PAO-25: Child Guidance, Restraint and Isolation Policy

Purpose:

To ensure safe, respectful, and supportive environments for children in B-5 ECEAP programs, contractors must ensure that providers adopt and follow a comprehensive child guidance policy. This policy must prioritize positive guidance, supervision, and establish clear limits on the use of restraint and isolation.

Policy Guidelines:

1. Written Child Guidance Policy Requirements: Contractors must ensure that all B-5 ECEAP providers have a written child guidance policy that includes the following components:

(a) Positive Guidance Approach: Distraction, verbal direction in a positive light, proximity, praise and showing correct examples lead to the goal of preparing preschoolers to become competent, confident and cooperative.

(b) Supervision: Classroom staff maintain supervision by working as a team and communicating with each other who is watching which students and running different activities. The ratio of students to teacher is 1:10.

(c) Restraint Policies: Staff take part in Safety Care training each school year to be updated on verbal de-escalation and define when and how restraint can be used, prioritizing child safety and well-being, while minimizing the need for physical intervention.

2. Prohibited Practices: The child guidance policy must explicitly prohibit any person on the premises from engaging in the following actions:

(a) Corporal Punishment: Inflicting physical pain or causing bodily harm to a child is strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated.

(b) Aggressive Physical Handling: Skills learned in Safety Care training will be used when working with non-compliance. Staff is not allowed to hold, grab or move a child in an aggressive for forceful manner when trying to get a child to comply.

(c) Verbal Abuse: Yelling, shouting, name-calling, shaming, derogatory remarks about the child or their family, and language intended to humiliate, threaten or frighten a child are strictly forbidden. 

(d) Using or Withholding Food or Liquids: Foods or liquids as a form of punishment or reward is not allowed.

3. Prohibition of Harmful Restraint and Isolation: Any physical restraint method that could injure the child and/or use of any closed or locked time-out room is strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated.

This policy ensures that B-5 ECEAP programs promote positive, non-harmful approaches to child guidance while strictly prohibiting punitive, aggressive, or harmful practices.