Latch-key kids on the rise

This week's View News (Aliante edition) discusses the increase of children are not being picked promptly after the school day is concluded, which apparently is raising eyebrows among some CCSD officials. A weak local economy may be a prime contributor to the problem.

Scary.

View News:

The bright, yellow strip of paper is stuck to the public school door, a telltale sign that children have been left behind. In today's economic climate, It's happening more and more often.

After an elementary school-age child's educational day is finished in the Clark County School District, parents have about 10 minutes to pick up their children before campus staff are supposed to attempt to contact the family, according to district policy. If nobody is reached, the school staff is then supposed to contact the district's attendance office, and an officer will come to the campus to pick up the child in question.

Students who are left at elementary schools are taken to area Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas. Children younger than 5 or those with a disability are taken to Variety School, 2601 Sunrise Ave. If the children still are not picked up when the club or Variety School closes, they are transported to Child Haven.

As of Oct. 23, 459 students had been transported to Boys & Girls Clubs around the valley as a result of not being picked up from school. No children as of that time had been taken to Child Haven.

"It's quite high this year," Pam Gunter, senior attendance officer for the Clark County School District, said. "Usually, that's our total at the end of the two semesters."

Gunter said she thinks the number is so high because of the hard economic times. The public school system doesn't charge families when officers come to pick children up from the schools.

"It's more than ever," Gunter said.

**********************************
E.C. :)