I have never worked in a daycare, but I've worked in summer camps and elementary schools, and I recall only too clearly the multiple trips out, both walking around Roxbury and on the T, that I took with a class of second and third graders. We didn't have the lead ropes, and we didn't lose any kids-- but I was terrified the entire time that we would lose one, and there were occasions where it was only luck that saved us from losing one. I'm not sure if it's a change in kids' behavior or not, but only about half the class was capable of holding hands and walking in a line. The other half was a constant struggle, and one kid *I* had trouble hanging on to even after he'd been instructed to hold my hand the entire way. If my attention has to be devoted to that one kid who needs to be watched constantly to ensure he doesn't run off, I need a quick and easy way of determining if the other nineteen are safe or not. "Are they all holding on to their loops" is a very simple way of remaining aware of the rest of them while devoting my attention to that one kid who cannot respond effectively to any form of discipline I can dish out. (There's always one kid like this, in any classroom.)