Parents frustrated after school ends walk-up pickup policy

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Some Putnam City Public Schools parents say they’re frustrated after an elementary school stopped allowing parents to walk up to the building to pick up their kids in the afternoon.

Putnam City Public Schools says administrators stopped allowing parents at Rollingwood Elementary to walk-up to the school to pick up their kids this year, in order to make the dismissal process safer.

Now, children who do not ride a bus, attend after school care or have parents who pick them up via the school’s car pickup line will be let out across a busy street or into a neighborhood to walk home with their parents.

Some parents say the change has only made dismissal more dangerous.

It was this time exactly one year ago, when News 4 reported parents at Rollingwood Elementary were getting creative after long afternoon pickup lines caused long waits, and traffic jams.

“The pickup line is pretty long and so we end up just parking along the street and then doing a walk up,” one parent said last year . “So it works for us, but it is a little bit of a hassle.”

The school gave parents the option to skip the car pickup line by parking off-site and walking up to the school to get their kids.

Lindsay Scott was one of those parents.

“There is a church right behind the school with a really big empty parking lot, and they would let us use that and we could park there and then walk up and get our children,” Scott told News 4 on Monday.  “And it was really easy in and out.”

But when the new school year started last week, she and other parents got a message from the school, telling them they could no longer do walk-up pickups.

The school sent them sent a map, letting them know kids—whose parents wished to pick them up on foot—would be released into a neighborhood south of the school, or would be walked across busy Northwest 63 ^rd Street, before being left to find their parents on their own.

“So that seems even more dangerous to be on that busy street doing any kind of pick up,” Scott said.

Scott shared News 4 a video she took as she and countless other parents went to go find their kids after let out of the school into the nearby neighborhood.

“Me and my son, my son, we have pinpointed a tree and that’s where he is to go. And he knows to look for me or his other person that picks him up.,” Scott said.  “It’s frustrating. It’s chaotic. It shouldn’t be this hard.”

More frustration came Monday, when she and other parents got another message from the school two hours before dismissal time.

It said, starting Monday, their kids would be released 10 minutes early.

“And so with, you know, 2 hours notice, we were told the school was getting out early, which is just not conducive,” Scott said. “I mean—I’m a working parent.”

News 4 reached out to Putnam City Public Schools, whose spokesperson confirmed on Monday the school made the changes “to improve student safety.”

“Safety is our number one priority and with the second full week of school starting today, it is common for procedures to be adjusted to continue to ensure safety,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the early dismissal time would only be a temporary change.

“In the reminder message today, [the school’s principal] advised that in order to help students and families adjust to the new routine this week, walkers would be dismissed 10 minutes early temporarily,” the spokesperson said.

Scott says she still isn’t convinced the new procedure makes anything safer.

“We were told the whole reason for this change was for safety reasons,” Scott said. “And I am not seeing any safety, anything. I’m seeing worse. You know, we’re worse off than we were last week when we had it and last year and the year before.”

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