The Ministry of Education has Issued New Safe Arrival and Dismissal Policies for Daycare Centres

by Bob Montgomery

The Manager of Child Care Services for Goderich says every child care centre is now required to follow a new policy mandated by the Ministry of Education.

Bonnie Hastings says the policy requires the daycare centre to do a follow up any time a child who is booked into the centre doesn't arrive on time. She says they also have to do a follow up confirming that the child is being dropped off directly with the daycare centre staff and they also require written documentation of any change in their pick up. Hastings says these are all procedures that were already in place at their daycare centre but they're now mandatory and they have to be submitted to the staff in writing.

Hastings adds, if the child does not arrive as expected, they have an app that allows them to communicate directly with the parent, or the parent to communicate directly with staff at the centre. So they do a first contact through the app and if they don't get a response from that they reach out to the parent or guardian. If they don't get a response from that, they would continue to attempt to contact the parent or guardian and if they're not successful with that they would attempt to contact the other parent or guardian or the emergency contact. And Hastings says they have been following that process in the past but now it's written into their policies to make sure that they're following the procedures if a student doesn't arrive on time.

Hastings says their policy for dismissal requires that staff make sure the child is only being released to the parent, or guardian that the parent has designated as the person picking up the child. She says in the past that could have been a verbal conversation that just informs staff that a grandparent or someone else would be picking the child up that day, but now that has to be in writing. Hastings adds, if the child is not picked up before the centre closes, the policy includes next steps outlining who they should contact then, how soon they should contact them and next steps if they're not able to contact them.

Hastings says it is a very thorough process but it has to be to make sure that the safety of the children is their number one priority.