Parents may soon be charged for dropping their kids at school too early

If you’re one of those parents with a habit of dropping your kids off at school well before the first bell, get prepared because it might not be long before you have to pay the price.

The principal of a Queensland primary school has recently announced to parents that they will begin charging an early drop-off fee for every child dropped off before 8:30am – a decision that has seen a wave of public support.

Kristine Lemon, head of Burrowes State School, sent out the email addressing plans to put a stop to parents taking advantage of ‘free babysitting’ on site without using the before-school care services already available.

As classes don’t start until 8:50am, parents were warned that if they drop their kids of before 8:30am than they will have to pay a small fee of about $2.60 per child for the early morning care.

The fee is variable to include federal childcare rebates however generally most parents would be expected to pay less than $3 a day – a fee that will also cover breakfast for the kids.

While some people argued this was ‘unfair’ on working parents who may need to drop their kids off early, the majority of the response was positive.

“I live near Burrowes and I have seen children been dropped off by parents as early as 7 in the morning and some children are still there until 5 in the afternoon. They do this because they don’t want to pay childcare fees. As far as I’m concerned, your child safety is more important,” Kelz Lee said according to news.com.

Other’s agreed by saying it wouldn’t be fair for the school or teachers to cop the blame if unsupervised children on the school grounds too early were to end up in harm’s way.

“I want to know — should those kids get hurt or go missing — who do those parents then blame, because I bet your bottom dollar they go looking for someone and not even consider their own actions,” Kirsty Robertson responded.

“A lot of entitled people on here thinking it’s OK to get babysitters for free … teachers are for teaching NOT babysitting … a few dollars to care for YOUR kids before and after school starts is not going to break the bank,” another commented.

“If parents have concerns about issues at their children’s school, they are encouraged to speak directly to the principal,” read a statement by Queensland’s Department of Education.

It seems at the end of the day, it’s a small price to pay for your child’s safety and breakfast included.

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