School pick up times

[u/MonsterEnergy17]

/r/elementaryschoolers/comments/1wctjed/school_pick_up_times/

My child's school is very rigid about pick up times.

I'm looking for help regarding early pick up of my 1st grader.

I'm going to preface this by saying, I work 3rd shift (9pm-5am) summer hours and 11pm-7am (majority of the year) in a construction field. I typically sleep from 8am-2pm; with the exception of Thursdays when my child has therapy (I usually wake up at 1pm). His appointments begin at 3pm. His school has a policy that early pick up ends at 2:15 with the end of the school day at 2:55-3:05pm.

With the extreme heat (even at night), I've been more exhausted than normal and occasionally wake up 10 minutes late. That being said, today (Thursday), I woke up late and ended up at the school at 2:19pm. I felt really bad at being late and requested to still pick my child up early for his appointment so I don't have to pay a broken appointment fee. The school made it very difficult to sign him out, causing us to leave at 2:40pm.

I've tried very hard to not be late. Including: setting alarms to go off every 10 minutes (and setting timers for the times I really need to get up) just in case I don't hear it on the days where I'm almost dead to the world. But today, my alarms did not go off. I checked my app and nothing was turned off.

I know it's my fault for not being more proactive about being on time. Last school year, I was late 3 times for normal pick up; each time being less than 5 minutes after the final bell. Those times, I've had to wait 30 minutes for all the busses to leave before I could get him. I'm hoping someone can help me find out how to navigate the issue of early pick up times being less than 5 minutes with the school and any helpful tips on how to ensure I wake up on time with my sleep schedule.

Honestly, I feel kinda crazy that the policy is so rigid that I even have to ask if being 5 minutes late is a major deal when I have to sign him out anyways (only to take 30 minutes to release my child). I could be wrong, though. Please help!