School's bold plan to FINE parents over 'serial offence' at gates

A principal at a Perth school has threatened to charge parents for picking up their children late in a drastic measure to make sure kids are picked up on time.

Divine Mercy College in Yangebup sent a newsletter to parents last week informing them of a new policy that would see parents charged $1 every minute their child was left waiting on school grounds unsupervised.

The school also said they would involve the Department for Child Protection if children continue to be dropped at school early or picked up late.

“It has been made clear in the first few weeks of term that a small number of parents are choosing to consistently either drop their children off extremely early — long before the arrival of staff — and leave their children at school for extended periods after the final bell,” the newsletter, which was obtained by 7News, read.

Dropping kids early is 'potentially dangerous' principal says

Divine Mercy College's principal Adam Zydek said the new policy was targeted towards a "small group of parents" who repeatedly dropped off students at the front school gates well before school commences and staff are even on site to properly supervise them.

"On occasion, these students have been as young as five and six years of age and are left as early as 7am in winter time, when it is often cold, dark and wet," the statement read, calling it "inappropriate and potentially dangerous."

"Conversely, on occasion young primary school students are left waiting for parents several hours after school has concluded, in most cases without a phone call or an email to the school to indicate that they will be late, the reason for the lateness, or when the children might be expected to be collected."

​Mr Zydek said "unlike most schools", the college provides supervision 45 minutes after school and 55 minutes before school without charge, to provide safety and care to the students.

"It is well known that many childcare and education providers choose to charge parents an appropriate rate, where their children must be supervised outside of the usual hours," he wrote, adding they have informed parents of other after school care options in the area.

Department of Communities executive director Amber Fabry told 7News parents shouldn't be threatened with the Department for Child Protection being called if they're late.

“As a parent myself, I can think of loads of reasons why parents might be late," she said.

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The principal — who made waves last year are he threatened to shut the school over vaccine mandates — called out parents who were "using school’s sense of responsibility" for the students as an excuse to not make arrangements of their own".

"The measures mentioned in our recent newsletter are intended only to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, who otherwise would be neglected," he said, defending the idea.

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