Health Guidelines

The following guidelines have been developed with our consulting physician and comply with DC and Maryland licensing requirements. It is our goal to curtail illness and promote healthy environments in our centers.

The following require a child to leave the center:

• A fever of 100.4 or more
• Persistent crying
• Breathing difficulty
• Diarrhea more that twice
• Mucus or pus draining from eyes
• Vomiting
• Persistent wheezing or coughing
• Lethargy that interferes with regular classroom activities

Children who become ill while at the center will be removed from the classroom activities to rest until a parent or designee arrives. When notified, it is expected that parents/guardians will promptly come to pick up the child. If the parents/guardians can not be reached, we will contact the emergency contacts listed on the emergency card.

• Children must remain at home for 24 hours after a fever has broken.
• Children must remain at home for 24 hours after vomiting has ended, unless clearance has been given by a health care provider.

These communicable illnesses require a child to leave the center and stay at home until the illness is no longer contagious:

• Strep throat
• Chicken pox
• Viral diseases (including colds)
• Flu
• Conjunctivitis (pink eye)
• Pinworms
• Head lice

Written clearance from a health care provider indicating that the child is no longer contagious is required prior to the child’s return to the classroom.

All absences should be communicated to the center by 8:00 am. Please notify us if the illness is contagious, so we can alert families to be extra aware of signs of illness. We welcome children back to the center when they are ready to join us in all our activities, including outdoor play. If children are too ill to participate in outdoor play, they should remain at home.

Medication
Medication (including over the counter drugs) will not be administered without a completed and signed Wonders Medication Order Form. If a form is not available, the health care provider may use stationary or a prescription pad to make the request which must include the following: name and dosage of the medication, duration and specific instructions for administration, possible side effects, and provider’s signature.

Medication must be provided to the classroom teacher or program director in the original container in which the medicine was dispensed, including pharmacy label. Never place medicine in a lunch box or back pack.

Over the counter drugs ordered by the health care provider must be marked with the child’s name.

Emergencies
In the event of an extreme medical emergency, requiring immediate treatment, the following procedures will be followed:

• Families will be notified and concurrently, the staff will contact emergency personnel.
• The responding emergency team will determine whether hospitalization is necessary.
• If a hospital visit is required, the child will be transported to the closest hospital by ambulance and will be accompanied by a staff member.
• If injury occurs while the class is participating in an off campus field trip, the injured child will be transported to the closest hospital with a staff member.
• In the event the injury does not require an ambulance, but does require a hospital visit, you will be contacted and may elect to have the Program Director or other staff member transport your child to the hospital where you can join them.
• In the event the parents are not available, Wonders will notify the emergency contacts listed on the emergency cards.

Clothing
Children should wear sneakers or rubber soled shoes to prevent injury during outdoor play. Please remove any cords or strings from jackets, which may become entangled in playground equipment.

Please do not dress your child in personalized clothing or other identifying accessories to prevent identification by strangers.

Please dress your child in weather-appropriate clothing at all times. We go outside in a variety of weather conditions.

Children in our early childhood programs must have a change of weather-appropriate clothing stored in the classroom. Please be sure to label each item with your child’s name and include two pairs of underwear, socks, shirts, and long or short pants.

Nutrition
We provide snack and a catered lunch at all early childhood centers. The snacks offered at JAS are Kosher. We follow state guidelines for the foods we serve. We intentionally offer familiar as well as unfamiliar foods to children to encourage wide ranging, healthy eating habits.

Our staff create a relaxed environment for eating – teachers sit with the children, engage in conversation, promote self-help skills, model respectful interactions and encourage community.

We let children eat as little or as much of the food that is presented to them. We do not force children to eat certain foods nor certain amounts of food. Some days children will eat a lot, on other days, not so much. This is to be expected during their development.

Lunches must be brought from home by children enrolled school-age programs on full days. We encourage you to provide balanced and healthful food items for lunch. Please do not send more than one sweet snack. We do not permit candy, gum or soda in lunches - these will be sent home with your child.

We work with families to be responsive to food allergies. If your child has a food allergy, please notify your Program Director. Edgemoor Children’s Center is a peanut free center due the infant and toddler program.

Weather Guidelines
Outdoor play is essential to children’s health and well being. Children need to run, climb, jump and play outdoors. The time children spend outdoors each day is just as important to their learning as the time they spend in their classrooms. For teachers, the outdoors offers many ways to enrich the curriculum and support children’s learning and development.

It is our goal to take children outside each day, with the exception of rainy days. We utilize weather guidelines to ensure that we have limited outdoor play during extreme weather. Flexibility in the schedule also allows us to extend our outdoor play on fair weather days.

The following guidelines have been established for healthy outdoor play:

- Cold Weather:

Temperature/wind chills between:	Oudoor Policy:
15 degrees Fahrenheit or below	No outdoor play time
15-30 degrees Fahrenheit	15 to 20 minutes maximum
30 degrees Fahrenheit and above	Regularly scheduled outdoor play times are followed

We ask that children have winter coats, scarves, hats and gloves each day during the winter season. We will put snow clothes on children when snow is on the ground. Therefore, we request that all children have snow clothes (snow pants, boots, etc.) with them as the weather dictates.

- Hot Weather
Temperatures/Heat Index 96 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and/or Code Red Air Quality:

Outdoor activities will be limited to 15 minutes at a time. The total amount of outdoor time for the day will not exceed one hour.

Outdoor field trips or field trips requiring an un-air-conditioned bus ride of more than 45 minutes one way will be substituted with an indoor trip with a shorter bus ride. Swimming outdoors must be limited to one hour.

Medication, that has been provided by the parents of children who have asthma or other diagnosed respiratory illnesses, will be taken on trips.

Cold water will be available.

Reporting suspected cases of child abuse and/or neglect:
All child care providers are required by law to report any suspected cases of physical, mental or sexual abuse and neglect to the Office of Child Protective Services. Once a report is made, staff members are expected to cooperate with any investigation undertaken by Child Protective Services or the police.