Child Care

Welcome to Scarborough Community Services Child Care Program Policies

Registration, Attendance, and Absenteeism

Enrollment for these programs is done on a first-come, first-served basis. A minimum of a two-day-a-week contract is required for the School Age Program. The Club Teen Program has one option which includes a monthly fee of $250.

For the 2012-2013 school year, parents will have two options for payment:

• Monthly payments -- MUST complete Electronic Funds Transfer form with registration (with checking or savings account).

• Full-year payment may be made by cash, check, or debit card.

EFT payments will be withdrawn once a month (on the 5th of each month) or bi-monthly (on the 5th and 19th of each month). Child care fees will be assessed for ten monthly periods from September through June. These fees will now include snow days, scheduled no-school days, and vacation experience days.

Snow days, teacher workshop days, and vacation camps are held in the Scarborough Middle School Narragansett Building. These extra days are included in regular child care fees, however, pre-registration is required and space is limited. Register at the Community Services Office.

A non-refundable registration fee of $100 is required when registering for the program of your choice. If you register early, you can receive a discount on the registration fee. If you register your child after the start of the 2012-13 school year, please allow three days for the processing of the application. Please remember that you must contact your child’s school and let them know that your child will be attending the program. The schools cannot just take that information from us.

If your child is going to be absent for any reason, we request that you call or email us at Bessworth. Even if your child goes home from school sick, we still request that you let us know. (The school does not have to notify us with this important information.) This is to ensure that all children are accounted for at the beginning of each program day. In addition, prior notification of an absence will assure that staff does not have to take time away from children already present to track down another child’s whereabouts.

Sickness

Any child with a fever, vomiting, contagious disease, or draining wound may not attend the program for 24 hours. Decisions concerning the acceptability of children with other medical conditions remaining at the program site will be made under the guidance of our health care consultant Dr. Stephen Kirsch. In some cases you may be required to provide a doctor’s note in order for your child to return. If your child becomes ill while at the program, you will be contacted by a staff and required to pick your child up within the hour.

Medication Policy

State licensing has some very definite laws about the dispensing of medication at the child care site. We have therefore adopted the following policies concerning medication.

• No prescription medicine of any kind will be dispensed unless authorized by a physician’s signature. Any request to dispense medication must be made in writing for each request. We have forms available, or you may write out your own. It must include the date, amount to be given, and time to be given. Medication must be in the original container.
• Medication must be dropped off to the site by the parent. Please do not send medication to the site in children’s lunch boxes or backpacks. Medication can be dropped out of these containers and other children may discover it, or children may decide to take the medication before the appropriate time or in incorrect amounts.
• Aspirin, acetaminophen, or other non-prescription medications will not be given to a child without written, signed, and dated parental authorization naming the medication and the dosage. All medications must be supplied by the parent.

Emergency Procedures

Our staff has been trained in emergency first aid and CPR, and the program has an easily accessible first aid kit. In the event of a serious emergency, an ambulance will be called and the child will be taken to the nearest hospital (or the hospital of preference listed on the medical authorization slip). The child’s parent will be notified immediately.

Pickup

One of the most important issues we face each day is determining who has authorization to pick up your child. We do not want to be caught in the middle, and more importantly, we do not want your child to be caught in the middle of a parental custody issue. Therefore, there is a place on the registration form for you to indicate who may pick up your child other than yourself.

NO CHILD will be released to anyone not authorized by the parent. Authorization for someone other than the people listed on the registration forms must come in writing and be delivered by the custodial parent prior to the time of pickup. When filling out the registration forms, please consider this carefully and include everyone who you would allow to pick up your child. We do not accept notes that come from the child and we can’t accept notes from the person picking up the child -- we have no way of verifying who wrote the notes.

* Please note that counselors are required to I.D. anyone entering our child care sites who is unfamiliar to staff. This means persons picking up must provide the staff with a proper picture I.D. before we release your child to leave. This includes parents picking up for the first time.

In situations of divorce or separation, Community Services prefers that both parent's sign the registration form whenever possible. Please include instructions about who may pick up and under what circumstances, and a copy of any court orders regarding custody of the child. We need to have these documents on file in order to protect your child. Both parents have a right to view the files of their children, regardless of which parent has been given custody. Please use this right to be sure that the information in the file is current and correct. You can be assured that this information will be kept strictly confidential and used only to further insure your child’s safety. We urge your full cooperation in this matter to avoid putting your child and our staff in an uncomfortable position.

We urge your full cooperation in this matter to avoid putting your child and our staff in an uncomfortable position.

* No online registration available for Before and After School Care Programs or Summer Day Camp Programs. Must register in person at the Community Services Office (third floor of the Municipal Building) or at the Bessworth Child Care Building.

Independent Release

Occasionally students may need to leave the premises without a pick-up person, either to walk home or go elsewhere for sports or clubs. Parents should fill out an independent release form ahead of time if they wish their student to do this. The forms will include the date and time of the release. Students will be released at the designated time and marked out on the attendance sheet. Once students are released, Community Services is no longer responsible for their whereabouts.

Behavior and Discipline

We design our program with clear expectations for children’s behavior. When situations occur, either with individual children or among children, we use these times to teach children how to make better choices and how to negotiate differences. We use logical consequence, such as loss of privileges, time-out, or time away from the activity if necessary. At no time will any child be humiliated, hit, or denied a snack as a "punishment." It is our hope that we can participate in the process of teaching children appropriate behavior and responses to conflict.

Discipline Policy

Proper behavior and adherence to the program rules are expected from each and every child. It is not fair to the children in our program when one child continually misbehaves or causes problems with others or with the group in general. If misbehavior or problems occur on a continual basis, the following steps will be taken.

1. Counselors will review the rules often and give consistent reminders about inappropriate behavior and its consequences.
2. A counselor will talk to the child on a one-on-one basis and give time out.
3. Logical consequences will be imposed if necessary.
4. A written warning will be given for repeated misbehavior.
5. A citation will result from further misbehavior or for a serious infraction of the rules. This would include, but not be limited to, hurting another child, damaging property, or willfully disregarding the counselor’s instructions.
6. The program manager will be kept apprised of developing situations and will, if necessary, set up a meeting with the parent to discuss the child’s behavior and agree on a strategy for handling future problems.
7. If the behavior continues, the parent may be called to remove the child from the program. The child may be asked to take a day or more off from the program.
8. Continued misbehavior may result in being asked to leave the program.

It is our hope that we never get to the final step in this process. We feel that with the cooperation of the parents, we can use this disciplinary process to correct problems and ensure that all the children in our program are in a pleasant and safe environment for their out-of-school hours.

Scarborough Community Services is providing care to students before and after school in Scarborough public school buildings. If a student is sent home by any school personal due to misbehavior for an afternoon or more the child is not eligible to attend the before or after care program until they can return to school.

Child Care Monthly Billing Policy