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Quality Counts!
Safety Edition
It has been thought that quality programming is like good art--you know it when you see it. What we know now is quality is definable and measurable. The Afterschool Quality Advancement (AQuA) tool does exactly that and helps create a roadmap for continual quality improvement. The needs expressed on the created action plan can seem overwhelming, especially considering limited resources available to organizations. This monthly publication will share ideas for moving quality forward, many of them free and/or easy to implement!
Quality Begins with Safety
The very foundation of quality afterschool programs is safety. Safety is why so many parents entrust their children to your program and with your staff. But taking care of children involves unpredictable situations and unforeseen emergencies. How well is your staff equipped to handle these events? Is your staff aware of the children prone to asthma attacks or those affected by blood sugar disorders? Do staff members know where to locate fire extinguishers, first aid kits, and evacuation plans? Read below for free and easy ways to increase the safety of your program, as well as tips on creating an emotionally and physically safe space for the children you serve! Download a Safety Checklist for the basic requirements set forth by DASN and DFPS licensing. |
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Free and Easy
Practices that increase the quality of your program immediately:
1. Actively supervise your participants at all times. Active supervision is exactly that--active. It involves watching, listening, being aware and actively engaged at all times. Like driving a car, watching children involves all of your senses. Common pitfalls in constant supervision occur at the beginning of program hours, during outdoor time, and during transitions between activities or locations. Take a close look at these times in your program and create a plan to guarantee children are always actively supervised.
2. Go over your arrival and dismissal procedures with your staff and participants. All participants should be signed in and out every day, by parents, a staff member, or themselves, as your program and licensing permit.
3. Ensure all participants have turned in complete registration forms with emergency contact information. To view a sample registration form, click here and select Sample Registration Form or Licensing Registration Form, if you are operating a licensed site.
4. Take note of your first aid kits. Are they always easily accessible to staff? It is great to have a large first aid kit in a main office or shared space, but if your program operates in many rooms, it is best to keep a small, basic kit in each room. Take it a step further and ensure staff take a first aid kit with them when they go outside or on trips. Also, make sure your first aid kit contents are complete and kept up to date. For a First Aid Kit Inventory template, click here. Hint: Hospitals or doctors' offices often donate materials to create first aid kits for nonprofit sites...just ask! |
As Seen in Our Programs
Quality Advisors share exemplary practices observed in our member programs:
An efficient way to make sure staff and visitors are aware of children with acute health issues is to keep a list at the front of the attendance book or sign-in binder with noted symptoms to watch for and emergency contact numbers.
Noted in other afterschool programs: See Lessons Learned: Emergency Management Planning for Afterschool Programs to find out why you should have a plan for lockdowns, evacuations, and parent reunifications. A tablet like the one shown (and covered in a previous Quality Counts!) make the information accessible. To make your own emergency procedures tablet, download our template and instructions here.
Make sure that staff, participants, and families are aware of location changes. Posting your activity schedule complete with locations is key. For those times when plans change, update your schedule and create a sign like this one to easily direct others to your location. If there is an emergency, children will be more easily located.
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Academically Speaking
Appropriate activities that support learning:
Bully-free Environment
Children are much more likely to learn when they are in an emotionally safe space. This means put-downs, negative comments, and bullying must be monitored and eradicated. Curriculum programs like No Place for Hate or Take a Stand can help create an emotionally safe space for all your participants to develop socially and academically.
Smoke Detector Graphing
Fire drills are just the start of learning about fire safety. Learn about graphing by asking each child to count the smoke detectors where they live. Compile the results and ask the kids to create a bar graph of how many people have one, two, three, etc smoke detectors where they live. Have a group discussion about where the smoke detectors are placed and why. For more educational activities about fire safety, click here.
Tornado Safety Reporting
Tornados can be scary. Kids can get the facts straight about tornados and tornado safety by putting together a newsletter. A How To column can cover what to do in case of a tornado, an educational article can cover facts about and science behind tornados, and another section can cover historical occurrences of tornados in the area. Let the kids be creative! Have kids work in teams to put together this newsletter and pass it out at school or at home.
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Behaviorally Speaking
Suggestions for Managing Participant Behavior
Use Non-Verbal Cues
Small misbehaviors can escalate into larger, more unsafe issues. Before responding verbally to smaller misbehaviors, try to eliminate the inappropriate behavior by making clear, non-verbal responses. Eye contact, completed with a frown or gesture, may enable you to avoid the possibility of embarrassing the participant. Also, positioning yourself near or in front of the offending child may encourage him or her to suppress undesirable behavior.
Setting Boundaries Creates Safety
Young people need adults and peers who set standards and uphold them, acting in ways that are respectful and responsible, and who show them that some things are worth working and waiting for. Create boundaries and expectations by providing clear rules and consistent consequences. Remember to post the program Code of Conduct to help everyone remember these boundaries and "catch" children doing good things. A Code of Conduct includes rules, expectations, and consequences and can be developed by the staff and children working together to define boundaries and discipline procedures. Remember to share it with families, too.
If In Doubt, Seek Help
No one has all the answers, and every situation is different. Seeking help when dealing with difficult behaviors is not an indication of defeat or inadequacy. When you are unsure of the appropriate action or you are unable to deal with a particular misbehavior or situation, consult your supervisor.
Still have questions on how to handle a specific behavior? Get some quick tips on what to do from Discipline Help: You Can Handle Them All, a reference for handling 124 misbehaviors.
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It Takes a Bit of Work
These quality practices take a bit of time or money to implement:
Create a Parent Handbook
Create a parent handbook that details emergency procedures and reunification plans, should your program have to be evacuated. For all topics that should be covered
in your parent handbook, click here.
Be Prepared!
Implement regular fire and tornado drills and carefully follow your procedures. Document each drill you have for evidence of your attention to emergencies. Keep evacuation routes posted in each room to help children, visitors, and volunteers know the paths to safety. For tips on creating your emergency evacuation routes, click here.
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Research says...
This piece of research will help you explain the importance of quality to your stakeholders:
"Minimizing preventable risks to children and youth is a bedrock responsibility of our society. One of the most important breakthroughs in contemporary thinking about how to meet that responsibility is the recognition that an investment in after-school programs is an investment in an important safety measure for children." Hours That Count: Using After-School Programs to Prevent Risky Behaviors and Keep Kids Safe was put together by TASC and The Hamilton Fish Institute. Read this report for more information on best-practices in safety and tips on creating safe havens in afterschool, such as:
To function as safe havens, after-school programs must meet two basic standards: (1) Their practices must maximize safety; and (2) Students and their families must be satisfied enough with program services to use them consistently.
- Make sure the entire after-school community understands the program's rules and expectations. Try to involve older students in shaping the rules.
- Make it a priority to keep track of students' whereabouts and of who is in the building.
- Develop proactive strategies to keep the program free of bullying and teasing, which can often escalate to fighting and other violence. Programs that cannot protect children from these experiences risk losing them, with the result that the children may end up spending after-school time in unsupervised or less well supervised settings.
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For archived copies of Quality Counts!, click here.
Dallas AfterSchool Network is a 501(c)(3) organization comprised of more than 60 afterschool providers operating more than 300 afterschool sites and serving nearly 30,000 students in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall and Collin Counties.
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www.dasn.org
214-306-8400
2902 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204
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