CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The 2024-25 school year has begun for many districts in our area, but some parents still have questions about some of the policies in place, like if they are allowed to have lunch with their student.
3NEWS spoke with a few district leaders in our area about why that luxury isn't seen as much these days.
Tuloso-Midway Superintendent Steve VanMatre said safety is the district's top priority. However, some parents are not comfortable with having no access to their child once they are at school.
"There is absolutely no access to the main campus and furthermore, which makes it even safer, is all of our campus now -- the intermediate included -- has a single entry to the facility," VanMatre said.
With safety measurements increasing year by year, school to visitor interactions have decreased.
"Another issue that we are quite frankly struggling with is having our parents come into the facility to have lunch with their children," he said. "We're going to do it, but it's going to be done in a way where our principal and administration and myself and our parents feel comfortable with having lunch visitors."
Finding the right balance between safety and guardian inclusion, is something that VanMatre said is also a priority.
"With some of the security initiatives that we've implemented, it goes against having parents for lunch, but they're our partners and I think it's important that we do everything possible to integrate them into our school," he said.
CCISD School Board President Don Clark said parents are usually allowed to have lunch with their students, but cannot drop of lunch and leave.
"Parents are, by and large, allowed to come into the campuses and have lunch with their students," Clark said. "What we still are not allowing is for parents to just drop food off, because we don't want the Ubers, and the Lyfts and the things like that, that we had got accustomed to in some of the other schools."
So, it's best to check your district's website regularly to keep up with policies, but also to check on the rules at your specific campus because the rules can vary from school to school.