PAO-27: Child Guidance, Restraint and Isolation Policy

Purpose:

To ensure safe, respectful, and supportive environments for children in B-5 ECEAP programs, contractors must ensure that providers adopt and follow a comprehensive child guidance policy. This policy must prioritize positive guidance, supervision, and establish clear limits on the use of restraint and isolation.

Policy Guidelines:

1. Written Child Guidance Policy Requirements: Contractors must ensure that all B-5 ECEAP providers have a written child guidance policy that includes the following components:

(a) Positive Guidance Approach: Providers must implement techniques that promote positive behavior, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution in a developmentally appropriate manner.

(b) Supervision: Continuous and appropriate supervision must be provided to ensure the safety and well-being of all children in the program.

(c) Restraint Policies: Policies must clearly define when and how restraint can be used, prioritizing child safety and well-being, while minimizing the need for physical intervention.

2. Prohibited Practices: The child guidance policy must explicitly prohibit any person on the premises from engaging in the following actions:

(a) Corporal Punishment: The use of physical punishment or any means of inflicting physical pain or causing bodily harm to a child is strictly prohibited.

(b) Aggressive Physical Handling: Holding, grabbing, or moving a child in an aggressive or forceful manner to compel compliance is not allowed.

(c) Verbal Abuse: Verbal behaviors such as yelling, shouting, name-calling, shaming, derogatory remarks about the child or their family, and language intended to humiliate, threaten, or frighten a child are strictly forbidden. 

(d) Using or Withholding Food or Liquids: The use of food or liquids as a form of punishment or reward is not allowed.

3. Prohibition of Harmful Restraint and Isolation: The policy must prohibit the use of any physical restraint method that could injure the child, as well as the use of any closed or locked time-out room.

This policy ensures that B-5 ECEAP programs promote positive, non-harmful approaches to child guidance while strictly prohibiting punitive, aggressive, or harmful practices.