Policies and handbook

Licensed family day homes in Alberta are required to have written policies and to follow them. What follows is a summary. The full handbook comes with your enrolment package and you are welcome to read it before you sign anything.

Illness

Children stay home with a fever over 38 degrees, vomiting, diarrhea, an undiagnosed rash, or anything a doctor has said is contagious. Same rules apply if it starts during the day, in which case I call you and the child rests apart from the group until you arrive.

Children need to be free of fever and of vomiting or diarrhea for a full twenty-four hours before coming back, without medication holding it down.

I know this is expensive and inconvenient. It is also the only thing standing between one sick child and six sick families.

Medication

Anything I give your child has to be in the original container, labelled with your child's name and the dose, with a signed authorization on file. Prescription medication needs the pharmacy label. I log every dose and you see the log.

Emergency medication for allergies or asthma is kept where I can get to it in seconds and I carry it when we go out.

Emergencies and injuries

Minor bumps get cleaned up and written down, and you hear about it at pickup. Anything involving the head, a possible break, or a reaction gets a phone call immediately.

There is a written emergency plan covering fire, evacuation, and severe weather, and we practise the fire drill regularly enough that the children find it boring.

Guidance

No physical punishment, no shouting, no isolating a child alone in a room, no shaming, and nothing involving food, sleep, or the toilet used as a consequence. That list is not just my preference, it is provincial regulation.

What happens instead is that I stay close, name what is going on, offer an alternative, and if a child needs to step out of a situation I go with them. Persistent problems get discussed with you rather than managed quietly.

Hours, late pickup, and closures

Late pickup happens to everyone occasionally. Call me. Repeated late pickups get a conversation and eventually a fee, which is in the handbook.

Statutory holidays are closed. Vacation and planned closure dates are given out at the start of the year. Unexpected closures for illness are called in as early in the morning as I can manage.

Fees and notice

Fees are due monthly in advance. Your spot is held whether or not your child attends that week, including vacations and sick days, because the space is reserved for you.

Either of us can end the arrangement with written notice as set out in your contract.

Photos and privacy

I take photos of the children during the day and share them with you. Nothing goes on this website or on social media without written permission from you, and you can withdraw that permission at any time without explaining why. Photos on this site with faces covered are published that way deliberately.

Your family's records stay confidential and are shown to no one except the licensing monitor, who is legally entitled to see them.