A campaign for greater supervision in playgrounds as pupils are dropped off has revealed children have wandered away or been injured and bullied before the bell has rung.
In Perth and Kinross alone, there were six cases recorded of youngsters leaving school grounds before class in the last five years.
A worried mother has lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament demanding all primary schools monitor playgrounds in the 20 minutes before school.
Lisa Willis, of Aberdeenshire, said pupils as young as four years old being dropped off by school bus before 9am needed to be watched.
She said: “Legislation gives far too much freedom to local authorities on this important issue of child safety, and many young children remain vulnerable and at risk. Another accident is waiting to happen.”
Legislation requires a member of staff to be in playgrounds at break times and Mrs Willis said: “Why would you consider it necessary to supervise the playground at playtime and lunchtime and not at 8.45am when the same children are there and the same risks exist?”
Under Freedom of Information legislation, she requested data about local authorities’ policies for morning supervision and incidents recorded during the 20 minutes before school.
She said: “The responses to my FOI requests indicate that children have wandered off premises, been injured and bullied.”
Perth and Kinross Council schools also dealt with 183 accidents or injuries in the period immediately before school, ranging from skinned knees to those requiring first aid, and nine cases of bullying.
It said in the 34 schools where pupils used school transport, head teachers determined arrangements for their safety and supervision but parents who dropped children off were responsible for them until the bell rang.
No incident statistics were provided by Fife or Angus councils but Angus said that schools supervised before 9am depending on pupil needs and transport arrangements.
Fife Council said it had no policy but there may be local, informal arrangements for supervision subject to staff goodwill.
Dundee City Council was omitted from the FOI exercise in error, but told The Courier that while it had no policy, there were individual arrangements for supervision of pupils arriving on school transport.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Current regulations set out local authorities’ responsibility to secure the safety of pupils when under their charge.
“There are currently no plans to amend this legislation.”