Use this space to discuss The Essentials: Supporting Young Children with Disabilities in the Classroom by Pamela Brillante. Begin by posting to the "Introduce Yourself". To post comments, at the bottom of the paragraph "click on the word comments". A comment box will open, you see the comments others made and you can comment. Your name shows at the top of your comment when you "publish" so you receive credit for your post.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Public Policies and Advocacy
Given the current opiate crisis and stresses families
experience; what public policies need to be in place to meet the needs of all
children?How can you advocate for more
family friendly policies in your community, state, or country?
Sadly, this is a new one for me: My childcare center is housed amid a college campus where we service children of students, staff and faculty of the college. Recently, we have been faced with an issue that involves a parent picking up their child while smelling like marijuana. Several classroom teachers brought the issue to the attention of our Director who in turn had a conversation with the parent in question, with not much of a response. She also sought out the advise of the campus police Chief. He assured her that he will look into it, seeing that pot smoking is now legal, and get back to her. In the meantime, we as a staff, are concerned about the obligation on our part as mandated reporters to allow a child to leave with a parent who we suspect smells of pot! Our Director also sent out an email to all of our parents (as well as posting the email at school) informing them of our observation and concerns. My question to everyone here: Has your center encountered this issue? How has your center dealt with such an issue?
I have not encountered this on too many occasions. There was one time that my staff called me and asked me what to do cause mom smelled like marijuana, and I said confront her. The staff member was not comfortable so I made a phone call to the mom, and expressed my concerns that for the safety of her child and herself I needed to ask if she was under the influence of this drug. She of course said, no and my reply was that if she comes in smelling like that again, her son would not be released to her and would have to have someone else come pick him up. The parent never came in like that again, and is still to this day in my center.
This also is a new one for me as well. At one of the other schools I worked at we had a parent come in smelling of like he had been drinking. The teacher in the room spoke to the assistant director who then would not release the child to the father. She called the mother to come pick up the child and her husband. later that week she had a conversation with that child's father behind closed door but, with a janitor standing outside the door in case he was needed. About two years ago I had a dad pick up his child and a short time late get stopped with a open can of beer with the child inside the car. he went to the supermarket with the child and the store clerk was concerned about some interaction with him in the store and tried to stop him from leaving. he left they called police I guess he shopped there often and the police went to his home and arrested him. The family had been having issues and he spent the night in jail. His wife would not bail him out . The parent ended up getting a divorce the dad lost his job and mom had to go to work
Greetings Amy and Mary, This is an interesting discussion. It seems like you are both concerns about the policies that need to be in place to meet the needs of children that may have family members with substance abuse issues. Some of the indicators of an issue could include: " The parent smells of alcohol " The parent does not have a car seat for the child " The parent is barely awake, or is acting unpredictably You face two potential risks in these situations. If the child is injured in a car accident, you could be at risk of criminal prosecution. This is because you are mandated reporters of child neglect, and the child in these situations is at risk. Additionally, the parent could sue you for failing to take steps to keep the child safe.
To be proactive, the program should adopt a transportation policy that will help keep children safe. Ask for the names of people who can pick up the child in an emergency. Call a cab, Uber or Lift. Tell the parent to go home and get their car seat and then return. If the parent refuses to cooperate, call 911. Here's a sample transportation policy you can use.
Policy on Parents Transporting Their Children
Our first responsibility is to protect the health and safety of the children. When parents drop off and pick up their children, we want to make sure their children are transported safely. When a family member transports children under the influence of alcohol or drugs or fails to use an appropriate car seat, it creates an unsafe transportation situation for the children. If, in our opinion, a child cannot be safely transported to or from the program, we will ask the parent not to transport the child and will propose the alternatives listed below. (If the parent refuses to agree to one of the alternatives and insists on transporting the child, I will immediately call the police and report the unsafe driving situation.) 1) I will call someone to pick up the child from the following list of people who are authorized to do so. 2) We will call a cab, Uber, or Lift to pick up the child and the parent. The parent will pay the fare. 3) If the parent has failed to bring an appropriate car seat for the child, we will ask the parent to drive home without the child and return with an appropriate car seat installed in the car. Depending on time of pick-up, a late fee may be charged. 4) Other acceptable alternatives proposed by the parent: _______________________________
Realize that failure to give the child to the parent could expose you to a charge of kidnapping! Use your transportation policy to communicate with parents upon enrollment. If the situation arises, follow your policy. If the parent takes the child, don't hesitate to call 911 and report the license plate number. Taking these steps will help keep children safe. Do you or others have such a policy? Would the policy be helpful, why or why not?
