As a safety measure, students at an Iowa elementary school are being escorted to their parents’ cars at dismissal time.
At the end of the day at the Cedar Rapids elementary school, once the buses have left, staff members ask the parents who they have come to pick-up and then they escort the child out to the proper vehicle, according to a report by KCRG.
The Cedar Rapids School District said the change was made for safety reasons after the school added grades, doubling the size of its student body.
According to the report, Executive Director for PK-8th grade, Val Dolezal, said kids were walking between buses and cars as they left, and that lots of cars would get stuck behind buses.
“We had several parents say, ‘I almost got hit today’,” said Dolezal.
Daycare provider, Rosetta Pfeifle said it’s a safer way to get kids home.
“I don’t have to worry about her getting picked up by somebody that would kidnap her,” Pfeifle said.
Other parents are concerned about traffic congestion and said pick-ups are taking a long time.
“The second day it took 25 minutes,” said mother, Mary Jo Huston. “I had time, but some days we don’t have time.”
The school district believes many of the issues will be smoothed out as kids and parents get more familiar with the process, reported KCRG.
“Yesterday was probably 10 minutes faster than the day before,” said Dolezal. “It’s just going to get better and better as time goes on.”
“We just have to have patience and once the kids recognize their parent’s cars it’ll go smooth,” said Huston.
Parents do have the option of parking off school grounds and having their students walk to them if they don’t want to partake in the process.
