Those incessant restroom requests . . . what’s a teacher to do? I admit I’ve always been annoyed by them (What? You mean you want to leave my class?). But how can you say no when students ask? For years, I would just sign the pass, adding wistful words like, “Go quickly!” or “Hurry back!” But once I’d allow one student to go, another and another would want a pass as well (despite the fact that they are told to use the restroom during passing time).
I was noticing plenty of my students socializing in the halls with friends, or hanging by the doorway before class, yet 15 minutes later in class requesting a restroom pass. I began denying requests to these students and found that they were just fine without the pass. Oh, I did have to make my case. But seeing that these students survived without that restroom trip got me thinking about setting some MAJOR limits for passes, and that’s what I did.
So read on to discover an easy system that could allow you to drastically reduce restroom requests.
1. Set a Scant Limit –
I decided to set a limit . . . 3 PASSES PER QUARTER. Yup, that’s all. Three restroom passes over the nine (or ten) week grading period. As I start out the year, I write this up in a section on my Class Expectations infographic handout. I hear the gasps as my middle-school students read.
“You mean, three per month?”
“Nope, three for the entire grading period.”
“But what if we have to go to the bathroom?”
“You’ll need to plan your restroom visits for passing time or other classes. But you do get three per quarter for this class.”
The good news? Even though students wear a frightful expression as they learn of the 3-pass limit (I make sure to act very nonchalantly as I inform them), they kind of just accept it! I have been using this system for two years now and it has totally worked! I have SO MANY FEWER restroom requests, which I will illustrate for you later in this post. Just set your expectation and stick to it.
FYI, in middle school, since we work in teams, I brought this idea to my team colleagues and they all wanted to use it. I made a little poster about team expectations and included the 3-pass per quarter (per teacher) rule.
2. Make It Concrete –
After I announce the 3-pass limit, I hold up my clipboard, which contains my class lists in a charting to show three columns where I can jot down the date each time a student uses a pass. Now students can see this procedure has been planned and organized. It’s FOR REAL! Then I say, “So I have three columns next to each of your names and when you need to use one of your passes, I just record the date in this little box and we’ll know you’ve used one. That way we can always check to see if you’re on your first, your second, or your last.”
I actually have three sets of three columns. That’s because the first set is for restroom passes, and I use a second set of columns to keep track of late students. The third set is a place where I record dates when students are unprepared. (That’s why the columns are marked R, L, and U.) I explain this information to them as well. Three times late or unprepared results in a detention.
Here’s a picture of the blank charts that I keep for each class on my clipboard:
These rosters print out from our system (School Tool) with the student names and the columns already there. All I do is take a marker and darken the lines to separate the sets of three spaces.
3. Stick With the Program –
Whenever a student comes up to have a pass signed, you have to get to your clipboard to quickly jot down the date in the corresponding spot on the chart. If you neglect this step, students will see that they can actually have more passes than you originally indicated, and the system will flop. Keep the clipboard in whatever area of the room you hang out at the most. Mine is on my front table, so if I’m back at my desk, I do have to get up and go to that clipboard if I grant a student a pass.
4. Notice Your Results –
At the end of the quarter, I have been amazed at how few students even used all three of their passes! Several students used no passes at all! Take a look at the chart here, which has been filled out for the last quarter for one of my regular English classes.
In a class of 27 students, a whopping 15 students didn’t use any of their 3 allotted passes! And only 5 students hit their limit.
My takeaway from two years using this method is If you build it, they will come ! Students catch on that this is the plan, and let me just say what a difference I am enjoying from the old days. No more steady stream of kids coming up to me with their agendas held out to sign, day after day. And even better is the understanding I have that, for the most part, they are JUST FINE.
When there are extenuating “emergencies,” we need to use our own good judgment. A compromise I use is to tell the student okay, but next time I might need to mark them with an unprepared, since they’d used up their passes and hadn’t stopped by the RR during passing time.
Thanks for letting me share a system that’s working for me!
