Registration Procedure

A registration form will need to be completed and returned to South Wake’s management along with the registration fee.  Upon receipt of the registration form, your family’s name will be placed on a waiting list.  We cannot guarantee that a space will be available for your child on the day you desire.  Enrollment is based upon availability and may be subject to priority enrollment rules of South Wake Preschool and Academy when a space becomes available, management will invite you to visit the facility with your child to discuss the enrollment process.  The visit will give your child an opportunity to spend time in his or her homebase and to be introduced to the children and faculty.  During the visit, you will have an opportunity to observe your child and to meet with South Wake’s management to schedule a start date and review the enrollment procedure.

Enrollment Procedure

In order to ensure appropriate staffing levels at all times of the day, you will need to provide the specific hours of care needed for your child.  Prior to your child’s start date, please feel free to schedule as many visits as necessary to help familiarize you and your child with South Wake.  This is an excellent way to help your child feel comfortable in his/her homebase.

During the enrollment process, you must complete forms regarding your child’s health and development.  These forms include family information, a medical authorization and consent form, and developmental history.  An updated physical and immunization record is required for your child prior to enrollment.  You are also expected to read and sign an enrollment agreement that outlines the program’s policies.  This will ensure that you are familiar with all of our operating procedures.

Schedule Changes

In order to provider appropriate supervision for children and to appropriately schedule faculty, families are asked to follow the schedule they set for their child.  Schedule changes should be made at least one month in advance, in writing, addressed to management.  If you have an emergency and need to alter your schedule, do not hesitate to contact management.

Drop-off and Pick-up

To ensure that each child is safe and supervised at all times and to foster daily communication between families, and faculty, a parent or authorized guardian must accompany each child into the homebase and ensure that the child is under supervision before leaving the premises.  Parents/guardians are responsible for checking their child in and out each day.  As a second step teacher utilize an additional checks-and-balances system throughout the day by doing head counts and signing children in and out when they enter, leave, and return to the homebase.  Families must re-enter the center when picking up children and checking out.  Families are responsible for their children once they are checked out.

Children will be released only to a parent or legal guardian or to persons whose names are listed o the child Release Form.  Families should advise management in advance, in writing, if an alternate or a person not listed on the original form is to pick up their child.  For the safety of each child, photographic identification will be requested of all authorized persons picking up children. 

South Wake Preschool and Academy cannot legally deny access to a parent or guardian unless there is an active restraint in order on file or a specific schedule of court-ordered visitation rights that prohibits this.  If the situation is unclear, we request that the family go back to the court to resolve their differences.  South Wake will act in a way that ensures the safety of all children and faculty. Families or other authorized persons are responsible for transporting their child to and from South Wake in an appropriate child restraint system.  If someone other than yourself will be picking your child up please make sure you leave your child’s car seat or that the individual has an appropriate car seat for your child.

Program Placement

Children are in programs based upon a combination of their developmental and chronological age.  State regulations classify the specific age range of the children that may be enrolled in each program.

Absence

Please call the Academy if your child is going to be absent or arrive after 9:00 a.m.  If we do not hear from you, we will be concerned about your child.  If management know so that other families can be alerted to look for symptoms in their children.

Non-discrimination/Confidentiality

Applications for enrollment are acted upon without regard to race, color, creed, cultural heritage, sex, religion, martial status, age, national origin or ancestry, political beliefs, disability or special needs, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local news.  All such discrimination is unlawful.

It is South Wake’s policy that any information regarding a child, a child’s family, or other matters discussed with management or faculty will be held in the strictest confidence. 

Children’s Record
Confidentiality and Distribution of Records

The information in your child’s record is considered privileged and confidential. No one who is not directly related to the care of your child, or with management or the state licensing agency, will have access to the record without your written permission. As a parent/guardian, you may have access to your child’s record within two days of a request to view the record. Upon withdrawal of your child from the Academy files will be retained for seven years. A small fee may be charged, if necessary, to retrieve your child’s file from off-site storage.

