Star Kids Academy After School · 10181 Finch Ave, Cupertino, CA · Effective October 2026
Why this document exists. From the moment our driver picks up your child at their school to the moment you sign them out at 6:30, your child is our responsibility. This document explains how that chain works, who may pick up your child, and what happens if a problem arises. Please read it in full.
Contents
Every school day your child is transferred between adults three times, and we log each transfer with a time stamp and the name of the staff member responsible.
| Handoff | Who | Logged |
|---|---|---|
| School to our driver | Named driver | Time and driver name |
| Driver to our site | Site staff | Time and staff name |
| Site to you | Authorized adult | Time and name of the person picking up |
You may request your child's record at any time.
School pickup is an optional add on at $150 a month. You choose it at registration and it is billed with your tuition on the 1st of each month. Families who drop their child off themselves are not charged for it, and everything in this document about pickup from school applies only to families who have added it.
Our driver picks students up at their school's normal dismissal time, from the Cupertino schools we serve within five miles of our site. Your child's school is a required field on your registration form, because that is how we plan our routes.
Students are counted onto the van by name. The driver does not leave a school until every student on that day's list is accounted for, either on the van or confirmed absent.
Our vehicles carry the Star Kids Academy logo and wait in the school's own designated pickup zone. Students walk out to the vehicle the same way they would for a family car. We follow each school's own arrival and dismissal procedures.
We confirm the exact location with each school and send it to you before the first day. Please review it with your child in advance.
Our driver waits 5 minutes past dismissal. If your child has not appeared, the driver marks them as not present in our app and calls you immediately from the vehicle.
Our site staff are notified immediately, so we know that your child was not present and that you are being contacted.
Early dismissal days require no change to your arrangements. Our driver picks your child up at the earlier dismissal time, and your child arrives with us before 2:30. The program runs as normal until 6:30.
You do not need to notify us of a scheduled early dismissal. We track the calendars for all sixteen schools we serve, including Tuesday early dismissal times and minimum days.
If your child is absent from school, is going home a different way, or will not need the van on a given day, you must tell us before the driver leaves for that school.
An unreported absence means our driver waits at a school for a child who is not coming, which delays every other family on that route.
Email admin@starkidsafterschool.org by 1:00pm on the day. The van will then not stop at that school and will not wait. Once our pickup app is running you will be able to report absences there instead.
Students are counted off the van and signed in at our site, with the time recorded. From that point they are with our instructors and class begins.
If your child was expected on the van and did not arrive, you will be called immediately.
You are welcome to bring your child yourself at any time after 2:30. Please come inside and sign your child in with a staff member. Do not drop a child at the curb and drive away, even if the entrance is visible from your vehicle. A staff member must physically receive your child.
Your child will be released only to:
No one else may pick up your child. This includes a neighbor who says that you sent them, an older sibling who is not on the list, and a grandparent we have met before. If a person is not on the list, we will call you, and your child stays with us until we reach you.
You may add or remove people from your authorized list at any time by emailing us. Changes take effect once we confirm them back to you in writing.
Anyone picking up your child must be 18 or older. There are no exceptions, including older siblings. If the only person available is under 18, your child waits with us until an adult on your list arrives.
We check photo identification at pickup. We continue to check until our staff know a person by sight, and we may check again at any time.
Please inform anyone you send to pick up your child that they should expect this and bring identification. Staff will not release a child to a person who cannot present it.
Same day changes must come from you in a form we can verify: a telephone call from a number we have on file, or an email from the address on your registration.
We will not release a child based on a message from an unknown number, or on the statement of the person present at our site. If we cannot reach you to confirm, your child waits with us.
Pickup closes at 6:30pm. Staff remain until every child has gone home, so a late pickup keeps a staff member here past the end of their workday.
There is a 5 minute grace period. From 6:35pm, late pickup is charged at $1 per minute, added to your next monthly payment. This is the same rule that applies to our camps and to our robotics classes held at other schools.
We may waive the charge on occasion when something genuinely unavoidable occurs. Any waiver is at our discretion and should not be relied upon.
If you know that you will be late, please call the office. This does not remove the charge, but we can let your child know that you are on your way.
Repeated late pickups will be discussed with you directly. Persistent late pickup can end a child's place in the program.
If your child has not been picked up by 6:35pm and we have not heard from you, we will:
Two staff members remain with your child throughout, and we continue to call every number on your list.
If we still cannot reach anyone, we contact the Santa Clara County Sheriff's non-emergency line for assistance in reaching you. Your child stays with us until you or someone on your list arrives.
Unless we have a copy of a current court order on file, we must release your child to either parent named on the registration form. We cannot act on a verbal instruction to keep a child from a parent.
If a custody order restricts contact, give us a copy at registration and tell us immediately if it changes. We will follow it exactly.
Every handoff is time stamped and attributed to a named staff member. This record is how we answer a question such as where your child was at 4pm, and it is a legal record of custody.
You may ask at any time and we will show you your own child's log.
Two background checked adults are present at all times, from the first arrival through the last pickup. Our driver and every instructor clears a California Department of Justice fingerprint check through Live Scan and completes state approved mandated reporter training. Every instructor and our driver also holds current CPR and First Aid certification.