Releasing Lots of Children

Schools and day cares have dealt with it for years. Now the question of "Who's Picking up the Kids?" is being asked everywhere from sports events to day camps. More than one conscientious parent has been concerned when seeing the casual, mass release of young children at these types of events.

The grim reality of today's living is that nearly every enclave of American society can claim one or more of the following: bitter custody battles, registered or unregistered child molesters living in the area and other limitations known only to the family of the child. For this reason, it can no longer be assumed that it is safe to simply "cut the kids loose" after an event - whether it be at a church, recreation center, private health club or camp. In an era where baggage claim is often more strictly regulated than letting children out for the day, the onus is on concerned parents to ask how children will be released.

Schools and day care centers have been forced to wrestle with the proper chain of custody for years, many times as the result of tragic abductions. In the case of very young children, teachers or aides are not permitted to leave school grounds until each student has been picked up. At day care centers, particularly large ones with high turnover rates, cards must be submitted by the primary parent or caregiver, indicating precisely who is authorized to pick up children, along with a description of those people, their vehicle and their signatures.

Other institutions issue permits, numbered and recorded for each child. It may be that child #453A, Jason Smith, has three people that need to pick him up: Mom every day except for the weekends when he goes with Dad, and occasionally Grandma. That child's family would be given three laminated passes, with photos of the child and the person authorized. If the caregiver forgets the pass, a backup card with a password can be pulled and the caregiver can show identification and the password.

Techniques such as these, and many others, such as calling the primary caregiver when in doubt, are used by institutions that are open for years at a time, for much of the year. Is it appropriate for the week-long art camp to be expected to go to such measures as well? What about the Junior Woodchucks summer camp or the Brownies after school on Wednesdays?

The answer is, realistically that all must be accountable and take measures to make sure that the chain of custody for each child is respected. The consequence of a lax system not only denies the realities of today's society, but also gives children and parents a false sense of security.

Making sure that children go with the adults that they are supposed to does not have to be expensive. It does not have to be traumatic. True, it will slow things down, especially en masse. Monitoring where kids go will also take some planning and meetings about the policy. No system is flawless, regardless of the measures taken. Parents will lose "claim checks" and passes, and for a short-term program, such as the week-long day camp, simpler can usually be effective. Simply require parents to sign in their children, and ask them if they'll be the ones picking them up. Quickly jot down their driver's license number, or issue a password, in case they need to call the program later to change plans. By doing so, you can discern that the person calling is actually who he says he is. If the person picking up is not the person who dropped the child off, ask who will be doing so. Then ask the person retrieving the child to show ID. The whole process will take seconds per child, and is well worth the effort.

Not only will the organization giving the event show that it is making an effort to keep the children safe, but it will also be making the parents feel better while letting those who would not be authorized to pick up the child know that someone is paying attention.

For years, the typical way of letting children go after summer camp was to simply open the doors and let them go. Almost unfailingly, the kids would see their waiting parents, and everyone would go home telling tales of mosquito bites, falling into the lake and learning ceramics. But the rare cases where a child waited alone for a parent who never came, or was picked up by an adult, who lured him into his car with stories about meeting his mother later, were so tragic and heart-wrenching that an organized sign-out program seems a minor inconvenience by comparison. Whether in the middle of a big city, or in a small town where nobody locks his doors, it is time to make a plan where every child is safely accounted for.

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