• Arrival Time: 8:30-8:55 a.m.

  • Arrival time includes students visiting their locker, getting their supplies ready for the day, having breakfast if they choose, and greeting their teachers and classmates. This sets the stage for a successful day of learning.  

  • For the safety and welfare of the students, it is imperative that no children arrive before 8:30 a.m. There is NO adult supervision prior to that time. 

• Morning Announcements: 8:55 a.m.

  • Important school news is streamed into your child's classroom, signaling the end of arrival and the beginning of the instructional day.

  • Students should be cleaned up from breakfast and prepared for the day by 9:00 a.m. 

• Instructional Day Begins: 9:00 a.m.

  • After 9:00 a.m. students MUST be escorted to the main office by a guardian to sign in. 

Arrival Process:

The following procedures were developed with your child’s safety in mind as our first priority.  

• • A bus rider is a student who arrives/departs using FCPS transportation and the Tuscarora bus loop. Bus riders arrive at the bus loop and are met by staff. We strongly encourage the used of bus transportation if it is available to keep the school arrival and dismissal process safe.

  • A walker is a student who walks on/off school property to/from their home or care provider. Walkers enter the building through the middle doors located at the front of the building.   

  • A car rider is a student who arrives/departs from a vehicle that enters/exits the school through the car rider line. Car riders are dropped off in front of the school in the car rider traffic loop. For the safety of the students, please adhere to these guidelines.    

    • Drivers may release students when their vehicle is in “park” against the curb adjacent to the front of the building.  

    • Follow the direction of school staff, and please pull up as far as possible to allow for the maximum number of cars in the flow-through lane. 

    • Students should enter/exit on the passenger’s (right) side only.  Students need to be prepared with their backpack and any other school items to exit on the right side on their own.  For your safety, do not get out of your vehicle to assist your child. For families with young students, please ensure that they can buckle and unbuckle seat belts independently. When possible, please place car seats of TuES students on the passenger side of the vehicle. 

    • If your student requires assistance during car rider drop off or pick up, please park in a designated parking space and use the crosswalk to walk the student to the entrance.

    • Cell phone use is strictly prohibited in the car rider line.  

    • Do not park in the fire lane or handicap spaces.

Dismissal Time: 3:30 p.m.  

• • Students must leave school promptly and connect with their guardians. The campus (basketball areas, fields, etc.) reopens for public use at the close of school business at 4:00. 

  • Students will not be dismissed directly to parents from the classroom. In addition, no student will be allowed to leave school with anyone other than the parent or legal guardian unless written permission is presented to the school office in advance. Verbal permission may be granted by administration or designees. The front office must be notified of any transportation changes before 2:30 p.m.

Dismissal Process:

The following procedures were developed with your child’s safety in mind as our first priority. 

• • Bus riders: 

    • Bus riders board the buses as they arrive in the bus loop. Help your child memorize his/her bus number before the school year begins.  FCPS uses the “T” before the number on the bus card in the window, not the painted number on the bus.

    • FCPS policy states that children must ride the bus to which they have been assigned, except in cases of emergency with Administration’s permission. 

  • Walkers:

    • All walkers will be dismissed at the blacktop exit. PK and K students will be released first, followed by 5th grade, 4th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, and 1st grade students in that order. Students will wait for their families near their grade level cones on the blacktop. 

  • Car riders: 

    • Car riders will be dismissed to the car rider entrance/exit in the front of the school.  Cars will line up in front of the school in the car rider traffic loop.  

    • Families will be assigned a family number. This family number will remain with each family until all of their children have moved through TuES. Families will be provided 2 hang tags with their family number. It is important that they practice memorizing their family number with their kids as it is how they will be dismissed as car riders. 

    • Students will wait outside under the overhang until their car pulls up to a numbered cone and they are given permission by a staff member to walk to their car.  Adults MUST remain in their vehicle as the student enters the vehicle on the right side. For families with young students, please ensure that they can buckle and unbuckle seat belts independently. When possible, please place car seats of TuES students on the passenger side of the vehicle. Students should enter/exit vehicles on this side, closest to the building and where supervision is available. 

    • Cell phone use in the car rider line is strictly prohibited for the safety of our students. Please pull up as soon as possible.  

Your cooperation with these procedures is greatly appreciated and enables us to ensure that children arrive home safely.

Dismissal changes:

• If you need to change the way your child is normally dismissed, send the change in writing or call the office prior to 2:30 pm when change notes are delivered to students.  Do not email the teacher; they may not have the opportunity to check prior to the end of the day. 

• If the request is not made before 2:30 p.m. the child will be going home according to their normal mode of transportation. 

• For your student’s safety, and to help them develop consistent routines, we ask that you please limit changing your student’s dismissal transportation as much as possible. This helps avoid confusion, stress and frustration your student may experience from frequent changes to their dismissal routine. 

• Please remember to notify your daycare provider if your child is going home a different way.

• If, on occasion, your child is to go home with another student for childcare purposes, we must have a note with permission from both families.

Parent/Guardian request for early dismissals:

• • We encourage you to try to schedule your child’s appointments around the school hours and day off. If you must pick up your child prior to dismissal, the secretary will call your child to the office upon your arrival.  Please arrive early enough to accommodate this process.