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SetupBeginner10 minutes

Creating Recurring Dismissal Schedules

4 min read

Every student in PickupRoster has a default dismissal plan — Car line, Walker, Bus, After-school program, Office pickup, or Other. When a family's routine differs on certain days ("every Wednesday grandma picks up both siblings"), don't edit the default. Create a recurring dismissal exception instead. Exceptions override the default plan only on the days they apply, and household-level exceptions keep sibling groups aligned automatically.

Before you start

  • You need admin access to your school's PickupRoster Admin Panel.
  • The affected students must already be imported and grouped into a household. If siblings aren't linked yet, fix that first — see Importing Student Rosters from Your SIS.
  • Confirm each student's default plan is correct. On the student page, open the Dismissal tab and tap a tile (Car line, Walker, Bus, After-school, Office, Other) to set the default route. Exceptions layer on top of this.
  • Know the recurring pattern: which weekday, which pickup contact, and whether it's temporary (e.g., only during soccer season) or open-ended.

1. Open the Households page

  1. Log in and open the Admin Panel.
  2. In the sidebar under Students & Households, click Households.

The page header reads Households, exceptions, and pickup ROI. The Active exceptions today stat at the top counts households with at least one exception active right now.

Households page

2. Add a recurring exception

  1. Scroll to the Add a recurring dismissal exception panel.
  2. Household — choose the family from the dropdown. The exception applies to every student in the household, which is exactly what you want for siblings who leave together.
  3. Dismissal plan — pick the plan that applies on the exception days (e.g., Office pickup).
  4. Schedule — choose Repeats weekly. (Pick One-time exception only for a single date; that flow needs a Specific date instead.)
  5. Weekly day — select the weekday, e.g., Wednesday.

New exception form

3. Bound temporary routines with dates

If the routine is temporary — a six-week PT schedule, a season of practice — set the optional date window:

  1. Starts on — first date the weekly exception applies.
  2. Ends on — last date it applies. After this date the exception stops firing on its own; you don't need to remember to remove it.

Leave both blank for an open-ended weekly exception.

4. Add contact and notes

  1. Pickup contact — optional override contact for exception days (e.g., the grandparent's name and phone). Staff at the lane see this instead of the household's usual contacts.
  2. Notes — write what staff need at a glance. Follow the placeholder's example: "every Wednesday grandma picks up both siblings from the side door."
  3. Click Save exception. You'll see the confirmation "Recurring dismissal exception saved."

5. Verify it's working

  1. On the Households page, the family's row now shows an active-exception count (e.g., · 1 active exception), and the Active recurring exceptions section lists the entry with its weekday and any date bounds.
  2. Open the household's detail page — the exception appears under Upcoming dismissal exceptions with a WK tile marking it as weekly. The right rail's Default dismissal plan panel reminds staff the default is used when no exception is active.
  3. On the matching weekday, check the Dashboard: the Exceptions today stat ("Different dismissal plan today") includes the household, and the student's page shows a Today: Office pickup pill.
  4. To filter, use the Has exception today filter on the Households list.

6. End or change a schedule

Exceptions aren't edited in place — archive and re-create:

  1. Find the entry under Active recurring exceptions.
  2. Click Archive. You'll see "Recurring exception archived." and it stops applying immediately.
  3. If the routine changed rather than ended, add a new exception with the updated day, plan, or dates.

Every create and archive is written to the audit log ("Created a dismissal exception" / "Archived a dismissal exception"), so you can always reconstruct who changed what.

Troubleshooting

The exception isn't showing on the student today. Check the weekday matches, and that today falls inside the Starts on / Ends on window. A weekly exception with an Ends on in the past is expired — add a new one.

Only one sibling is affected. The exception was probably created for the wrong household, or the siblings live in separate household records. Merge duplicates first (Households → duplicates review); pickup history and dismissal exceptions move to the surviving record automatically.

I picked "One-time exception" by mistake. One-time entries need a Specific date and fire once. Archive it and re-create with Repeats weekly.

The default plan changed instead of the exception. Someone tapped a dismissal tile on the student page. Tiles set the default route; exceptions (today / weekly) override it only on the day they apply. Reset the tile, then add a proper exception.

Can't find the Archive button. You're on the household detail view — archiving lives in the Active recurring exceptions section of the main Households page.