5 Steps to Easy VBS Dismissal
Photo by Holly Russo at Church of Hope
You’ve had an awesome night of VBS. You had a ton of kids. More than you originally planned. Now all their parents are outside, and you need to get those kids to their parents safely, quickly, and efficiently.
Good luck!
If you have a VBS of 100 kids or more, then you need to match each at least one with an authorized pick up in less than 10 minutes. That’s one kid every 6 seconds. But how do you do that without the room falling into complete chaos?
I’ve written about a similar process for dismissing on Sundays here. But VBS can stress your systems. Most likely you will have more kids on a single day VBS than you do on a Sunday morning.
After years of testing different methods, this is what I’ve found works best.
1. Security Tag
Your first step to a smooth dismissal starts as kids arrive. Each parent needs to receive a security tag that matches them to their kid(s). A lot of digital check-in systems like Planning Center, provide a security tag with every kid that gets checked in. The default has a security code that matches the kid’s tag and a barcode.
To speed things up, you can add the kids names to the security tag as well. This will allow you to call the name on the tag and not take the adult’s word for it. Sometimes the room is loud, and you can mishear the name.
For years, I didn’t use a digital system for check-in and did everything manually. In that case, I made two identical tags out of Avery 2x4 labels, one for the kid(s) and one for the adult. It was a lot of tags for the adults, but it worked.
Regardless of how you create the tag, parents need to present the tag so you can match it with their children. If they don’t have the tag (or at least a picture of it) then they will need to step to the side. Here you or a volunteer will check their license and confirm they are an authorized pickup. You don’t want to send a kid with an unauthorized person. That’s a recipe for disaster.
2. Keep the kids with their groups
On a normal Sunday morning, I allow my kids to go play with the activities and games I have available in the room. For VBS however, I require all the kids to stay with their small group leader until their name is called.
They will naturally want to run around and talk to friends in other groups. However, it is imperative that your volunteer keeps the child with them.
Let’s say for example, a kid leaves their group and goes to the bathroom. While there, the child’s name is called. Since you need to keep the line moving, you don’t wait for them to arrive before moving to the next kid. A few minutes later the child hasn’t shown up. Naturally, the first person you’re going to ask about the child is their small group leader. But if it’s chaos in your pick up room, they may not know where that kid is. The child may be fine, but now you’ve upset a parent and others.
Keep your kids with their small group leader until their name is called. It’s safer that way.
3. Have lots of Volunteers
Because your small group leaders are staying with their kids, they’re already busy. You need a separate group of people managing the line, calling kids names, and giving away take-home papers.
In the past, I’ve had special volunteers who only came to facilitate dismissal. However, that wasn’t always possible. Thus, I asked my registration volunteers to stay back and help.
I had one volunteer with the mic calling kids names. Then two more checking tags on kids and matching them to the parent. One of these volunteers could step to the side and help when a parent didn’t have the tag. I’d also have a volunteer giving out papers and answering any questions.
4. Keep moving
At one VBS, my volunteer with the mic stayed at the door and called one name at a time. He didn’t move to the next until the kid came and verified the tag. Ten minutes later, we’d only dismissed half of our kids. Everyone was getting impatient.
To make things move faster, I created a holding area. When you check a parent’s tag and call the child, ask them to stand in another area near the exit away from the line. I used stanchions to create this area away from the main line.
In the area, they can wait for their child to exit. In the meantime, you continue calling other children moving down the line quickly. He had the parent show him their tag and give their kids’ names. He’d then call those kids and move to the next.
Once the kid does exit, the move to the holding area. Here, your volunteers check the tag against the parent’s or just make sure the kid goes to their parent. Kids will naturally gravitate to their parents. You don’t have to worry as much about them going with the wrong people. If you checked everyone’s tag before they entered the holding area, there is very little chance of something going wrong.
One church I saw had two exits with two volunteers with mics calling kids names. Creating two pick up lines made the lines move much faster. If you’re lobby or pick up area can handle it, I think this is a great solution. You’ll just need two holding areas as well.
5. Volunteer kids
This system works best for kids whose parents aren’t volunteering. However, you may have a whole group of kids whose names will never be called because their parents are in the room.
For these kids, I asked them to stay with their small group leaders. Once most of the kids are dismissed, I call for a post-service meeting. At this point, parents can get their kids from their small group leaders and attend the meeting. Even though these kids checked in as well, I don’t worry about checking these tags. Everyone in the room is authorized.
This is also why I keep my post-service meetings super short. I don’t want the room to devolve into chaos while I'm meeting with the volunteers. Those kids will run wild!
VBS dismissal doesn’t have to be complicated. But it does need to be safe, fast, and efficient. Following these guidelines will help you accomplish that. Then you’ll leave your parents and kids with a positive last impression. Greatly increasing their odds of coming back.
