Jacqueline Beauchamp walked into West Chatham Elementary School to drop off birthday cupcakes for her daughter and found out her daughter was already gone. Staff had nothing on record, no name, no signature, showing who had taken her. The adult wasn't on the family's approved pickup list.

That adult turned out to be a relative Beauchamp said the family hadn't been in contact with for more than four years, tied to an unrelated family matter. The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) says the child never left school grounds and was found walking back toward the building from the parking lot. But that detail only came to light because a mother showed up and discovered her own daughter missing from the classroom, with no record of who had signed her out.

SCCPSS's response was an internal memo reminding front-office staff to verify pickup lists and check IDs in PowerSchool, the district's student records system. For Beauchamp, that isn't enough. "Nobody should just be able to walk in the school and take somebody's child out of school without being on that list," she said, according to WTOC.

A memo reminding staff of a rule that already existed doesn't answer the question every SCCPSS parent is now asking: how does a child get released to an unapproved adult with no name recorded anywhere? The district should require documented, in-person ID verification at every sign-out, at every school, not just at the one where this happened, and publicly share what safeguards are now in place.

Sign the petition to demand SCCPSS require verified ID checks at every student pickup, before another family finds out the way Jacqueline Beauchamp did.