I get what you’re trying to do here, but I get so frustrated when teachers are too strict with bathroom passes. My oldest child has a full academic college scholarship. She’s a great child and student and always has been. She used to be terrified to ask teachers to use the restroom because of teachers being too strict, and some even freaking out at students. You know what happens to these students in these classrooms? UTIs and embarrassing menstrual messes.
I understand completely. That’s where teacher smarts has to come in. Teachers have to be aware if they are not meeting a child’s needs and find alternate ways to go. I have several students that have arranged through their parent and the school nurse to have a special pass taped into their agenda that they just come up and show me, and I know they get unlimited restroom passes. No one else really has to know where they are going.
Great alternative!
If your kid can’t plan ahead to use the restroom, they need to learn. If they panic over a (frankly generous) bathroom policy, they likely have an underlying issue with anxiety or perfectionism.
So many of my older students don’t know the difference between an emergency and a tiny pang of full bowel because they’ve never been asked to hold it. They freak out over bathroom passes because they haven’t been reassured that using the restroom once every hour is MORE than enough for most people. Parents freak out about it and it makes the children stress. In addition, UTIs usually have an underlying medical condition, holding it for an hour and realizing that you need to go between class will not cause a UTI unless your kid makes a habit of CHOOSING not to use their bathroom breaks at an appropriate time. If there is a pre-existing medical condition, I should be made aware and then I make a plan to accommodate, but that still doesn’t give the students carte blanch to go whenever they want. We set up a plan for when they can use the restroom, and if they go over that they get the same consequences as everybody else.
We all have times when we can’t/shouldn’t/it’s inconvenient to use the restroom, and we all need to learn to plan ahead to use the restroom around what we have to do. If they don’t have a medical condition, they need to learn this skill! And since this is usually a skill that’s used in public (school, shopping, workplace), the skill is usually taught and practiced at school rather than at home.
As for those menstrual messes, using the restroom more frequently doesn’t really prevent them. I don’t think there’s any teacher who would have a girl undexpectedly start her period and tell her not to go take care of it. I personally have a policy where my menstruating girls can go when they need to, but I keep track of when they go. If I see a pattern where they always go during a certain work time or where they leave my class very frequently for this reason, I’d meet with parents to talk about possibly checking into medical reasons and help them plan a “kit” to help their daughter be more prepared and less embarrassed.
Great ideas!
I have a slihghtly different system in place. Each 9 weeks each student gets a set of “oops” tickets ( teacher printed tickets that include 2 homework helpers-24 hours extra time to turn in homework; 2 potty passes can only be used the last 5 minutes of class or individual work time; and 2 get-out-of-trouble cards that can be used for one of the other cards or for a pencil or to go to their locker). I take up the ticket as they use it and they are responsible for keeping up with them. Some kids don’t use theirs, some lose theirs, and others find out who their true friends are as they beg for someone to ‘be a friend’. I think I am going to start using your list idea for some things, like 0 homework and no materials. I’m all about teaching responsibility in my 7th grade science class.
I love your creative ideas! In our school, students have their passes in their agendas, and they have to have their agendas on them whenever they are in the hall. So we can’t actually create passes like yours. I like how you address the pencil issue:)
I’ve often heard other teachers talking about teaching students about responsibility. Then they say this, generally what they are saying is they are meeting out consequences. (i.e. negative reinforcement, then the student has to figure out from the various consequences, what the expected behavior should be.)
We have lesson plans and learning objectives for all of our other content. Maybe we should all start doing the same for “Responsibility”? (Just wondering…)
I do something similar with my high school students. I made and printed bathroom passes on colored paper. They get 2 per quarter with their names on them that they have to keep up (non transferable). I sign, date, and time the back when they use one. That becomes their hall pass, and I can tell the pass has been “used”. Any unused passes they can turn in at the of the term for bonus points.
I too give only 3 passes per grading period, but I have made leaving the room tickets. They are given to the student at the beginning of the semester. There are 6 tickets on one sheet that they keep in their notebooks. The tickets include the date, time, and destination. Students present the ticket sheet to me before they leave (only during non-instructional time). The student must have it filled out except for the time. I write the time they leave and cross the ticket out so they can not use it again.
