1.4.2.3: Orientation Topics

During the first three months of employment, the director of a center or the caregiver/teacher in a large family home should document, for all full-time and part-time staff members, additional orientation in, and the employees’ satisfactory knowledge of, the following topics:

1. Recognition of symptoms of illness and correct documentation procedures for recording symptoms of illness. This should include the ability to perform a daily health check of children to determine whether any children are ill or injured and, if so, whether a child who is ill should be excluded from the facility;
2. Exclusion and readmission procedures and policies;
3. Cleaning, sanitation, and disinfection procedures and policies;
4. Procedures for administering medication to children and for documenting medication administered to children;
5. Procedures for notifying parents/guardians of an infectious disease occurring in children or staff within the facility;
6. Procedures and policies for notifying public health officials about an outbreak of disease or the occurrence of a reportable disease;
7. Emergency procedures and policies related to unintentional injury, medical emergency, and natural disasters;
8. Procedure for accessing the child care health consultant for assistance;
9. Injury prevention strategies and hazard identification procedures specific to the facility, equipment, etc.; and
10. Proper hand hygiene.

Before being assigned to tasks that involve identifying and responding to illness, staff members should receive orientation training on these topics. Small family child care home caregivers/teachers should not commence operation before receiving orientation on these topics in pre-service training.

RATIONALE

Children in child care are frequently ill (1). Staff members responsible for child care must be able to recognize illness and injury, carry out the measures required to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, handle ill and injured children appropriately, and appropriately administer required medications (2). Hand hygiene is one of the most important means of preventing spread of infectious disease (3).

TYPE OF FACILITY

Center, Early Head Start, Head Start, Large Family Child Care Home, Small Family Child Care Home

RELATED STANDARDS

1.4.1.1 Pre-service Training
3.1.1.1 Conduct of Daily Health Check
3.1.1.2 Documentation of the Daily Health Check
9.4.3.3 Training Record

REFERENCES

1. American Academy of Pediatrics. Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools: A Quick Reference Guide. Aronson SS, Shope TR, eds. 5th ed. Itasca, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2020:3.
2. American Academy of Pediatrics, Council on School Health. 2009. Policy statement: Guidance for the administration of medication in school. Pediatrics 124:1244-51.
   
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2016. Handwashing: Clean hands save lives. http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/.