Brokering Babysitters?

I was browsing the internet in the past few days and happened across a website suggesting that child care programs increase their revenue and get more exposure in the community by scheduling their staff members out as babysitters for center clients or for members of the community.  This would be a HUGE liability for a child care program.  (I did send a note to the printing company that made this suggestion and explained why they should remove it from their site, but haven’t heard back from them yet.)

So, why is it such a big deal that my heart skipped a beat when I read that suggestion?  Per our lawyer, if we hire someone to work with children, that implies that we believe that person is safe to be around children.  We have done our due diligence with background checks, reference checks, our interview process, initial staff training, etc.  Fair enough, but here’s where it starts to get sticky.  If our staff member then babysits for one of our clients or anyone else that they met through us, the client can rightly assume that we are implying that our staff member is safe to be around children.  If something were to happen to a child while in the care of our staff member (after hours, not on our site, and even without our knowledge), we could be held liable because the client assumed that our staff member was safe to be around children due to our implied recommendation. The only exception to this is if the staff member and client had an existing relationship before meeting in our program; in that case, we are not liable because we are not the cause of the relationship.

Although I do firmly believe that my staff members are safe to be around children, I can only speak for what they do when they are operating within the parameters of my program with my policies and procedures and the oversight of management team.  I simply cannot be responsible for what they do outside of work hours. 

Because of this liability, this is one of the policies that we enforce most strictly.  Each of our staff members and each of our clients has to sign an agreement that they will not enter into a babysitting relationship.  If a staff member babysits for a client, the staff member is immediately fired and the client loses his child care slot. 

If a program were to implement the suggestion made by the printing company to become the broker of after-hours babysitting services and to generate revenue from that service, the program would be more directly liable for anything that went wrong.  No, this is not our most popular policy, but it protects everyone; the staff member, the family, and the program.  If you don’t already have a Staff After-Hours Babysitting Policy, check ours out here.

Misty

Supervising Children in Child Care Programs

Most parents quickly realize that some of the most concerning times with your children are when they are quiet.  That often means they are up to something that they don’t want you to know about.  This is part of the reason that proper child supervision must be not just auditory, but visual as well. 

In order to keep children safe, we have to know what they are doing at any given time.  This is simply not possible if you cannot see them.  So, how do we make sure that children are properly supervised in our programs?  The first thing to do is to make sure the program is properly staffed at all times, including at least two people in a classroom at any given time.  We cannot give our staff members a requirement to meet, then not provide enough staff to implement it.  One person cannot be expected to keep 15 toddlers safe.  If you have a classroom of 16 toddlers and one needs a diaper change, and you can’t afford to have an extra staff member available to help out with diaper time, the person changing the diaper must also be tasked with scanning the classroom throughout the change.  This is the time for multi-tasking; speak with and attend to the toddler whose diaper you are changing while assisting in the supervision of the other children.  While that staff member may not be able to physically get to an area of the classroom that needs attention, they can alert the other staff member of any potential problems that they observe. 

The other thing we need to do for our staff members to ensure proper child supervision is to specifically train them on how to provide appropriate supervision.  Again, we are making a commitment to our staff’s ability to be successful.  We have to give them the proper tools.  We can’t put someone in a classroom and tell them we expect them to supervise each child at all times, then not show them how to do that.  Meeting the needs of each individual child while ensuring that the entire group is being properly supervised can be quite tricky.  As much as it seems like second nature to many of us by now, it’s not intuitive to everyone.  Each staff member must be trained on child supervision during their New Employee Orientation, observed periodically to ensure that they are employing the techniques they were taught, and receive regular follow-up training.  If you don’t already have a training for your staff for child supervision, check ours out at: http://daycaretools.com/DaycareProducts.aspx#Personnel

Misty

Safe Infant Sleep

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a study of primary infant nighttime caregivers from 1992 – 2010 to help understand infant care practices.  The good news from their recently released report is that use of potentially unsafe bedding decreased by more than 30% during that time.  The bad news is that nearly 55% of infants in this country still sleep with bedding that increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Since the 1992 recommendation that infants be put to sleep on their backs, deaths from SIDS in the U.S. has decreased by 50%.  However, since 2000, infant deaths due to accidental suffocation have nearly doubled. 

The NIH’s Safe to Sleep campaign recommends that infants sleep alone, on their backs, on a firm sleep surface covered by a fitted sheet, with no sheets or blankets over them.  Soft objects, including toys, crib bumpers, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, pillows, and loose bedding should not be present in an infant’s sleep area.  Even with this information, caregivers participating in the survey cited mixed information as a major factor in their choice of bedding for their children.  In opposition to NIH recommendations, magazines and advertisements often show infants in cribs with potentially unsafe bedding items.  Additionally, family and friends give baby gifts of quilts or bumper pads and the new parent feels obligated to use these items.