I love this transportation policy! My parent handbook and personnel policies have developed over a period of may years. Often a new policy is stated as a result of an experience occurring such as this. To have a written policy on such a topic not only gives you and your staff a guideline, it creates another authority for your center. There is a big difference in saying “I don’t think your child would be safe driving home with you today” vs. according to our center’s transportation policy that you signed, I am not allowed to have you drive your child today. Let’ see what alternatives we can come up with. Would you like to call someone else. Yes I have a cover page that gets stapled to our parent handbook. It is them signed, dated and removed from the handbook and returned to the office. It is then placed in the child’s file. I have had the experience of a parent picking up that I suspected was under the influence of opiates.He was not driving and was with his mother who had permission to pick up. I filed a 51A. Not something you want to do without thought, but I need to sleep at night too.
I also am very concerned about the new marijuana laws and how it will influence safe driving. There are currently no guidelines for us to fall back on. I think it brings safety sharply in focus when put in the context of a young child traveling in a car operated by someone using any drug. I don’t know if naeyc could come up with a safety code for child transportation that maybe useful? I have been disappointed in their responsiveness in the past. Perhaps it is most effective to reach out to our Massachusetts legislators. I don’t think law enforcement really know how to handle this yet. Breathalyzers are ineffective, what science based data collection system will work? We are mandated reporters. Do we notify the police, the other family members, or use the 51a system?
I would have the same concerns myself. You raise good questions on safe driving. I fortunately do not have any form of transportation so I am Lucky in that one respect.
Hi Sue, We currently follow the strict policies that you outlined above as well as those set forth by EEC at my center. The parents are given a parent's handbook where all of our policies are outlined. If we become concerned about the parent's inability to care for the child, we would most certainly follow the procedures in our center's handbook and if necessary call campus police. I was curious if any other centers had recently encountered problems with parents and marijuana use and how they handled the situation.
What types of issues or concerns do your families express? How does the community support the needs and wishes of the families? Hope to discuss the ideas more tonight. See you later, Sue
I’ve had a similar experience at my old job. The child was my student and I was one of the closing staff. Mom had lost custody of the child due to substance abuse. Dad had full custody. At pick up time Dad showed up at the door, face sweaty, eyes glassy and red, and had a very strong odor of alcohol on him. So I took the child with me and went to the other classroom to get another staff to take a look at him as well just to make sure. The other staff member unfortunately didn’t see anything different. So the child went with Dad that night. The smell of alcohol lingered in my classroom where He was standing. This did not sit right with me. On my way home I called the social worker . Long story short Dad lost custody of the child and they had found a good foster home . The very next day a report was placed to the DCF on the Dad by one of his neighbors stating that they had found the child walking the neighborhood alone a day ago. I was so glad I went with my instincts that night and considered myself blessed to have a support system of professionals that I can count on to do the right thing in a given situation.
I have had some experience with this issue and it is one i find difficult. I had a previous family that both mom and dad had substance abuse issues in the past and had worked through them (or so we thought) and were now back together as a family unit. mom and dad were on a regime of suboxone to manage there substance issues. this along with some mental health issues made working with this family a challenge. The first year the family seemed to be doing well and making progress with bettering themselves and their situation. The second year it became apparent that they were beginning to fail. as a teacher in the classroom it was difficult to navigate this as i did see changes in the child ( with stories ect) and the mom. Mom at first was in a state of despair as she in retrospect new that Dad was abusing the superscribed drug(suboxone). Mom did not confined in me but spoke in crypt many times as if to let me know but was worried what my role was and what could happen if she did. Not long after Mom took the path of Dad. This is where the frustrating part for me was I told the powers that be and since the meds were prescribed it was not such a urgent response. I did my best to not make judgement and let the mom know we were on her side and willing to help. Mom and Dad made some gestures to change and get help. This all happened towards the end of the year about this time of year and the last interaction i had with the family i was hopeful but later learned that it was only temporary. So as you can see my take on the system is one that has very mixed views. 1 i think as a society we need to do a better job at supporting the family and making children a priority. 2 the stigma of drug abuse as hard as it is not to be judgmental especially where children are involved is counter productive and we need to be able to put those feelings aside and not condemned the person. ( as everything i have read on this subject is they do a pretty good job of that themselves and that is probably how they got to that place. pretty sure no one sets out to grow up to be a drug addict) 3 the way we handle people with drug issues needs to be changed. giving a person another drug to get them off a drug doesn't seem like that's helping. I'm not sure what the answer is but i have a hard time understanding the protocol of replacing one for another. 4 i feel the drug manufacturer and the medical community have a lot to blame for over prescribing and not being forthcoming on how addicting these drugs were. Unfortunately i fear this epidemic is going to be around for awhile and we wont no the repercussion for quite a few years :(
Hi Veronica, Thanks for sharing your story. It makes me sad to hear about the suffering of the family and those supporting them experience. They were fortunate to have your support and compassion. Your second point about the stigma makes it difficult for some to show compassion.
