Parents worried about reviewing student pick-up and drop-off procedures

"At the end of 2023, my child's school had an incident where a child was forgotten on the school bus. Fortunately, nothing unfortunate happened," said Ms. Ha, 34 years old, in Thanh Oai district (Hanoi).

That time, a boy slept in the car while the other students had already entered the classroom at 7:10. At 7:40, the teacher did not see him when he took attendance so she called his family and immediately ran to the car to check and was able to rescue him in time.

The incident stirred up the school's parent groups. They reviewed the pick-up and drop-off procedures and found too many loopholes. The school decided that from now on, not only the driver and the person in charge of the vehicle, but also the parents would participate in supervision.

Specifically, in addition to the roll call when getting on and off the bus, the person in charge of the pick-up and drop-off will record a video checking every corner of the bus and send it to the parent group. When dropping off, they will also record a video of each child getting off and end with a video of the entire bus. The homeroom teacher will announce the roll call in the class group at 8am, including the number of students and the names of absent students. If any student is absent without reporting, the teacher will call the family to check immediately. The travel itinerary and any traffic jams will be shared.

"The new process has three-party cross-checking to minimize errors," Ha said.

Since applying the new method, Ms. Ha feels more secure. However, when the incident of forgetting a child in a car in Thai Binh recently occurred, the group of parents of her child's class still discussed it. Some suggested that the school use more technology to identify children as they enter and exit the school gate, connecting directly to the parents' phones. Some even had the idea of ​​​​requesting the homeroom teacher to pick them up at the school gate.

"It's summer vacation now so the school hasn't responded yet," Ha said.

Her son is about to enter first grade at a private school 5 km away from home, so Ms. Nguyen Phuong, 30 years old, in Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay (Hanoi) registered for the school's shuttle bus. But the recent heartbreaking incident of a boy being forgotten in the bus has made her worried.

For the past two days, Phuong and the group of parents have contacted the school and were assured that a teacher in charge of boarding would accompany them on the bus, create a Zalo group to share the itinerary and report the entire pick-up and drop-off process. Although the current process "seems okay", the group of parents are still not assured because they are afraid that if they are serious for a while, they will become negligent.

"There are two opinions, some continue to let their children take the school bus, others decide to arrange their own work to pick them up and drop them off," said the young mother.

Phuong's office is not convenient to her child's school, and she has a 2-year-old daughter. Her husband often travels for work, so she still chooses to take the school bus. She is thinking about buying a tracking device for her child, although she knows it may not be effective.

Taking students to school by bus is expected to bring safety to students and convenience to parents, and is applied by many schools in cities or areas with industrial zones where many workers' families are concentrated. However, in Vietnam, the service of taking children to school does not have a common standard, but each place has its own style, and even has many loopholes.

Ms. Duong Kim Tuyen, founder of a life skills center with 13 years of experience in Hanoi, said the two incidents of children being left in cars were extremely heartbreaking and a warning lesson for everyone.

First of all, it is important to recognize that this is an adult responsibility. Teachers, parents, and anyone who works with children need to understand that it is normal for children to sleep in cars. It is the responsibility of adults to always check for safety.

According to Ms. Tuyen, although the school is authorized to pick up and drop off children, the role of parents in cooperation is very important. Parents must always remind their children that risks can happen at any time and equip them with the necessary skills to deal with unforeseen situations.

"Equipping your child is a journey, not something that happens after an incident. Creating escape habits must be practiced over and over again," the expert said.

Last night, Hoai Giang and her husband in Hai Phong took their 10-year-old and 8-year-old children out to test their escape skills when locked in a car. Her husband assured them that they knew because he taught them in 5th grade a year ago, and the younger child started elementary school three years ago. Ms. Giang was afraid that the time had passed so long that the children would forget.

As a result, both children answered all four escape routes. The older brother, although taught by his father since he was 5 years old, still clearly remembered that even when the car was off, the horn and lights would still work, as well as the skill of using a hammer to break the window.

"But a 5-year-old child in such a panic situation can hardly do anything, so the most important thing is that adults need to complete their tasks well," said Ms. Giang.

Seeing that the school’s pick-up and drop-off procedures for boys are very strict, Ms. Vu Minh Trang, in Cau Giay, often shares with everyone whenever she has the chance. First, the school has an official document regulating the inspection twice: after the student gets off the bus, the person in charge checks the entire bus for the first time, then the driver, when bringing the bus into the parking lot, must check the entire bus a second time before being allowed to lock the doors and leave.

At the beginning of class, the homeroom teacher will take attendance, take a class photo, and announce the number of students and the names of absent students to the class group for parents to know. Any student who is absent without permission will have their family called to check.

Families who live nearby and go to and from the pick-up point by themselves or pick up and drop off at the pick-up point without their parents need to have a guarantee letter registered with the school at the beginning of the school year so that the teacher, the person in charge of the vehicle and the driver know. Without a guarantee letter, they will not be allowed to leave the school. If they arrive at the pick-up point without their parents present, they must contact and wait until the handover before the vehicle can go. The vehicle's itinerary is shared with the parent group, and traffic jams are also reported.

At the beginning of the school year, the school spends a week teaching all students, whether they ride the bus or not, escape skills and practice them on the school bus that they still ride, until they are sure that each student can master all escape skills when locked in the bus, as well as when the bus has an incident or accident. This is taught again at the beginning of each school year.

"This process has been applied for 5 years now, giving parents peace of mind," said Ms. Trang.

As for Ms. Thai Ha, whether she used the old process before or after it was strictly redone, she still keeps the habit of going to the class at 8am to check the attendance report and check her child's attendance before going to class to feel secure.

"If I don't care about my own child, what can I expect from others? So parents are required to participate in the process of picking up and dropping off children. If there are times when the teachers make a mistake and don't record or send a video, I will immediately ask in the class group," Ha said.