I love your idea about the 3-columns, I will be using this for my records and use the first column for time tracking. Thanks again for a great idea!
I do the same thing as Pat. Each student gets a “Hall Pass Sheet” at the beginning of the year to keep in their binders. The sheets have 12 passes, 3 for each quarter. They have to fill out the date, time, and destination. I fill in my initials when they use a pass. Each quarter, students earn extra credit points for clean sheets. When students are out of passes, that’s it! Occasionally, I’ll offer a bonus pass during review games as a reward that won’t count toward their pass sheets. It actually works!
Joy, I LOVE this idea! I’m going to try it. Thank you so much for giving us a clever solution to a vexing problem!
Darlene Anne
ELA Buffet
Great idea! I’m going to try it this coming school year. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for this idea. As a teacher that has a kidney condition, I know there will be some students that warrant more breaks. But I know specifically who those students are usually. I am trying to find a way for them to be able to discreetly let me know about this without letting all students find out about it. I had some last year that liked to be romancing in the hallways then wanted to use the bathroom during my class. I have decided this year, they will have to complete a log before going to the bathroom and leaving me their phone. Many students like to go to the bathroom and use it as texting time. Again, I love this idea.
A student who had medical needs to use the restroom also had issues of asking for special treatment. I conferenced with her (and parent) prior to this becoming an issue. In order to prevent any embarrassment, or unwanted attention, once the student informed, or signaled me of her emergency, I would send the student to a specific location to retrieve an item for me. This indicator allowed her to use the facilities. It was important for her to keep this confidential so as not to have other students “knowing her business.”
What would you suggest for a student who (I suspect) has used all of his passes out of spite? I will not be surprised if he tries to go again and then tries to get me into trouble with administration and/or his parents for not allowing him to go after this? He is that kind of student.
There will always be that student who will test you. I use the “extra kindness” approach first and pull them aside quietly to say I understand that there may be the need for an “extra” trip beyond the three, and say I will of course let you go this time. Then give a smile and say, now if you have a medical issue I’d be happy to talk to a parent and we can have the nurse issue you a more frequent pass. Would you like me to check on that with your parent? If he says no, and it happens again, then I would tell him okay (big smile), but I’ll have to mark you unprepared today because you’ve already used an extra pass on . . . now look at your chart (of course record all dates on your chart). He’ll see you are keeping track of his uses above and beyond the other students. Then if he continues to be spiteful, you can have a conversation with your admin or his parents and you will have examples of YOU going above and beyond to accommodate him.
We have a-15 minute break after every 75-minute class. Restroom requests during a class are extremely rare. The whole concept of “restroom pass” is non-existent in our country.
That is super generous and dare I say somewhat civil compared to our institutional feel here in the U.S. Man, I wish we had more of a break. 7 minutes between 90 minute classes in a huge school, and there’s NO WAY everyone can hope to use the restroom during this time. This has been a frustration of mine for 20 odd years.
This is a VERY interesting blog as I too use hall passes as extra credit as an incentive to keep students in class learning. However, I was told recently that extra credit/grades must be curriculum based and hall passes are conduct based and students cannot lose points based on conduct!!
So I’m thinking I will still use this hall pass system. They just won’t get extra credit points if they have not used them.
What consequences are in place for an unprepared student of a student that overuses their restroom breaks?
Our team agreed to assign a detention after a student has three unprepared marks on the chart. They can choose lunch detention or after school. For those who are overusing restroom passes, we talk privately with the student and offer to check in with the parent and the nurse to see if there are issues that we can accommodate. If there are no issues, that conversation usually helps curb the overuse. However, if a student is socializing in the hall before class and continually wants to use restroom passes once class is going, after the allowed 3, I start marking them as unprepared.
How would you suggest convincing admin to let you use this policy? We used to do the same thing for my team, including using our judgment and allowing kids to have unlimited use passes (from the nurse), but have been told that this is no longer allowed.
