In America, parents are responsible for dropping off and picking up children to/from school. As far as I know, children do not go to school alone like in Japan. I think the reason is that it is not very safe regarding security, and the distance is far, so it is impossible to drop off/pick up from school without a car. This is very difficult if both parents work full-time. That is where after-school care services can be useful.
Pick-up and drop-off times and schedules
My daughter’s public elementary school starts at 8:30 am and finishes at 1:30am. Working from 8am-5pm is impossible at these hours. Many daycares are open from early in the morning until 6 pm, so it’s not a problem, but when they start TK (Transition Kindergarten) or Kindergarten, the problem of picking up and dropping off suddenly arises. Even if you work from home, it would be impossible to pick up your child at this time, which is different from lunch time. Some school districts finish at 12:30 pm, so in those cases, some people seem to use their lunch time to pick up their child. The gates open at 8 am, but no teacher is watching, so I was worried about leaving my 4-5 year old child there alone. So we also enrolled her in a Before School program.
What is before- and after-school care? What is the system?
Optionally, you can take advantage of before and after-school care programs.
Depending on the school, after-school programs may be available on-site, or private services may be used off-site. On-site programs are often state-certified, so they have the advantage of being cheaper, and the biggest advantage is that they are convenient. Services that are not on-site may have after-school care in addition to daycare. For off-site services, parents need to coordinate whether there is a service that will take your child to and from school or whether parents need to take their child from school to the facility. Also, these before/after care services often exceed the capacity in some areas, so you may have to apply by lottery or register very early. Therefore, it is important to research, compare, and register early. You also need to have a backup plan in mind, such as what to do if you do not get into your first choice.
How do you find it? What do you decide?
Usually, the After School Care section of the school district’s website (XXX Unified School District) has a list of after school care services available at each school. If you want to use an off-school service, you will need to search the web and look for it on a site with reviews.
Points of comparison:
- Safety. When leaving kindergarteners at the facility, safety is probably the most important thing. In the US, they are especially important. Is there a lock on the door? Are the authorized members who can pick up kids monitored? Is the check-in/out process monitored? Are they guided to their class before classes start? Is the guidance from the classroom smooth after classes end? Since kindergarteners don’t know where the classroom is yet and they feel anxious at first, a staff member helping navigate this transition gave me peace of mind. With the Before/After Care service we are currently using, kindergarteners are taken to their class until they feel comfortable, and the class teacher guides them to the right place after classes end, so I felt reassured.
- Time. Do the pick-up and drop-off times fit into your work schedule?
- Activities. Are there a lot of arts and craft activities, is there reading time, do they help with homework, are there lots of outdoor play areas and play equipment? Kindergarteners don’t have homework yet, but having fun activities like arts and crafts will help children have more fun. This may depend on the skills and motivation of the dedicated staff members, but some places don’t have a structured schedule and watch the children play. I recommend talking directly to the staff manager about the activities or asking other parents who use the service.
There are many things to worry about, but if you prepare the after-school program properly, you can concentrate on your work all day. My daughter was enrolled in TK when she was 4 years old, so I used both Before and After. Luckily, our school has on-site care, so I drop her off at the gym around 7:45 am and pick her up around 5:30 pm. Another good part of using this program is that we don’t have to drive in a crowded parking lot because the drop-off/pick-up rush time has not started.
Available services may vary depending on the school district, state, and city, so I hope that by planning early, you can reduce some of the stress and enjoy the beginning of kindergarten with your child.