I strongly agree with your first point that we, as a society, need to do a better job at supporting the family and making children a priority. What might you or others suggest in terms of public policy? How do we make children a priority? Is there a link between families with drug issues and children with special needs? It seems like our discussion leads to more questions than answers which is good!
Sadly, this is a new one for me:
ReplyDeleteMy childcare center is housed amid a college campus where we service children of students, staff and faculty of the college.
Recently, we have been faced with an issue that involves a parent picking up their child while smelling like marijuana. Several classroom teachers brought the issue to the attention of our Director who in turn had a conversation with the parent in question, with not much of a response. She also sought out the advise of the campus police Chief. He assured her that he will look into it, seeing that pot smoking is now legal, and get back to her. In the meantime, we as a staff, are concerned about the obligation on our part as mandated reporters to allow a child to leave with a parent who we suspect smells of pot! Our Director also sent out an email to all of our parents (as well as posting the email at school) informing them of our observation and concerns.
My question to everyone here:
Has your center encountered this issue?
How has your center dealt with such an issue?
I have not encountered this on too many occasions. There was one time that my staff called me and asked me what to do cause mom smelled like marijuana, and I said confront her. The staff member was not comfortable so I made a phone call to the mom, and expressed my concerns that for the safety of her child and herself I needed to ask if she was under the influence of this drug. She of course said, no and my reply was that if she comes in smelling like that again, her son would not be released to her and would have to have someone else come pick him up. The parent never came in like that again, and is still to this day in my center.
DeleteThis also is a new one for me as well. At one of the other schools I worked at we had a parent come in smelling of like he had been drinking. The teacher in the room spoke to the assistant director who then would not release the child to the father. She called the mother to come pick up the child and her husband. later that week she had a conversation with that child's father behind closed door but, with a janitor standing outside the door in case he was needed. About two years ago I had a dad pick up his child and a short time late get stopped with a open can of beer with the child inside the car. he went to the supermarket with the child and the store clerk was concerned about some interaction with him in the store and tried to stop him from leaving. he left they called police I guess he shopped there often and the police went to his home and arrested him. The family had been having issues and he spent the night in jail. His wife would not bail him out . The parent ended up getting a divorce the dad lost his job and mom had to go to work
ReplyDeleteGreetings Amy and Mary,
DeleteThis is an interesting discussion. It seems like you are both concerns about the policies that need to be in place to meet the needs of children that may have family members with substance abuse issues. Some of the indicators of an issue could include:
" The parent smells of alcohol
" The parent does not have a car seat for the child
" The parent is barely awake, or is acting unpredictably
You face two potential risks in these situations. If the child is injured in a car accident, you could be at risk of criminal prosecution. This is because you are mandated reporters of child neglect, and the child in these situations is at risk. Additionally, the parent could sue you for failing to take steps to keep the child safe.
To be proactive, the program should adopt a transportation policy that will help keep children safe. Ask for the names of people who can pick up the child in an emergency. Call a cab, Uber or Lift. Tell the parent to go home and get their car seat and then return. If the parent refuses to cooperate, call 911. Here's a sample transportation policy you can use.
Policy on Parents Transporting Their Children
Our first responsibility is to protect the health and safety of the children. When parents drop off and pick up their children, we want to make sure their children are transported safely. When a family member transports children under the influence of alcohol or drugs or fails to use an appropriate car seat, it creates an unsafe transportation situation for the children. If, in our opinion, a child cannot be safely transported to or from the program, we will ask the parent not to transport the child and will propose the alternatives listed below. (If the parent refuses to agree to one of the alternatives and insists on transporting the child, I will immediately call the police and report the unsafe driving situation.)
1) I will call someone to pick up the child from the following list of people who are authorized to do so.
2) We will call a cab, Uber, or Lift to pick up the child and the parent. The parent will pay the fare.
3) If the parent has failed to bring an appropriate car seat for the child, we will ask the parent to drive home without the child and return with an appropriate car seat installed in the car. Depending on time of pick-up, a late fee may be charged.
4) Other acceptable alternatives proposed by the parent: _______________________________
Realize that failure to give the child to the parent could expose you to a charge of kidnapping! Use your transportation policy to communicate with parents upon enrollment. If the situation arises, follow your policy. If the parent takes the child, don't hesitate to call 911 and report the license plate number.
Taking these steps will help keep children safe. Do you or others have such a policy? Would the policy be helpful, why or why not?