For parents who are concerned about keeping their infant warm at night, the Safe to Sleep campaign recommends keeping the room at a comfortable temperature and dressing the infant in an appropriate-weight one-piece sleeper. 

Since professional child care providers are well-versed in these recommendations and because these recommendations have been widely publicized, it’s easy to assume that all parents are familiar with and follow the recommendations.  Research shows differently.  Please make sure that all parents in your program understand these recommendations and why they are so vitally important to follow.

Misty

Enterovirus 68

As child care providers, one of our greatest responsibilities is protecting the health and safety of the children in our care.  We have Health and Safety Policies in place to define what that looks like, but every once in a while, we are thrown a curve.  That’s what’s happening right now. 

As cold and flu season gets going, we now have Enterovirus 68 thrown into the mix.  You’ve probably seen it on television as it seems to be raging throughout the country right now with infections reported in 45 states.  Enterovirus 68 is a respiratory virus that is very similar to a common cold.  Mild symptoms may include fever, runny nose, sneezing, cough, and body and muscle aches. 

As child care providers, we need to realize that children are most at-risk of becoming infected with this virus and the age group most commonly infected are children between the ages of 4 and 5.  The biggest problem with Enterovirus 68 is that it can quickly become quite serious, especially for children with asthma.  We have to make sure that we have appropriate care plans in place for any children with asthma.

Signs of distress in a child, such as difficulty talking, audible wheezing or bluish lip color call for immediate medical intervention. 

Since Enterovirus 68  is a respiratory virus, it is found in secretions such as saliva, nasal mucus, or sputum.  Other than watching for signs of illness in children, the best way to protect children and your staff is to follow your already established Standard Precautions, such as:

• Wash hands frequently using soap and water.
• Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth.
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces, such as toys and doorknobs.
• Avoid contact with people who are sick (by making sure that those who are sick are excluded from care).

With conscientious care, you can help keep the children in your care and your staff healthy.  And, if anyone becomes ill, you know how to identify when it may be becoming more serious and when to seek medical assistance.

Misty

And, yes, the CDC is now investigating whether there is a link between Enterovirus 68 and the unexplained symptoms of paralysis that some children have experienced in the past several months.  Keep your eyes open for more information on that possible link.

Playground Question

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the importance of outdoor play.  This week, I’d like to change it up a little and specifically ask for your input. 

We may be opening another Center, this one in southern California.  Since this is new construction, we can design it from the ground up (depending upon our client’s budget, anyway).  I’ve been reading a lot about natural playgrounds and am very intrigued.  They look like they could be endlessly fascinating for children and very aesthetically pleasing. 

I am very concerned about how our local Licensing agency would accept such a playground; there are inherent risks involved with providing logs and stones for children to walk across.  The natural playgrounds representative that I spoke with assured me that Licensing cannot, legally, require any greater safety measures than the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American Society for Testing and Materials require.  But, realistically, anyone in child care knows that, if a Licensing representative doesn’t like the way I’m doing something, they will find some way to make my life more difficult. 

My questions for you are:

• What sort of playground do you have?
• What are the positives and negatives of your playground?
• What would you change about your playground if you could?
• Do you or anyone you know have a natural playground?
• If so, how what are the positives and negatives of that playground?
• How does the Licensing agency view the playground?
• From what you know, would you build a natural playground for your program if you could?

Thanks in advance for the help!  (If we get a dialogue started on this blog, pop me an email with a subject you would like to discuss and we can throw that out to the group as well.)

Misty

Learning Outdoors

I was fortunate as a child to be able to play outside a lot, especially during the Summer.  By early afternoon, the neighborhood would be full of children running around and we knew that our primary requirement was to go home when the streetlights came on.  Most of the children in our care don’t have this luxury.  They are with us all day rather than running around their respective neighborhoods.  Consequently, it’s up to us to make sure that they can get appropriate outdoor time during the day.

An important aspect of providing outdoor play is to understand why it’s necessary.  Once we (including our staff members) have a solid understanding of what children learn through outside play, scheduling outside play and planning appropriate learning experiences becomes easier.  So, what do children learn through outdoor play and how can we enhance that?