As a parent/guardian, you have the right to add information, comments, data or other relevant material to your child’s record. You also have the right to request, in writing, deletion or amendment of any information contained in the record. When your child leaves the academy, management will transfer a copy of your child’s record to you, or to any other person designed upon receipt of a written request from you.

State Regulatory Agency

A state regulatory agency may review your child’s record in order to ensure the academy has followed its requirements in maintaining the necessary information. All information in the record is kept confidential.

Babysitting by the Academy Faculty

In an effort to maintain the professional status of South Wake Preschool & Academy faculty and prevent any potential conflict of interest, babysitting by faculty is strongly discouraged. However, should faculty members baby-sit, services must be outside South Wake’s premises and with the understanding that such arrangements and payment for services is solely between the faculty member and the child’s family. The arrangements are not sanctioned by the academy. 

Infant Feeding Guidelines: Bottle and Food

In order to maintain consistency from home to the Academy, and to meet the individual needs of children, babies will eat according to their own schedule. For infants, the parents will need to supply fresh formula and baby food. Please bring them to the Academy daily. Your child’s bottle should be plastic and capped and all bottles and caps should be clearly labeled with your child’s full name. All bottles will be sent home at the end of the day. For older infants and toddlers, the Academy will supply al snacks (e.g., crackers, fruit, teething biscuit, etc.).

Breast-feeding

A meaningful benefit of having child care near or at the work site is the opportunity for a new mother to breast-feed throughout the day. If you are a nursing mother, we will be more than happy to make arrangements for you to visit your infant any time. If the Academy is not convenient to our workplace for nursing visits, please feel free to supply us with expressed milk to feed your baby.

Meals and Snacks

At South Wake Preschool & Academy we know that meals and snacks are critical to a child’s health and development. They are also an important part of the Academy’s curriculum. When meals are provided by South Wake, they are carefully planned to provide children with the necessary nutritional content. Every effort is made to ensure that mealtime is enjoyable for children.

Each morning and afternoon, children are provided with a healthy snack. You should provide infant formula and food until your child is old enough to eat table food. If your child has special dietary needs or food allergies, please work with management to find suitable accommodations.

Rest

Following lunch, toddlers and older children will have an afternoon rest period of at least 45 minutes or as required by the licensing agency. However, if your child does not wish to nap, the teacher will provide alternative quiet activities.

Clothing/ Items Needed

Each child must have a complete change of clothing labeled with his or her name. Clothing will be kept in each child’s cubby and used as needed. The Academy is not responsible for lost or damaged clothing.  Other items important for each child may include:

• a favorite nap-time blanket or pillow small enough to fit in a cubby
• diapers (if the child is not toilet- trained)
• pacifiers
• a special toy or stuffed animal small enough to fit in a cubby
• a paint smock or large adult shirt to cover clothing
• a sheet to cover the child’s nap mat or cot

We will take all precautionary methods to ensure that all children’s belongings are well cared for; however, the Academy is not responsible for loss or damage to those belongings. All clothing and other belongings must be labeled with the child’s full name.

You will need to complete the Authorization for Administration of Medication form for all types of medication to be administered. A designated faculty member shall administer medication. Each time medicine is given, it must be recorded on the Authorization for Administration of Medication form. This formed will be filed n the child’s records when completed. All unused medicine will be returned to the parent/guardian.

Prescription Medication

Prescription medications require a note signed by the parent/guardian and a written order from the child’s’ physician (label on the medication is OK). The medication must have a current pharmacist’s label that includes your child’s name, dosage, current date, times to be administered, and the name and number of the physician.

All medication must be in the original container. (Many pharmacists will fill your prescription in two bottles so that one can be left at the Academy). You will need to complete the Authorization for Administration of Medication form specifying the dosage and time(s) to be administered for each medication. A medication spoon (for liquid) should be provided and have the child’s name written on it. A new note is necessary each time a medication is prescribed.

