Attendance, Arrival, & Dismissal

Attendance – We expect your child to be at school and on time every day. If your child is ill, please email your child’s teacher/advisor and attendance@sffriendsschool.org before 9:00 a.m. If we do not hear from you by 9:00 and your child is marked absent, we will call you to confirm the absence. If your child needs to leave school during the school day, please email attendance@sffriendsschool.org or provide permission in writing, with the name of the person who will be picking your child up. Your child will have a more pleasant and successful experience in school if s/he arrives on time and can settle into the daily routine with the rest of the class. Teachers send the class attendance lists to the front desk each morning. If your child arrives late to school, please remind him/her to check in at the front desk before going to his/her classroom so that we know to reconcile the child as a late/tardy arrival rather than absent. Please don’t take your child out of school for family vacations. You’ll impact his/her ability to succeed at school and disrupt the flow of the school year, of which each and every day is important.

Arrival/Dismissal –

Arrival: Each morning, beginning at 8:00 a.m., Lower School students enter through the South Gate while Middle School students enter through the North Gate. We strongly urge you to walk, take public transportation, ride a bike, or arrive in a carpool. If you are arriving by car, anticipate a wait; please come southbound on Valencia Street, and pull up to the concrete loading island, where a staff member will meet your child and guide them into school. Be very careful of bicyclists in the designated bike lane. If you arrive late to school, please legally park your car and bring your child(ren) to the front desk; the Front Desk Clerk will make sure your child gets to class. During morning drop-off, it is prohibited to drive down either of the side alleys of Brosnan Street or Clinton Park.

Dismissal: If you have more than one child to pick up, please arrive at the later pick--up time. You must have your safety seats on the passenger side of the car, in the rear seat; please do not get out of the car. We’ll help Kindergartners get buckled up; 1st- through 8th-Graders should be able to fasten their seat belts by themselves. During afternoon pick-up, drivers are not permitted to use Brosnan Street; they can use Clinton Park. However, drivers cannot queue on Clinton Park prior to dismissal time, nor can we allow more than six cars on Clinton Park at any one time. Please note that we are limited to 8-10 cars lining up during dismissal on Clinton Park. If you see a staff member restricting access to Clinton Park this means we are at capacity and you should please circle the block. This means to go down Duboce, Valencia, then back around via 15th St and then onto Guerrero.

It is imperative that drivers support the school’s gesture of goodwill and respect for our neighbors by observing these rules. The school takes its role as a steward in the community, and we have had a long--standing policy to support and protect the neighbors on both Brosnan Street and Clinton Park from the traffic, noise, and CO2 related to our drop-off and pick-up procedures. In addition, it is strictly prohibited from queuing/idling your car alongside the bike lane on Valencia between Duboce and Clinton Park (or anywhere else), or to use the loading zone in front of Francis of Assisi on Guerrero. Our neighbors and SFMTA are relying on us to observe these best practices.

Please see the Carpool Etiquette section in Health & Safety for more detail.

Dismissal Form – Lower School parents should fill out the weekly dismissal form on the Wiki (wiki.sffriendsschool.org/sffs/dismissalform.cgi) by Sunday evening each week to indicate their child’s dismissal plans for the week ahead. Your part in communication is paramount to a safe dismissal. If for some reason you neglect to fill out this weekly form, or neglect to communicate plans early in the week directly to the teacher or TA, or if you have last-minute changes that are not recorded with a supervising adult before noon, your child will be released to the carpool area, and then to ED, if not picked up by 3:30 p.m. Please be sure to communicate your carpool plans clearly, as noted on the dismissal form, if your child is to be picked up by another supervising adult.

If there are mid-week changes to your dismissal plans, please email your child’s teacher and contact the front desk clerk before noon. When teachers know where your child is going at the end of each day, our dismissal runs smoothly and children can feel secure.

Student Self-Dismissal – Middle School students with written permission may self-dismiss at dismissal time (alone or with a younger sibling if indicated on the Self-Dismissal Permission Slip) by signing themselves out at the front desk. Students who self-dismiss are expected to leave campus shortly after the end of the school day or after-school activity. We ask that students not loiter at school or re-enter once they have exited, so as not to complicate supervision and other dismissal procedures. If a student needs to leave campus for a meal before an evening commitment, parents should contact Marina Vendrell or Clarke Weatherspoon well in advance, briefly outlining the need for the student to return. This should only be done when there is truly a need, sparingly, and with as much advance notice as possible. Students are not allowed to leave school and return with food or to have food delivered to school.