Arrival and Dismissal
Overview
Schools should implement distancing measures to reduce potential exposure to COVID-19. With physical distancing measures in place, schools needed to reimagine arrival and dismissal so students are not walking in close proximity with their classmates and to prevent congregating of students, staff, and families. Here are the ways that schools have reconfigured arrival and dismissal to make sure they are safe for students, families, and staff.
Key Elements
| Uxbridge High School Uxbridge, MA Grades: 8-12 Students: 600 (85% with some in-person component) |
Mission Grammar School Roxbury, MA Grades: Infant-6 Students: 275 (70% in-person) |
Resurgence Hall Charter School East Point, GA Grades: K-3 Students: 335 (50% in-person) |
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Communicate to Students and Families New Arrival/Dismissal Procedures
Find ways to visually show families and students what arrival and dismissal will look like before students return to school buildings.
Create a video to show the experience: Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin created a video with the assistance of engineering teacher Michael Smutok that shows the new arrival procedures and shows a car following the new arrival route. This was sent to parents and students ahead of the first day of school so they would be familiar with the procedures and also understand the rationale behind them. Mission Grammar created a video showing the new arrival and dismissal procedures school as well for their younger students and families that was infused with joy and excitement around welcoming students back.
Host a virtual orientation session: Resurgence Hall sent out a reopening guide and held a virtual orientation session for students and families who opted to return to school to go over safety procedures and policies. The guide included arrival and dismissal procedures including maps to clearly show how to drive to the drop off points and the maps also indicated where the daily health screenings occur prior to students exiting the car.
Decide When and How Students Should Be Screened
All students should be screened either at home and/or at school to make sure they are not showing symptoms of COVID-19. Schools are choosing different approaches for this process.
Some schools opt for a self screen at home. Uxbridge parents and students are asked to self monitor symptoms at home (a list of symptoms was provided). If they exhibit any symptoms they need to report this to the school nurse and not come to school. The school nurse is also available for students who are not feeling well during the school day. But, students do not have a formal screening that they must complete before entering the building.
Some have adopted at-school screening to help families and students feel safe. Mission Grammar recognizes that while the CDC has noted that screening and health checks may not be completely effective because people may have COVID-19 and be asymptomatic, the school has elected to do temperature screenings for students and the drop off party to build family confidence that there is nobody allowed in the building with a high temperature. This also reinforces for families and students that the school is taking safety seriously.
Minimize Opportunities to Congregate
Students and families should maintain a six feet distance. Look at areas where students and families congregate during these times and come up with a plan to keep students, families, and staff distanced. .
Students not allowed in the building until right before school starts. Uxbridge students aren’t allowed to enter the building until 7:20. Students who drive or who take the bus wait in their vehicle until then. There are designated areas where students who walk and those dropped off early can wait while physically distanced. In previous years, students were able to come into the building as early as 6:30 a.m. However, Rubin said they simply couldn’t have kids in the building for an hour before school opens. He did note that he will monitor how arrival goes the first few weeks and he may be able to let students in earlier.
Remove places of high congregation. Resurgence Hall eliminated one entry way as a place that students enter and exit because families congregated during arrival and dismissal in years past to promote distancing.
Build an Adjustment Period for Students and Families to New Procedures
Allow time for your students and families to adjust to arrival with new safety procedures in place.
Lengthen the time block for arrival. Mission Grammar started the school year with a longer one hour arrival window to get people used to the new procedures and plan on shortening the time back to get instructional time back. Families self-select when they want to drop off and/or pick up their student to help support the traffic flow.
Give “grace” on tardies. Uxbridge High School is not marking tardies for the first weeks back tardies will not be marked to give students and families an adjustment to returning to school and the new procedures. Rubin explained that they chose not to stagger student arrivals by time because he did not want teachers to be in a constant state of flux with students coming into their classrooms throughout the morning at 7:15, 7:30, and 7:45.
Infuse Joy to Welcome Students Back During Arrival
Students and families have not been back at school since the spring. While every back to school brings a mixture of emotions, this will be especially heightened with students and families excited for the return to school but feeling fearful of the pandemic and disoriented with school looking radically different with safety procedures. Staff members can help ease anxiety by showing excitement at seeing students and families in person.
Bring joy with distanced greetings: Arrival is a time where students and families are welcomed with a lot of joy. Before the pandemic, every student received a handshake from staff members to welcome them to school. Staff members switched to elbow bumps, waves, and air fives to maintain proper distancing while still infusing joy into arrival
Station teachers to provide support to students. Just like in any school year, teachers are stationed in the hallways to provide guidance to students who need support finding their classrooms (this is especially the case for students who are new to the building). Unlike past years, teachers should provide gentle reminders to students to maintain a 6 foot distance. Uxbridge teacher David Halacy noted that students are sticking with the procedures. “Personally I feel very comfortable with what’s going on with the kids,” he said. “Students recognize what they need to do to be safe. Especially in the hallways, they’re moving.”
Designate Entrance and Exit Points for Students
Assign entry ways based on transportation. Before COVID-19, students entered Uxbridge High School through the central entrance. They increased the entryways to three in order to reduce density. Students enter and exit the school based on their mode of transportation now (bus, walkers, drop-off)
Determine entrances for cohorts. In addition to their staggered drop-off and pick-up times, Mission Grammar is utilizing cohorted doors for entry and dismissal. They increased the number of entry points from one for each of their two buildings to six total with the possibility of going up to ten. Each entry way has an administrator assigned to their door that completes the health screening.
Leverage Technology Solutions to Facilitate Distancing
Use QR codes for contactless late check-in and early dismissal. Uxbridge High School starts at 7:30 a.m. and students who arrive on time head straight to their classroom. For those who arrive late, they scan a QR code with their own device (the school has a 1:1 iPad program). The QR code takes them to a Google Form students enter their name and the form captures the time. The front office staff checks the spreadsheet and logs their attendance. Students who have a free period and/or have reached the age of majority scan another QR code if they leave campus early and this is documented in a Google Sheet.
Use a technology solution to support dismissal. Resurgence Hall uses an online program called PikMyKid for dismissal. Operations coordinators who support dismissal put into a mobile app which student’s ride or family member has arrived. The teacher is projecting the program onto the classroom wall, and a student’s name pops up when their ride or family member has arrived. The teacher dismisses the student and staggers students if necessary to make sure students maintain distance.
Stagger Dismissal to Make Sure Students Maintain a Safe Distance
In previous years, the bell rang and Uxbridge students would all leave at the same time. Right before the bell rang, some students would hang out in a cluster by the door. Now students are dismissed based on the mode of transportation. Students remain by their desk and wait until their mode of transportation is announced over the PA system. For example, students await for their bus to be called over the PA system in order to be dismissed.
Develop Plans for Inclement Weather
Some arrival and dismissal procedures will need to be modified in the case of inclement weather. For example, instead of standing outside in designated areas before school starts, students at Uxbridge High School will go to the cafeteria. Their cafeteria can house around 140 students while maintaining physical distance.
Summary
Key learnings from the first weeks of hybrid schooling include:
Clearly communicate arrival and dismissal expectations and procedures.
Give students and families time to adjust to new arrival procedures by extending arrival times and/or allowing for additional flexibility for tardiness during first weeks.
Policies should discourage congregation or mixing of families; identify and clearly mark areas where students and families should stand during arrival and dismissal.
Consider tradeoffs for screening approaches; Self screenings at home are considered effective, but place a lot of responsibility and trust in families and students. Additional screenings at school may cause bottlenecks during arrival and will not detect people who are asymptomatic but do reassure students, families, and staff.
Use technology to support contactless check-ins as well as parent pick-up.
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