not school buses?
But secondly, weird name. It's not like it's parents being picked up, nor is it just parents doing the picking up. Unless the pick-uppers are split into different relationship queues? Is there a sibling pick-up line and a grandparent pick-up line running parallel to the parent pick-up line?
This isn't like putting a couple of 10 year olds on a commuter bus.
Schools will put 3 highschoolers in a tiny row together without an AC in peak 3pm heat and toss them around streets with heavily outdated seatbelts nobody wears. I've had to sit with half a buttcheek on the seat and hold on for dear life many times.
When there is an AC it might drip water on top of you. Not to mention I've seen like 3 fights, one of which I was sitting next to the dude by chance.
I also had a time where they heavily underestimated how many busses they needed and every row was 3 kids to a seat and I had to stand in the isle for an HOUR until they could get a second bus. They wouldn't let us off and people on the bus had work they were scheduled to be at.
This isn't a like commuter bus, it's a prison bus packed with sweaty teenagers. This is why nobody in the US wants to use busses, because the only experience they've had with them has been AWFUL
edit: this turned into more of a personal vent of my school rather than a thought through response to your comment 😅
The flip side of this is when everyone is like "the USA could never rely on public transit, it's too big" ignoring that yellow schoolbuses go almost fuckin everywhere in this country, including to some crazy rural places
Also, wild, when I was a kid they just didn't have seatbelts at all lol. Minor, useless improvements ftw?
I've been on buses in various countries in various continents.
Buses are OK.. to trash. London Underground is the Public transport GOAT. Even if it's too fucking sweaty and jam packed.
NB : I have not had the pleasure of riding Japanese public transport.
School buses in most areas have distance restrictions on where kids can be picked up. If you live outside those areas, you have to find some other way to get to school.
Our local schools also have a proximity limitation. Within that range, you don't get a bus. Walk, bike, or get a ride. (Unsure what that is, as my children are still several years away from public school, as daycare doesn't run a bus)
With the US's current "kids walking alone is endangerment" climate, realistically that means all those kids get dropped off by car.
Having grown up rural, buses tend to shine. I had a 20 minute bus ride to and from town as it collected all the scattered children over there. Route changed yearly to accommodate new or leaving kids.
School ran a small fleet of buses covering the whole district. Routine (within a 5 min window over the years) pickup and dropoff times, the same drivers for years, more or less the same roads.
Idk, I live in one of those “progressive hellscape / nanny state” places they’re always on about … every kid is guaranteed access to school provided by the county / state.
Some students are in a walk” jurisdiction, they can only cross a single road with a crosswalk or are outside of it and MUST be offered transportation to school.
There is no “you’re too far away”, kids walk even in elementary school, and busses are provided for everyone else.
Oh, okay that's unexpected. When I accompanied my Australian cousins to school for a month we rode the school bus for 45 minutes each way.
The vast majority of the time you’d only be out of range because your kid should be going to a different school. Rural areas are kind of the exception. But in suburbia? That’s not very common.
Or even simpler: they could sell the kids. They have plenty of them anyway.
That would at least provide equity among schools. Pick up lines are for suburban schools that already have money.
For real, is they had one of those guys they have at football games walking up and down the line of cars with a tray of snacks, they would make a killing.
In the morning I think people are too much in a rush, but it's always congested so maybe.
There are starting to be guys like that around here who sell cold bottles of water and snacks near places where traffic always backs up. It's wild
Albatross! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PJix23IeF8
Reminds me there's a local ice cream truck that is always outside the TK dismissal gate. They make bank, and if I didn't suspect they had a kid at the school I'd be a little upset. I mean it is predatory, but I'm not about to report a mom and pop ice cream truck, lol.
But yeah, where is the truck for parents? I gotta get all my goodies from the hole in the wall donut place (they have great homemade egg sandwiches, still only $6, up from $4 but still a good deal!)
What's a TK dismissal gate?
Transitional Kindergarten, they get their own gate. It's literally just two classrooms of about 12 kids each.
Thank you!
I'm okay with it as long as they only take cash. Kids need an opportunity to make their own decisions with money and learn about not having enough to buy that thing.
My son used to go to the YMCA camp after school. It was on the school grounds. An ice cream truck would come and park outside the gate and the counselor's would let a few kids at a time go to the truck.
Appropriately so, several of the public schools in Portland have their own shaved ice, popsicle, and/or savory snack carts for events. (ie. OG hotdog type push-cart) All proceeds go directly to that school & its students. 🥰
Our PTO has done this, but from a timing perspective it was a logistics nightmare.