• Physical Development—Gross motor skills are simply learned best where there is adequate room to move.  This will generally be outside.  Gross motor skills are only learned through practice.  Children who learn to move confidently are more likely to live active lives, which will help to combat the national epidemic of obesity. 
• Cognitive Development—When outdoors, children have abundant opportunities to use their senses to observe the environment.  There is growing thought that movement helps the brain to optimize its performance.  Additionally, gross motor activities can provide a very effective way of improving vocabulary.  Children are much more likely to remember what the words trot or gracefully mean if they can move their bodies in those ways. 
• Social/Emotional Development—Physical play requires paying attention to where your body is in space and how it is impacting others around you.  Children learn cooperation by taking turns or agreeing to the rules of the game they are playing.  Just having the opportunity to be outside or to move around freely can be a great stress-reducer for children (and for adults). 

Make sure that your daily schedule allows ample time for outside play both structured play and free play.  The children will be learning in both situations. 

Misty 

Child Care Illness Exclusion Policy

I recently read an interesting article from the National Institutes of Health regarding exclusion of children from child care due to illness.  Researchers found that children who are excluded due to illness frequently end up in an emergency room or urgent care center rather than with their regular pediatrician.  Parents often need a doctor’s note to either get their child accepted back into care or to get approval for time off from work.  When they are trying to get this note quickly, they often feel the need to seek emergency care rather than waiting for a visit with the pediatrician.  Lead researcher Dr. Andrew Hashikawa explains that, while this may not be a medical emergency, it becomes a “socioeconomic emergency".  Because of this perceived emergency, parents who need a note were four times more likely than other parents to seek emergency care for their children.

While child care providers must have illness exclusion policies to protect the health of both children and staff, making sure that the policies are well-informed can provide some relief to parents.  Many child care policies are based on “how we’ve always done it” rather than on actual medical recommendations and are, therefore, more exclusionary than necessary.  Part of the problem is that, although the American Academy of Pediatrics publishes exclusion guidelines, child care providers must meet local child care licensing requirements, which may be in opposition to the guidelines of best practices. 

What we can do to help our families while keeping children and staff healthy is to follow the licensing requirements while understanding what illnesses do not actually require exclusion.  This knowledge will also help us to explain our policies to parents so that they can partner with us to keep everyone healthy.  If you don’t already have an Illness Exclusion Policy, check ours out at www.DayCareTools.com.

Misty

P.S.  Congratulations to our friend Vera on the Grand Opening of her new Center.  Best wishes!!  Glad we could help you out a little.

Who Cleans Your Child Care Program (and When)?

Regardless of whether you have a cleaning service that cleans your program, your staff does it by themselves, or some combination of the two, it’s very important to know who is responsible for doing what and when.  If you hire an outside cleaning service, you need to have someone who manages the contract—makes sure that the contract includes all necessary tasks and that those tasks are being completed according to the agreed-upon schedule.

If your staff is responsible for all or part of the cleaning, as is the case in most programs, they need to know who does what and when.  Someone should do a walk-through of the program in the morning, before the first children arrive, to make sure everything is clean and prepared for the day.  Many sanitizing solutions need to be prepared daily.  Is each classroom responsible for their own solution or is it prepared in a central location for all rooms?  How do you make sure items that are soiled during the day are removed and cleaned before being available to children again?  Who is responsible for any cleaning that needs to happen before and after meals and/or snacks?  Is someone assigned to do a walk-through at the end of the day to make sure that everything is cleaned up and ready for morning?

Assigning specific tasks to specific individuals (or job titles) with time frames in which they are to be completed will help you to ensure that your program stays clean.  And, as with a commercial cleaning contract, tasking someone to oversee the cleaning ensures that the cleaning is happening as it should and when it should.  If you don't already have a Cleaning Schedule, check ours out here.

Misty

Not Even for a Minute

Already this year, the Bay Area has lost a 9-month-old boy to heatstroke after he was accidentally left in the car while his dad spent a long day at work.  Tragically, we hear these reports every year.  It seems that there are two primary factors in incidents like these.  The first, as in this case, is simply human error; someone is responsible for transporting a child somewhere, but forgets and leaves the child in the car.  The second is, surprisingly, intentionally leaving the child in a car…apparently underestimating the risk of heat-related injury, kidnapping, etc.  

In a recent survey by Public Opinion Strategies of Washington, D.C., “6% of the parents surveyed (more than 840,000 parents with nearly 1.5 million children) are comfortable letting their young children stay in a parked, locked vehicle for longer than 15 minutes”.   If parents think, even for a minute, that this is okay, they need to be better informed.  Child care programs can help with this by providing educational materials, having a parent workshop, and monitoring their own parking lots.

In the case of children being forgotten in vehicles, there are a few simple suggestions:

• Put in the backseat of your vehicle something that you will need when you exit—your cell phone, your laptop, etc.
• Put a large stuffed animal in the child’s car seat when the child is not in it.  When the child is in the car seat, move the stuffed animal to the front seat to remind you that the child is in the back.
• Make a habit of opening your back door and looking in every time you exit your vehicle.  “Look before you lock.”

