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Protocols

Policies & Procedures

Safety is a big deal to us. That's why we have taken the time to create clear and helpful guidelines to ensure that each child is safe in our kids ministry. In the sections below we will walk you through each of those policies and procedures. But first, let's start with the one-pager that every single volunteer must cover before they are allowed to serve in our kids ministry.
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Accident Reports

It is important to report any and all accidents/incidents to parents. Any bump, bruise, scratch, etc. that happens in our care should be documented and reported to the parent/guardian.
There are a few documents that you will need to utilize for any accidents that need to be reported.
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Parent Notification sheet
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Accident Report 
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Here are the steps to follow when completing an accident report:
The parent notification sheet will need to be given to the parent/guardian. The sheet is used to explain in detail what happened and how we responded. The sheet can be filled out by the volunteer who saw what happened or by the Kids Lead. Once completed, use your iPad (or phone) to take a picture of the Parent Notification sheet. You’ll need this image to complete the next step.
Go to
sandalskids.com/accidents
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. Complete the form by filling in all the details, such as when and where everything took place. There will be a field within the form where you will have to upload a picture of the completed Parent Notification sheet.
Make sure to communicate with the parent/guardian at pick up. Be sure that you or a trusted volunteer verbally shares with the parents what happened. Finally, give them the completed Parent Notification to keep for their own reference.

Important note: if a child is injured by another child, do not inform the parent/guardian WHO the other child was. On the accident report, simply state another child was involved. For example, Billy was hit by another child and it left a mark.

Emergency Situations

ASSESS THE SITUATION


EARTHQUAKE
Help your kids duck, cover and hold.
Encourage them to remain calm.
Based on the seriousness of the earthquake, your team leader may direct you to evacuate the building.
Follow the evacuation instructions below.

FIRE
If there is a fire, evacuate the building.
Follow the evacuation instructions below.

STRANGER ON CAMPUS
If there is someone on campus that appears dangerous in any way, notify the nearest security team member or your team leader.
If there is any threat, we will lock down the building and you will wait for instructions from your team leader.

EVACUATION INSTRUCTIONS

The golden rule in an emergency situation is to remain calm. If kids see you freaking out, they’re going to freak out too!
Here are the most important things to know about our evacuation procedure:
Count your kids. We want to make sure no kids get left behind!
Grab your rosters. You’ll need these to verify you have all your kids and to run check-out later on.
Guide your kids to the evacuation point. There’s an evacuation map at each exit in our kids rooms that shows where to go. Our evacuation point is the back parking lot (the really long one).
Count your kids again. Using your rosters, do a quick roll call to ensure all of the kids in your group are present. If any are missing, let your Team Lead know immediately.
Stay with your group. Encourage your kids to sit down and stay put.
If necessary, run check-out from your evacuation point. Make sure each parent’s tags match the code on the child’s nametag.

Paging Parents

Contacting parents during a service will differ at each campus. There are a few paging options: purchasing “vibrating” pagers, or using text paging through CCB check-in. For more information on how this works, please see the CCB training tip
here
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. Be sure to know which option your campus is utilizing. If all else fails, look for the parent in service!
If your campus is using pagers, check out the procedures below on distributing them:
Please be sure to offer a pager to each parent in designated rooms. Rooms that commonly have pagers are babies through two year olds. If a parent requests a pager in a room that doesn’t have one, plan to borrow from a room that has them.
Please make sure the pager number gets written down on the sign in sheet. Typically the pager number is on the back of the pager.
Please be sure to get the pager back from parents at pick-up.

Generally speaking, we will only page/text a parent when all possible means of care have been attempted (feeding, changing diaper, sleep, playing, walking, changing caregiver/volunteer, etc.). Paging/texting a parent will be determined by several factors:
By parent request
The need of the child (hungry/sick)
Level and frequency of crying
If they are a first time guest

The person who ultimately decides if a parent should get paged is the campus Kids Lead. A volunteer should not make that decision without discussing with the Kids Lead or their team leader. It’s important that all measures have been taken before paging.

Reporting

INSTRUCTIONS FOR VOLUNTEERS
As a kids team, we have a repsonsibility to keep our kids safe . If you sense that a child is in any danger at church or at home, please let a staff member know immediately. Please do not take any action without instruction from your team leader.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR STAFF MEMBERS
If you learn from one of your team members that a child might be in an unsafe environment, go directly to your Campus Pastor. Your Campus Pastor will make the final decision on filing a report with Child Protective Services. When in doubt, contact Mike Huntsman at
mikehuntsman@sandalschurch.com
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to get input on what your next steps look like.

Recording Weekly Attendance

It’s really important to keep good records of weekly attendance. It can come in handy when you want to see attendance trends a certain time of year or if your Campus Pastor wants some attendance data. You will have all the information you need right at your fingertips!
Each week you will need to report your weekend attendance numbers on a specific Google doc called “Kids Weekend Attendance (Year)”. There is a specific tab for your campus. On this doc, you will need to record the total number of kids at each service as well as the total number of volunteers.
It’s also a great practice to keep more specific attendance records for each of your age groups/classrooms by service. This will help you see specific trends by age group/grade and plan accordingly. This would be a separate doc than the one mentioned above and can be something you can create yourself based upon your specific campus.
It’s important that attendance is taken every week for every service. It’s really personal preference on how you want to record attendance. You can create a Google sheet specific to your campus with all of your age groups/classroom listed for each service OR you can do good ‘ole fashioned pen & paper to record attendance and then input the data into a doc after the weekend.
Go to the next section:
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Check-in
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