Seven Steps Toward Eliminating Chaos at Check-Out Time
When the end of the day comes and it is time for students to leave with their parents, does your orderly well structured afterschool program suddenly disintegrate into chaos? Even if your check-out time is orderly, you may be able to use some of these time honored and field tested methods to help make your check-out time even faster and smoother.
Keep reading all the way to the end because step number seven is the fastest, easiest, and most important.
1. Notify Parents that Change is Coming
After you work out exactly what your new check-out procedure will be, send home a flier to parents with a detailed explanation of what they should expect and what you would like them to do. Make announcements to students as well, reminding them of when the new check-out system will start. If you just spring the new check-out plan on everyone without coaching them first, even more chaos will ensue.
2. Close the Doors Until You Are Ready
Funnel your students in through one door and have parents start lining up outside of another closed door. Put up a sign and close that door 10-15 minutes before check-out begins so you don’t have parents coming into your meeting space and disrupting the last few minutes of your students activity time. When you are ready to begin check-out, open the check-out door.
3. Regroup Before Releasing Students
Call all of your student groups back to your main meeting space before you dismiss everyone. This will give you the opportunity to relay any last minute messages and you can make sure all your students are accounted for before parents start picking them off.
4. Parents Sign-Out, Then Enter
Setup a table near the door where you want parents to enter. Have them sign-out their child first and then allow them to enter. This makes your check-out more accurate and more secure. Parents can’t forget to sign out and you can screen every parent coming in. If you run a large program and you think the line will be too long, divide your students alphabetically by last name and have two check-out lines.
5. Train Your Students
When students see their parents they usually get up and run right over. Train your students to stay with their group until after their parent has signed for them. When they see their parent they can gather their belongings and wait to be dismissed.
6. Shuffle Your Staff
After the first ten minutes when the majority of your students have left, combine the remaining students into one or two groups and give them some books or coloring for entertainment until their parents arrive. Assign one or two staff members to supervise those groups while your other staff start cleaning up and restocking supplies for the next day.
7. End On a Positive Note
Even though the end of the day can be hectic, try to have students and parents leave with an upbeat, positive feeling. Train your staff to say a sincere good-bye to each student using the student’s name as they leave. Even if you don’t implement any of the previous six steps, do this one. It is super easy and it let’s students and parents know that you value their participation in your program.
What do you do to make check-out time less chaotic? Post a comment and let us know!
