	Early Child Care and Development Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-ECCD 9: Child Supervision

Close supervision ensures child safety and improves service quality.

PA-ECCD 9.01

Each child is monitored to ensure:

arrival and departure is with a person approved by his or her parents;
absences are documented;
off-site whereabouts while under the supervision of the program are known and documented; and
departure is not allowed with someone who poses a safety risk.

Interpretation: Protocols should provide direction on how to use appropriate agency or community resources to respond to individuals who are intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, mentally or physically unstable, or who present any safety concern.

PA-ECCD 9.02

The child care center or child care home maintains caregiver-child ratios and group sizes that:

allow caregivers to provide supervision that ensures child health and safety;
allow caregivers to establish and maintain relationships with each child in the group;
allow caregivers to offer a variety of activities and lessons that promote social, emotional, cognitive, and physical devlopment; and
take into consideration the qualifications and competencies of the caregiver and the needs of the children in the group.

Interpretation: Generally, the provider maintains caregiver-child ratios that do not exceed COA's Recommended Caregiver-Child Ratios and Group Sizes. Caregivers assess and modify group size based on the special physical, social, or developmental needs of children within the group and the qualifications and competencies of the caregivers to ensure that children receive appropriate nurturance and supervision.

Note: Average daily attendance is acceptable for group size and ratios in childcare centers, as long as the agency has back-up help available when unusually large numbers of children are present. When more than six unrelated children are cared for in a child care home, the childcare provider is assisted by additional staff.

Research Note: Studies have shown that the child-caregiver ratio and the size of the group are correlated with social and cognitive outcomes for children. Some researchers suggest that lower ratios allow teachers to have more frequent and higher quality interactions with each child.

PA-ECCD 9.03

Caregiver-child ratios are maintained when a caregiver works individually with a child who is ill, requires separation from the group, needs special supervision or care, or has an emergency.

PA-ECCD 9.04

Mixed-age groupings are permitted if:

the developmental needs of all children can be met;
teachers are skilled in programming for mixed-aged groupings; and
the group’s caregiver-child ratio is tailored with consideration given to the age of the youngest children in the group.

NA The agency does not offer mixed-age groupings.

PA-ECCD 9.05

Positive approaches are used to guide group interaction and individual behavior, and the agency prohibits:

corporal punishment;
interventions that involve withholding nutrition or hydration, or that inflict physical or psychological pain;
isolation;
ignoring the child;
group punishment or discipline for individual behavior;
labeling a child “good” or “bad”;
the use of demeaning, shaming or degrading language or activities; and
punitive overuse of time outs.

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	PURPOSE: Early Child Care and Development Services meet family needs for high quality child care and ensure child development, health, and safety.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	QUALITY In this context, the extent to which contemporary and generally recognized standards for professional practice are met and exceeded, and desirable service outcomes achieved.


	SUPERVISION Assumption of responsibility for directly overseeing and evaluating the work or work products of personnel within an organization. Also includes inspecting the act or process of accomplishing a function or activity.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	PROTOCOLS Instruments and procedures used to accomplish a particular goal, activity, or purpose.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	CAREGIVER The provider of physical, emotional, and social needs to another person, often dependent and unable to provide for his or her own needs. Caregiver is the generic term used for the direct service providers in Community Care and Support Services (CCS).


	ISOLATION The practice of separating a person from others and placing him/her in a monitored, non-locked or "quiet" room in order to calm the person. A person in isolation is physically prevented from leaving the designated space or room where s/he is placed. For purposes of COA accreditation, isolation is distinguished from TIME-OUT.