Well, if your admin is not allowing you to limit passes, I would ask them for a plan to keep students in class learning, to ensure success on those state assessments! Everything we teach is a building block in the hope for solid learning, and so often those scaffolds are broken when kids get up and leave the classroom, usually right when we are at critical moments in the learning (and applying) process. And often, they are gone for ten minutes. I would express that frustration to your administrators to get them to see that some type of reasonable policy is necessary. Obviously, if we keep saying yes to the students, they will take advantage and take their “break” every day. I would show them how your restroom policy leaves “wiggle room” for different students’ needs.
After passes are used up, I will not deny a student access to the bathroom, but I do tell them that for every minute of class time they miss they have to stay after class to make it up. It was amazing how they didn’t need to go to the bathroom after all.
Please read this.
https://themighty.com/2018/08/aspire-hanley-middle-school-bathroom-limit-hall-pass/
I’m just about to try your plan but now terrified by those parents.
Your policy is very similar to the one I’ve used for the last ten years, and I fully support it. I want my high-school students to learn that there are appropriate times throughout the day when they can go to the bathroom such as during their lunch and study hall periods, which are each forty-two minutes long. If they have these periods before or after my class, I request that they don’t ask to go to the bathroom during my class because they have just had or are going to have time. Everyone who’s not in that situation is allowed to go once a week unless there is a true emergency. Like you, I keep track on a chart and also keep a list of their lunch and study hall periods on my chart so that I can quickly check to see if they are an exception to the lunch and study hall rule when they ask. This policy worked pretty well for about six years, but within the last three years, I have started getting in trouble because of it. Kids have started walking out of class when told no, which forces me to give them detention. If a parent calls and complains, my administration then takes the detention away because they are afraid of upsetting the parents. It’s very frustrating because they are then sending the kids the message that they can walk out of class whenever they want instead of teaching them to find appropriate times to use the restroom like all adults have to learn. This has become a school-wide problem with more teachers than just me experiencing it. My administrators also refuse to adopt and enforce a school-wide bathroom policy and instead leave it up to individual teachers, which results in some allowing a revolving door of students going in and out all period and others never allowing anyone to go at all. They just tell us to find a balance between the two extremes on our own. What do you do when your administrators just won’t listen and want to give in to the parents who neglected to teach their children to be responsible in the first place?
Admin will not support the teacher on this. Kids run the school n parents believe the kids. It doesn’t matter if a kid goes daily 15 min n you can prove the data. You’re lucky this works. I have tried a variation of this, use rhall pass, qr codes… But the kids know they can’t be denied. Having them leave the feel cell phone behind is another major issue. I’ve had the policy book bags up front with cellphone, shoe organizer, leave on my desk..
Nothing has worked. Girls stick the phone in their bra, boys in their boxers.
What do you do when a student runs out of passes for the quarter, but still has a restroom emergency. How could they make up for that?
I address how I handle that in the second-last paragraph of this post. But every teaching situation is different, so you will have to consider your relationship with the student and use your best judgment. I think my plan is more geared for middle-schoolers than high school students, but reading some of the comments, high school teachers are also limiting passes.
I am very apprehensive about not letting students out when they need a restroom, however, I also see the need to limit the passes that are unnecessary. I was thinking about tracking their usage on a clipboard for next year. I am pleased to see that you have done it and it works.
It is customary in our school to provide 8-9 passes per semester. That is 4-5 per quarter. I believe that I will use 5 per quarter. Additionally i have other passes for other needs that come up. Library, printer, office, etc.
I used a similar system with my classes. Each student would get 2 free passes per 6 week grading period (I used those “Admit One” ticket rolls so I would have to interrupt myself to write a pass). They could use it for the restroom or forgotten homework or any other minor classroom policy infraction. At the end of the 6 weeks, they could take what they had left and upgrade any of their daily scores by 10%.
Most kids upped their grades.
I like the clipboard with 3 passes. I think I would say after three if they are desperate they will have to trade me time during lunch or before or after school. So if they are gone for 5 minutes they owe me 5 minutes.