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!

Arrive early

Schedule your staff to arrive at least 15 minutes before the students arrive.  Make sure they have enough time to collect their supplies, organize their clipboard, prepare their table and prepare snack.  Everything that needs to be ready, should be completely ready when students arrive.

Greet Students

Are your group leaders standing at their table or assigned area when students arrive?  They should be.  Train your group leaders to greet each child individually, using their name, when they first arrive.  They need to strike up a little bit of conversation with students and ask about their day.  Really devote some time to making students feel special when they get to your afterschool program.

Give Down Time

Just as adults want to relax for a few minutes when they get home before starting on dinner or chores, students want to relax, too.  Give about 10 minutes for students to just sit and chat when they arrive to the program before you start making any announcements or sending groups off to their assigned activities.

Giving students time to relax and creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for them when they arrive will help make your afterschool program something that students look forward to.  This can boost your attendance and reduce behavior problems because you have created a calm friendly environment where students want to be.

Table 1: Assigning Students to Teams by Grade Level

Table 2: Assigning Students to Teams with Mixed Grade Levels

In Table 1, you only have room for one team of second graders – probably 20 students at the most.  What happens if your program suddenly becomes very popular with second graders?  In Table 2, you have room for about 30 second graders.  Mixing grade levels across teams also allows you to move students from one team to another if needed, and that can be a great relief if a conflict arises.

Here’s another tip:  schedule one or two extra students on every team.  If you are working from a grant – as so many Afterschool programs are – you probably need to meet a particular attendance requirement every day to get your maximum funding.  No matter how hard you try and how good you are at getting students to show up, someone will always be absent.  If you overbook your teams by one or two students each, you should hit your desired/required numbers every day. 

How do I get my students to complete their homework?  We offer homework help every day in the cafeteria but it seems like some students are just sitting there and never finish.

We all know that homework is the one thing parents want Afterschool programs to get done before the students go home – and this is a reasonable request.  To meet this need, many Afterschool programs have all the students sit down in a large room and take as much time as they want to get homework done.  The thought behind this strategy is good, but the fact is that it doesn’t really work.

Yes, I just said that unlimited homework time in the cafeteria does not get homework done!  Students talk to each other.  They get bored.  They get distracted.  They daydream.  And, they don’t get their questions answered quickly enough.  How many times have you seen a child laying with their head on the table and their hand in waving in the air waiting and waiting for help?

There is a better way!  The problem is that the focus is gone from homework time.  If there are three hours to get homework done, homework will take three hours.  So, how do we fix this?

Regain Focus

Divide your students into smaller groups and get them into smaller quiet rooms.  Then give them only one hour to complete their homework.  Stagger their schedule so some students do homework the first hour, some the second hour, and some the third hour.  Students will focus on their homework and finish because they know they only have limited time to work.

Get Professional Help

Hire one person like a credentialed teacher to help with homework.  With smaller groups, that person will be able to help the students who need help fairly quickly.  That person should know how to group students based on their assignments for the day and tutor several at a time if they have similar questions.

Eliminate Distractions

Have pencils and other supplies at the ready so time is not wasted on searching.  Keep all the students quiet and engaged.  Provide reading books and coloring sheets for those who are finished so they do not get bored and start talking.

You and your students do not need to be slaves to homework.  These changes may take time, but by changing your homework strategy you can really improve your program.  You can be more effective in helping students complete their homework accurately and you can free up more time for other wonderful activities.

For more specifics on how to make homework time a success you can check out my article, “Seven Secrets to Making the Most of Homework Time” on the Curricubits website.

Materials are always a struggle for afterschool programs.  You want to get good materials for your students but they are expensive and your budge it limited.  When you do spend the money the materials disappear in less than a week and you are right back where you started.  You already know about shopping around for bargains, so here are three more strategies to help you make the most of your supply dollars.

1. Repurpose

Find ways to use the same materials for different activities.  For example if you purchase a specialty item like a set of pastel chalks you can have your students can use them to draw mountains when you teach a Geology theme and again to make leaf rubbings when you teach a Plants theme.

2. Swap

Whenever possible, schedule your groups (or sites) to do the same activites at different times.  This will save you money because you will be able to buy just one set of materials and then swap between the groups.  For example, if you schedule one site to use the pastel chalks this week, schedule another site to use the magnifying glasses.  Then switch next week.

3. Inventory

If you want to swap and repurpose effectively, you will need to keep an inventory of  your materials.  This may sound a little daunting, but it is not really that difficult.  Make a list of all the materials for and activity and include columns for check-out and check-in on your list.  Write down how many go out and how many come back in whenever you send something out.  Train your staff to check after every activity to make sure they have everything and to return consumables if they are not completely used up.

This three step process of repurpose, swap, and inventory can be used on a large or small scale.  Once you get your staff on board, you can even get your students into the act.  Teach them to save their scraps of construction paper for another project like a mosaic and to return their pencils for use tomorrow instead of losing them.  You will be amazed at how far your materials budget will reach.