The Late Pick-Up

Michelle McGinnis, Veronica Getskow, and Brian Dicker periodically provide legal advice to early childhood professionals in Exchange Magazine.  In the second of a two-part series of "Guidelines for Releasing Children" in the September issue of Exchange, they discuss specific situations such as a parent under the influence, a vehicle with no car seat, and the late pick-up.  In regard to the latter, they advise:

"...admission agreements...may impose fines for late pick-ups, but that is discipline after the fact and does not address what to do as time wears on with no pick-up and no parental contact. Here’s the ­suggested course of action.

"First of all, make all of the calls. Try to contact the parents and any other person authorized to pick up the child. If you have no success, continue to abide the ­situation until you can no longer reasonably do so. The only option at the bitter end is to call law enforcement or a child protective services agency and have them take custody of the child. How long to wait until taking this drastic step is a judgment call, but hang in as long as practical as you will not be well-served if you have to admit that you ended your wait because you needed to get home to watch your favorite team in a playoff game on ­television."

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