Classroom Management and Door Entry and Exit Procedures

The classroom door offers dual access—into your classroom world and out to the outside world. How you handle entry and exit through this door is very important. Having well-defined procedures is critical to the safety and well-being of your students, as well as to adhering to district policy.

Considerations

• Volunteers
  • Schools have policies that cover volunteers who work in the classroom, which may include the following:
    • Checking in at the office upon entering and exiting the school
    • Obtaining a pass or badge
    • Proof of a negative tuberculosis (TB) test
    • Completing specific training
  • Prepare a designated work area with a specific schedule or specific activities for them to support.
• Student volunteers—Students from a higher grade often like to volunteer in a classroom for a lower grade.
  • Arrange with other teachers for a student volunteer.
  • Confirm times and schedule with the student and his or her classroom teacher.
  • Prepare a schedule and activities for the student volunteer to follow.
  • Provide the student volunteer with a hall pass to carry when en route to and from your classroom.
• Visitors—On certain occasions, you may have a parent visitor or guest in your classroom.
  • Get permission from your administrator for visitors.
  • Have visitors sign in and sign out.
  • Have visitors pick up a visitor pass or badge from the office if school policy requires it.
• Students picked up early—Parents may pick students up for appointments or other necessary activities.
  • Have the designated parent or guardian sign the student out.
  • Obtain the official release form before the student is released from your classroom.
  • Save all release forms for your records.
• Students exiting and returning to the classroom—There are times when a student needs to leave the classroom, for example, to use the restroom, pick up something from the office, or retrieve something from the play area.
  • Always send students in pairs (to reduce your liability).
  • Provide students with a hall pass.
  • Establish a firm exiting policy, which may include the following:
    • Students must raise their hand to ask permission.
    • Exiting is never permitted during direct instruction time.
    • Students must carry a hall pass.
• Students exiting classroom—A student sometimes needs to leave the classroom but returning is not immediate (for example, going to the nurse, seeing an administrator, or testing).
  • Send two students with the exiting student. Once the exiting student has been dropped off, the two students can return together.
  • Provide students with a hall pass.
  • Send any necessary referral paperwork with the student.
• Whole class exiting classroom—It is important to establish an efficient exit policy and to train the students in it. This is critical when exiting in an emergency.
  • Non-emergency exit
    • Use a system such as excusing students by tables, excusing all students wearing pants, excusing those students who have a birthday in January, then in February, and so on.
    • Make non-emergency exits from the classroom into a game: Pull a student’s name from a deck of cards or popsicle sticks, then ask them a question, such as a math problem or the capital of a state. As students answer correctly, they get to line up.
    • Require students with behavior problems during exiting to return to their seats and wait to exit until all the other students have been called.
  • Emergency exit
    • Follow a specific exiting order, such as desk 1, desk 2, and so on.
    • Establish specific procedures and rules, for example, “no talking” and “push in chairs.”
    • Remember that practice makes perfect.
    • Maintain quiet lines.
    • Proceed to the designated area.
• Classroom door policy
  • A closed door could indicate “Do not disturb” before the school day begins, at recess, at lunch, or during the teacher’s preparation or break times.
  • An open door could indicate that students can enter with permission.
  • Never be alone with a student. Whenever you are in the classroom with a student, make sure that there are at least two students in the classroom and that a door is open. Make it a practice to stand in the hall while a student retrieves a forgotten item.
• Leaving school for field trips—When leaving the school for a field trip, establish a timeline, which might include any or all of the following:
  • Submit all necessary paperwork and secure transportation.
  • Invite parent volunteers. Plan for one adult for every 5 to 10 students.
  • Submit a request for school lunches.
  • Acquire or put together a first aid kit.
  • Have appropriate permission slips signed. Leave the school’s portion in the office, and carry the portion with student contact information with you.
  • Include the school name and phone number on student identification tags, but avoid including the students’ names, which could be called out by a stranger.
• Whole class leaving the classroom but staying on the school campus—Sometimes you and your class leave the classroom but remain on campus. It is important to let others know where you are.
  • Post a sign outside your door. Include your destination, which might include the following: We’re ...
    • in Room ...
    • in the Gymnasium
    • in Art Class
    • in the Library
    • in the Auditorium
    • in the Lunch Room
    • in the Assembly Room
    • in the Music Room
    • in the Computer Lab
    • at P.E.
    • on a Field Trip
    • at Recess
    • in the Garden
  • Include the specific time period when you will be out of the classroom.
  • Ask a student monitor to be in charge of the sign.