One thing that child care providers can do to help parents avoid a tragic mistake is to insist that a parent contact us if their child will not be in care that day.  In response, if the child does not arrive at the expected time, we call the parent(s) to inquire about the child.  Try to make contact with a parent rather than just leaving a voice mail.  

We also need to make sure that our own program policies include steps to ensure that we don’t accidentally leave a child unattended in a vehicle.  If you don’t already have a Transportation Policy, you can check ours out here.

Misty

New Stroller Standards

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has recently approved a new safety standard for strollers and carriages.  Strollers are defined as wheeled vehicles that transport children from infancy through age 3 who are generally sitting or in a semi-reclined position.  Carriages are wheeled vehicles that transport infants, generally in a lying down position.

The new standards will go into effect on September 10, 2015 and all strollers and carriages sold after that date will have to comply with the new standards.  At this point, the CPSC is not providing guidance on existing strollers, but the safety concerns with some existing strollers will need to be considered in determining whether they should be replaced.

Through June 2013, the CPSC had received 1,300 safety-related reports regarding difficulties with strollers.  Nearly 400 children have been injured, 14 hospitalized, and 4 killed by strollers or carriages.  

Some of the greatest hazards with strollers and carriages include:

• Hinges (most dangerous)
• Wheels breaking or detaching
• Parking brake failures
• Locking mechanism problems  
• Structural integrity
• Stability

The other big concern is restraint issues.  The CPSC notes that many safety issues with strollers and carriages are due to falls.  While restraint systems will be examined in the new safety standards, simply making sure that children are properly restrained and supervised will decrease the risk of injury. 

The new standards can be found at:  http://www.cpsc.gov/Regulations-Laws--Standards/Federal-Register-Notices/2014/Safety-Standard-for-Carriages-and-Strollers-Final-Rule/

Misty

Preventing Abuse in Child Care Programs

Over the past couple of weeks, we have talked about identifying and reporting suspected child abuse.  This week, we’ll address the most important aspect…preventing child abuse.

Most child care licensing agencies have regulations in place to help programs minimize the risk of child abuse.  These may include comprehensive background checks, ratio requirements, and visibility and supervision guidelines.

However, licensing agencies frequently establish minimal requirements.  For example, ratio requirements can ensure that there are enough caregivers in the classroom to provide adequate care for the children.  But, we also make sure that each classroom is always staffed with two caregivers, regardless of how many children are in attendance at any given time.  Those caregivers understand that one of their responsibilities is to ensure that no child is ever left alone with an adult.

Two important Policies and Procedures to help protect children are a Touch Policy and a Child Guidance Policy.  The Touch Policy should detail what are appropriate and inappropriate types of touch in a program.  The Child Guidance Policy should describe developmentally appropriate expectations and appropriate methods of guiding children’s behavior.

If you don’t already have a policy in place to make sure that your staff knows how to prevent child abuse, check ours out here.

Misty

Reporting Suspected Child Abuse

Last week we talked about identifying potential child abuse.  This week, we’ll address reporting suspected abuse.

The first point is to remember that we are child care professionals, we are not investigators.  Our job is to know how to identify signs of potential abuse and to report those signs objectively.  We then allow the trained investigators to do their jobs.  Just as I get upset when people have the “any monkey can do it” attitude toward my job (you know, the “you have a child, so you can be a child care provider” attitude), I have to understand that I am not trained to conduct a proper investigation. 

The second point in reporting suspected abuse is to realize that we all are mandated to do it.  And, even if it wasn’t a legal mandate, we are duty-bound by our decision to spend our lives caring for children.  As I tell my staff, child abuse is rarely a one-time thing.  Your report may be the only thing that stands between that child and years of abuse.  No, filing a report isn’t easy, but it must be done.

The third point is knowing the proper way to make a report and ensuring that your staff knows the proper way as well.  This varies from state to state and possibly county to county.  It can even vary from year to year, depending upon your area.  And, if you have flexibility on how the reporting is done, you need to make sure that you have a policy in place that ensures your staff knows exactly how YOU want it done (within legal limits).  In one of my former positions, as the Director, I was required to make the report.  Then, the following year, in the same program, the regulations changed and the individual who noticed the indicator had to make the report personally.  This was very difficult for one of my staff members, but she had to do it.  As her Director, I could no longer do it for her.  All I could do was talk her through it, hold her hand while she made the call, and hold her while she cried afterwards.  Again, it’s not easy, but our top priority must be protecting children, not staying in our own comfort zones.

If you don’t already have a policy in place to make sure that your staff knows how to report suspected child abuse, check ours out here.

Misty