Van won't drop my 9 year old unless an adult is at the gate. One evening a week, there isn't one

linen_pigeon_651010 Jul 2026

The school van has started insisting that an adult receives each child at the stop. Fair rule, and the other days are fine because our part-time arrangement covers them. The problem is my late clinic evening. My partner travels for work that day more often than not, and there is no one at home between the van drop at about 4.15 and when I get back at 7.30. What have other families done for one fixed day a week? I would rather not pay for a full-time arrangement for one evening.

5 comments

pebble_hammock_448510 Jul 2026
Our van has the same rule till class 5. We gave written permission for the building security guard to receive her, and called the van driver ourselves the first few times so he knew it was real. Took a couple of weeks of awkwardness and then it became normal. She sat in the guard's cabin till my partner came, which she thought was a great privilege.
- mint_lantern_61814 Jul 2026
  My lectures run late two days a week, so I'm reading this as advance warning even though my daughter is a baby. Did your society committee have to agree to the guard doing this, or was it only between you, the guard and the van?
rose_pool_480610 Jul 2026
Our caregiver does the van stop for both kids. If you don't have someone, ask around your building, sometimes a neighbour's helper will do one day a week for a small monthly amount.
orchid_drum_591010 Jul 2026
Does the school have an activity or club that runs late on that weekday? Then he doesn't take the van that day at all, and you or someone else collects him from school.
ochre_diary_81410 Jul 2026
At that stage I paid a neighbour's son, a college student, to wait at the gate on my late day and stay until I got home. It worked for two years. The parts that needed planning were not the pickup. They were who holds the house key, what she eats at five, and what happens when he has an exam.
- peach_rain_592010 Jul 2026
  Feeding the baby at 2 am and this made me realise we have no plan for this either, years from now. Did he ever cancel at short notice? That's the part I'd worry about.
fern_window_833911 Jul 2026
Check whose rule this is, the school's or the van operator's. For us it was the operator's, and the school was willing to let our son stay in the library until five on request. Worth asking both separately before you look for a person.