Hang Up Before You Pick Up (or Drop Off) - No cell phones in the School Zone – they are a dangerous distraction.

Stay in Your Car in the Blue Zone -  Children should be able to enter or exit the car from the sidewalk on their own.  Arrange car seats so your Burr child can use the sidewalk side of the car, and disable the child safety locks on that door.  If this isn’t possible, you will need to park (legally) so you can assist your child.  Give all your hugs and kisses at home, and make sure the kids have their belongings within reach so they can get out of the car quickly.  Your child does not need you to put their backpack on for them – they do it themselves every day at dismissal. 

Pull All the Way Up in the Blue Zone – Don’t let your children out in the bottom half of the large Blue Zone, because the cars ahead of you will invariably begin to move just as your child opens the door and has one foot out of the car.  Now you can’t pull forward into the empty Blue Zone in front of you, and the drivers behind you get frustrated and try to pull around you, creating gridlock with oncoming traffic.  So you tell the kids to hurry, and they start to rush and get a little frantic, which generally leads to backpacks, lunches, and musical instruments being forgotten in the back seat of the car, and the whole process takes longer.  Wait until you get past the mid-way point (about where the tree is), and pull forward as far as possible before letting kids out.