Drop-Off/Pickup Times and Traffic Flow Information
We need your help to keep our car lines running smoothly in the mornings for drop-off and in the afternoons for pickup! Please click on the images below to familiarize yourself with our drop-off and pickup times, as well as our car line procedures (even if you are walking/biking your student to school). Families must be familiar with and follow all dropoff and pickup protocols.
Drop-Off General Information
- Breakfast, hygiene, and gathering belongings into backpacks must be taken care of at home prior to arrival at school; this helps your child feel prepared and not rushed on arrival. Please respect our busy staff and other parents who also need to get to work on time. Set your child up to have a successful day by ensuring they are immediately ready to get out of the car when it is your family’s turn in the car line.
- Please keep home items at home, and school items at school. We do not allow any toys, electronics, or personal items on campus; please keep these items at home to ensure a smooth transition to the school day. Children who are registered “nappers” are allowed one small stuffed toy to hug to sleep; the toy must be no taller or wider than the length of their forearm.
- If you do not immediately see a staff member at the door of the building, please give us a call and wait until someone arrives to escort your child in. Do not drop your child off and drive away without ensuring your child is with a staff member. Staff will not be available for drop-off prior to 8AM.
- Families that are still taking care of home tasks upon arrival at school, or who have children who refuse to enter the building, may be asked to loop around the block and re-enter the car line or sidewalk line when their child is more ready to start the day. Thank you for helping us keep our car lines moving!
- Once you have ensured your child is with staff, please leave the front entryway. Please do not linger at the door as this holds up the dropoff process. The car line is not an appropriate time to conference with faculty.
Give your child a brief, cheerful hug goodbye each morning and allow staff to take over guiding them into the building; this conveys confidence they are going to have a wonderful time and sets the tone for the day!
Pickup Rules & Procedures
- Use your child’s name card when picking up. New students and students who are in new classrooms this year will receive a name card at drop-off on the first day. Please clip your child’s name card to the back side of the passenger visor so that the name is facing out the front windshield when you pull up to the building. (If you need multiple copies for other caregivers, or are a returning family that has lost their name card, please let the office know.)
- Children will only be released to a parent/guardian with legal custody or those persons authorized in writing by the parent/guardians. We will not release a child to an unauthorized adult. We may ask for photo I.D. if we do not recognize the person picking up your child.
Tardy Arrival/Pickup, Appointments, & More...
- Doors to the building will close for dropoff at 8:30AM sharp each day. If you arrive later than this, you and your child will need to wait in your car and call the office to have a staff member come and escort your child in. Unless you have already called ahead to arrange a late arrival with valid cause, your child will not be accepted into the building after 10:00AM due to the disruption it causes to the classroom.
- Please don’t drop off early or pick up late. Your child’s classroom will not be ready until the assigned dropoff time, so if you are early to drop off your child in the morning we will ask you to wait in your car until your assigned drop off time; children may not enter the building until their assigned time. Please also pick up your child no later than your assigned pickup window. MSCU reserves the right to charge late pickup charges of $10 when a family is five minutes past their pickup window, and then an additional $5.00/minute for every minute after that. (We do not charge late pickup fees if your car is in the car line before the line is done for your time window.)
- Call or email ahead if you need to drop off late or pick up early (e.g., for medical appointments, etc.) so we can have staff ready to walk your child in/out of the building. A minimum of 24 hours advance notice is preferred.
- Absences and Tardiness: Please attend regularly and on-time each day. Daily attendance during the entire regular school term is required for all school-age children (K-8) per Illinois state law. A child may not be absent without valid cause for 5% or more of the previous 180 attendance days; this is equivalent to 9 days. Valid cause for absence is defined as illness, medical appointment, observance of a religious holiday, death in the immediate family, family emergency, and other such situations beyond the control of the student as determined by the School or other such circumstances which cause reasonable concern to the parent for the safety or health of the student. The Illinois State Board of Education has established guidelines for half-day and full-day attendance. Your child is officially considered tardy if they arrive at school after their designated drop-off time, without having given prior notice to the main office of valid cause.
- If a tardy arrival occurs more than three times per semester there will be a $25.00 charge per family for every subsequent late arrival. Your child will not be considered tardy if your car is in the car line before the end of your drop-off window. Please remember that even though we do not officially mark your child tardy until after 8:30AM, if your child has an earlier drop-off window s/he may miss important activities in the classroom if arriving at 8:30AM, so please try to arrive within your designated arrival window. Please see “Attendance and Late Arrivals” in the Parent Handbook for more information about attendance rules and consequences for excessive absences or tardies.
- Primary Building Late Arrivals: Please escort your child into the building where they will be received by a staff member.
- Studio Building Late Arrivals: Please park in the lot to the north of the Circle Drive, call the main office to let us know your child has arrived, then walk your child into the building and SIGN IN.
- Burwash Building Late Arrivals: If there is space in the lot attached to the Circle Drive, you may park there; otherwise, please park off Regency Drive East. Call the main office to let us know your child has arrived, then walk your child into the building and SIGN IN.