Non –Prescription Medication (e.g., Tylenol)

Non – Prescription medications require a note signed by the parent/guardian (not to exceed a three day period) on the day that the medication is to be given, specifying dose, time, and reason for administration. If the medication is not recommended for the age of the child and or you are requesting that we administer a higher dosage than what is recommended, we will need a written order from the child’s physician.

Non- Prescription Topical Ointments

  Non-Prescription topical ointments require a note signed by the parent/guardian specifying times and dosage to be administered. Duration of administration is not to exceed 1 year for sunscreen and insect repellants. Duration of administration is not to exceed 90 days for all Non-Prescription topical ointments such as diaper cream

Child Illness Policy

Children should be excluded from the child care setting for the following reasons:

• Illness that prevents the child from participating comfortably in program activities  
• Illness that results in a greater need for care than our faculty can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children
• Fever over 100 accompanied by other symptoms, i.e., lethargy, irritability, constant crying, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, vomiting 
• Diarrhea – stools with blood or mucus, and or uncontrolled, unformed stools that cannot be contained in a diaper/underwear or toilet
• Vomiting – green or bloody, and/or 2 or more times during the previous 24 hours
• Mouth sores associated with drooling
• Rash with fever or behavioral changes, unless a physician has determined it is not a communicable disease
• Purulent Conjunctivitis (defined as pink or red conjunctiva with white or yellow eye discharge) until on antibiotics for 24 hours
• Impetigo until 24 hours after treatment
• Strep throat until 24 hours after treatment
• Head lice until after treatment and all nits are removed
• Scabies until after 24 hours after treatment has begun
• Chickenpox, until all lesions have dried and crusted (usually 6 days)
• Whooping cough (Pertussis) until 5 days of antibiotics
• Hepatitis A Virus until 1 week after onset of illness, after immune globulin has been administered

We ask for your child’s comfort and to reduce the risk of contagion, children be picked up within 1 ½ hours of notification. Children need to remain home for 24 hours without symptoms before returning to the program. In the case of a (suspected) contagious disease or continuing symptoms, a doctor’s note may be required before returning.

Process of Disenrolling a Child

It is only on rare occasions that a child’s behavior may warrant the need to find a more suitable setting for care. Examples of such instances include:

• A child appears to be danger to him/herself and other children, employees or anyone else at the Academy.
• Medical, psychological, or social service personnel working with the Academy determine that continued care at the Academy could be harmful to, or not in the best interest of the child.

At any point that a child’s behavior/circumstance is of concern to a teacher or administrator, written documentation and family/teacher communication will begin as the first steps to understanding the problem.

Process of Disenrolling a family

Because our programs are based on developing partnerships and supporting families, it is only on rare occasions that a parent/guardians’ actions/requests may warrant the need to find a more suitable setting for themselves and their child. Some examples of such instances include:

• The parent/guardian fails to abide by the Academy’s policies or those requirements imposed by the appropriate licensing agency.
• A parent /guardian demands special services which are not provided to their children and which cannot reasonably be delivered by the program.
• A parent/guardian is physically or verbally abusive to the faculty, children, or anyone else at the Academy.

Family Behavior

If the Academy has reasonable cause to suspect that any person picking a child up is under the influence, or is physically or emotionally impaired in any way and may endanger your child, we may refuse to release the child. If so, we will request that another adult (parent/guardian or someone listed on the Child Release Form) pick up the child or call the police to prevent potential harm to your child. This will be done for the protection of your child.

Tuition/Fees

Tuition is due in advance with no deductions for any absences or holidays. If the tuition is not paid on the day that it is due, a late fee of $5 will be added to the tuition for each day that it is late. When a payment is delinquent for one week, the space can no longer be reserved, and the child cannot attend the Academy until the balance is current.

A $25 fee will be charged for a check returned for insufficient funds. If this occurs, South Wake Preschool &Academy will have the option to refuse any future checks.

Late Fees

It is important that children be picked up at their scheduled time of departure. A late fee will be charged (where applicable) if a child is picked up after the center’s closing time.