Policies
Food Policy
We will provide morning and afternoon snacks each day. Snack will include a fruit or vegetable and a light snack such as crackers. We will serve juice, milk or water as well. It is the parent’s responsibility to send your child with a lunch each day. We strongly urge you to send a nutritious lunch when possible. Water is always available and accessible to the children.
The teachers will sit down and eat with your children during lunch time. We consider this a great opportunity for wonderful social engagement through conversations.
Discipline Policy
When a child is having a hard time making good choices independently we try to give choices to redirect him/her to a new activity. We always try to work through situations by using our words and talk about our feelings with peers and teachers. When a child is unable to make appropriate choices, a teacher may guide him/her to a new activity or provide a quiet space to allow the child to calm down (when needed).
We believe in observing children at play in their natural setting in order to determine if they are simply demonstrating inappropriate or negative behaviors or if there is another source behind the behavior. For instance, this could be that a basic need is not being met for your child or that he/she needs more sensory input, or that the child is over stimulated. Ultimately, we believe in modeling appropriate actions and words for children and in guiding them to take ownership of their actions and words.
Health policies
We must have your child’s immunization records on his/her first day of school at Blue Skies Child Care. If we do not have these records at this time, your child cannot attend Blue Skies Child Care. It is a state policy that we must have children’s updated immunization records and it is extremely important that we comply with this.
Your child’s medical records must be updated annually. Children without appropriate and current medical records cannot attend school.
Your child is restricted from attending school if he/she demonstrates any of the following symptoms. Additionally, if he/she demonstrates any of the following symptoms, we will contact you to pick your child up within one hour. This is to keep your child comfortable as well as to prevent other children and the staff from acquiring these symptoms.
- A fever with a temperature of 101
- Diarrhea
- Throwing up
- A cough producing mucus
- Constant, uncontrollable nasal discharge, particularly green in color
- Strep throat
- Conjunctivitis (a.k.a. pink eye)
- Lice or any indication of nits
- Scabies or other infestations
- Any skin rash suspicious of contagious childhood disease or confirmed as infectious
- Mouth sores with drooling
- Any skin rash, lesion, or wound with bleeding or oozing of clear fluid or pus.
If your child has had an illness that is contagious, he/she can only come back to school with a physician’s note indicating that he/she is no longer contagious.
Your child may only return to school when he/she is free from fever, vomiting and diarrhea for 24 hours (this means without the assistance of a fever reducer such as Tylenol, etc.).
A child prescribed an antibiotic for a bacterial infection must take the medication for a full 24 hour course before returning to school.
If Blue Skies Child Care contacts you to inform you that your child is ill, you must pick up your child immediately.
We will administer prescription medications and long term nonprescription medication only upon a written order you give to us from a physician. We do ask that you try to find other times to administer meds when the child is at home to avoid meds at school when at all possible.
Overall, we ask that you use reasonable judgement when sending a child who is not feeling 100% healthy to school. I.e. if your child is unable to participate in all aspects of our daily routine and activities (including outdoor play), please keep him/her home. Additionally if your child’s condition impacts our ability to care for other children (ex: severe irritability/crankiness or discomfort requiring a staff member to remain with your child during daily activities) and requires more attention than we can give, we will call you to pick up your child promptly.
Miscellaneous policies
We reserve the right to make amendments to any section of this handbook throughout the year. If we make changes, we will provide you with an updated handbook which will need to be reviewed and signed by a parent/guardian of each child.
Please arrive as close to opening time as possible to allow your child time to “settle in” and play at his/her leisure before the daily routine begins.
It is important that you check your child’s cubby and mailbox daily. We strongly recommend you take your child’s artwork home. This is a great conversation starter about your child’s day at school!
We recommend you have two changes of clothes in your child’s cubby each day. This will greatly help us out should your child have an accident. Please check his/her supply before leaving at the end of the school day.
Your child’s clothing and outerwear must be labeled or we will label it with your child’s initials to ensure correct items go home with the proper owner!
Parents or guardians must sign your child in and out each day on the posted sign-in sheet in the notebook labeled attendance.
During summer months, it is the parents and guardians’ responsibility to send your child to school with sunscreen and insect repellant on already. We will apply more throughout the day as needed. We also recommend you send a hat and sunglasses if possible. An extra bathing suit to keep at school for the summer would be good as well, for play in the sprinkler.
We encourage you to send your child with items for rest time such as a pillow and blanket or a stuffed animal. Each child will have his/her own labeled mat that only he/she will use for rest. Your child may keep rest time items in his/her cubby or bring them home each day as you decide.
Each Friday we will send home your child’s bedding to be washed and returned to school the following week.
Toys from home are not allowed at school as they often create problems with sharing etc. Also, we don’t want to beresponsible for them should your child misplace the toy.We will send home notices each month informing you of upcoming show and share days. On these days, your child may bring in a toy that will be kept in his/her cubby until it is time to share (and return to the cubby afterward).
Withdrawal from the program
We require a two week notice should you choose to withdraw your child from Blue Skies Child Care.
Mandated reporters
Child care providers in Maine are mandated reporters of any suspected form of abuse to children who they provide care to. All parents and guardians must be aware of this upfront.
