Well, we have had this same issue at my school. We have implemented what we call "Tardy Hall". At the end of the bell, teachers are to lock their doors, and not let late students in. The administration team, including academic coaches, clear the hallways in what we call a "sweep". Any student in the hall after the bell is taken to a room where they are counted tardy and required to write an essay. Students are unable to leave tardy hall once the bell rings if they have not finished their essay. They sit separated, and are not allowed to talk. They were also still responsible for the work they missed in the regular classroom. After a couple weeks, students realized that the teachers and admin were not joking. The students got tired of writing essays and completing all of the work in the regular classroom. Now, they RUN to class. Teachers have to be careful to move out of the way because they do not like being late to class. We now have maybe 3 or 4 students late to class each period in a school of approximately 850 kids.

The expectations were not set from the beginning, and it may be hard to change; however, being tardy is losing instruction. Therefore, the problem must be dealt with. Are there any rewards or incentives that students would be interested in that may encourage being in class on-time? If this is a concern with many teachers, it may be time to go as a group to administration. Not only are they missing instruction, but this is a social behavior that must be corrected before students enter the workforce.

There are many things teachers can do: Lock the door once the tardy bell rings Have the students get a tardy pass if they come to class late and do not have a written excuse. Keep track of the student and if they are tardy a lot, talk to them about it.

I think implementing rewards for students with no referrals even the small infractions may be a solution here. A sock hop, free outside time, etc could be great free ideas to let the good outweigh the bad.

What my school did was after the bell rang, the teachers locked their doors so the only way for the late students to get in was with a detention slip from the dean.

Make your own classroom tardy policy. When students are tardy without an excuse note give them a special assignment for late students. I would have students write a paper on the effects of being late to school, work and activities has for them as well as the other people involved.

Lots of great responses! I'll add that whatever the school chooses to implement or even a class chooses to implement, it is important that it is implemented consistently and in a firm manor. Without which there will not be much success!

I would say to implement your own punishment system, or possibly a reward system to motivate them to not be tardy

Locking the door is a good start as it shows that tardiness will not be accepted in the classroom. Also implement a sort of reward system for students who do show up to class on time and try to fix this tardy problem with administration early on in the year and make sure that they enforce their policies. If nothing is enforced then students will continue to be tardy.

Try to enforce change with the school district or just don't follow the policy at all if you don't want to right up that many students.

If the teachers DID start to punish the students I think it would surely send a message that the tardy policy is in full effect and will not be tolerated. Although it is drastic and there are a lot of students to punish, it seems to be the only way for them to take the policy seriously. If that is not an option, then the policy needs to be more realistic to accommodate the issue.

When I was in high school tardy people had to have lunch detention. Everyone hated it so it helped cut down on tardies. Lunch detention implied that tardy students have to sit at a table alone in the middle of the cafeteria and have a silent lunch.

Having consequences inside the classroom will help. Locking the doors after the late bell,at a certain amount of tardies have the students sit out during play time or lunch. letting them know it is not okay will make them try to be on time more. If its a parent issue then the teacher and administration should have a meeting

Have small but effective consequences for your specific classroom for students who are tardy.

It sounds like they need full on consequences. I went to a high school that in some case required a student to walk from one end to the other make a mile long job between classes. It was either be tardy and face up to Saturday detention if frequent or get a late pass your previous teacher. This made it so it was a either a non issues or got those in trouble who truly deserved it.

If the school as a whole cant enforce the tardy issues they are having then do so in class increments. When a student is late to your class either deduct 5 points from students grade or have them pulled aside from the rest of the class and have them work on a research paper for the lesson that is to be taught today. this way students will want to get to class on time so they dont spend the entire class writing or having their grade docked 5 points each tardy.

talk!

Create a discipline plan that the students must follow in the classroom if the office does not do anything about it.

The students need to have a consequence or they will continue to be late. At the school I teach at, we can give the students silent lunch or a punishment inside the classroom. If the students know they will be punished in anyway, they will try to hurry and get to class on time.

Lock your doors. Then anyone left in the hall is considered late.

I have heard of schools having tardy hall. The teachers lock their doors when the tardy bell rings and any student who was tardy goes to tardy hall and write a paper. After so many tardy halls, they are written up on a referral. Also, the work the student misses is not allowed to be made up.

I would suggest finding a way to have teachers controll some kind of flow in the hallways from class to class. One experience i had in a school was the teacher would walk their students to the next class and then return back to their classroom with a new group of students from that classroom.This could ensure students are not taking extra time to switch from class to class.

Unfortunately, this is something that goes on at a lot of schools with the tardy policy. I found one teacher locked the door and made the students wait out in the hallway until it was convent enough to open the door.

Deduct points or privileges from their own classroom management, if students are late.