Sue
I love this transportation policy! My parent handbook and personnel policies have developed over a period of may years. Often a new policy is stated as a result of an experience occurring such as this. To have a written policy on such a topic not only gives you and your staff a guideline, it creates another authority for your center. There is a big difference in saying “I don’t think your child would be safe driving home with you today” vs. according to our center’s transportation policy that you signed, I am not allowed to have you drive your child today. Let’ see what alternatives we can come up with. Would you like to call someone else. Yes I have a cover page that gets stapled to our parent handbook. It is them signed, dated and removed from the handbook and returned to the office. It is then placed in the child’s file. I have had the experience of a parent picking up that I suspected was under the influence of opiates.He was not driving and was with his mother who had permission to pick up. I filed a 51A. Not something you want to do without thought, but I need to sleep at night too.
DeleteI also am very concerned about the new marijuana laws and how it will influence safe driving. There are currently no guidelines for us to fall back on. I think it brings safety sharply in focus when put in the context of a young child traveling in a car operated by someone using any drug. I don’t know if naeyc could come up with a safety code for child transportation that maybe useful? I have been disappointed in their responsiveness in the past. Perhaps it is most effective to reach out to our Massachusetts legislators. I don’t think law enforcement really know how to handle this yet. Breathalyzers are ineffective, what science based data collection system will work? We are mandated reporters. Do we notify the police, the other family members, or use the 51a system?
DeleteHope we discuss your questions further tonight. You bring up many critical issues. See you later, Sue
DeleteI would have the same concerns myself. You raise good questions on safe driving. I fortunately do not have any form of transportation so I am Lucky in that one respect.
DeleteHi Sue,
ReplyDeleteWe currently follow the strict policies that you outlined above as well as those set forth by EEC at my center. The parents are given a parent's handbook where all of our policies are outlined. If we become concerned about the parent's inability to care for the child, we would most certainly follow the procedures in our center's handbook and if necessary call campus police. I was curious if any other centers had recently encountered problems with parents and marijuana use and how they handled the situation.
What types of issues or concerns do your families express? How does the community support the needs and wishes of the families? Hope to discuss the ideas more tonight. See you later, Sue
DeleteI’ve had a similar experience at my old job. The child was my student and I was one of the closing staff. Mom had lost custody of the child due to substance abuse. Dad had full custody. At pick up time Dad showed up at the door, face sweaty, eyes glassy and red, and had a very strong odor of alcohol on him. So I took the child with me and went to the other classroom to get another staff to take a look at him as well just to make sure. The other staff member unfortunately didn’t see anything different. So the child went with Dad that night. The smell of alcohol lingered in my classroom where He was standing. This did not sit right with me. On my way home I called the social worker . Long story short Dad lost custody of the child and they had found a good foster home . The very next day a report was placed to the DCF on the Dad by one of his neighbors stating that they had found the child walking the neighborhood alone a day ago. I was so glad I went with my instincts that night and considered myself blessed to have a support system of professionals that I can count on to do the right thing in a given situation.
ReplyDeleteJeeva, Thanks for sharing. It is often helpful and skillful to trust our "guts" or intuition.
DeleteI have had some experience with this issue and it is one i find difficult. I had a previous family that both mom and dad had substance abuse issues in the past and had worked through them (or so we thought) and were now back together as a family unit. mom and dad were on a regime of suboxone to manage there substance issues. this along with some mental health issues made working with this family a challenge. The first year the family seemed to be doing well and making progress with bettering themselves and their situation. The second year it became apparent that they were beginning to fail. as a teacher in the classroom it was difficult to navigate this as i did see changes in the child ( with stories ect) and the mom. Mom at first was in a state of despair as she in retrospect new that Dad was abusing the superscribed drug(suboxone). Mom did not confined in me but spoke in crypt many times as if to let me know but was worried what my role was and what could happen if she did. Not long after Mom took the path of Dad. This is where the frustrating part for me was I told the powers that be and since the meds were prescribed it was not such a urgent response. I did my best to not make judgement and let the mom know we were on her side and willing to help. Mom and Dad made some gestures to change and get help. This all happened towards the end of the year about this time of year and the last interaction i had with the family i was hopeful but later learned that it was only temporary. So as you can see my take on the system is one that has very mixed views. 1 i think as a society we need to do a better job at supporting the family and making children a priority. 2 the stigma of drug abuse as hard as it is not to be judgmental especially where children are involved is counter productive and we need to be able to put those feelings aside and not condemned the person. ( as everything i have read on this subject is they do a pretty good job of that themselves and that is probably how they got to that place. pretty sure no one sets out to grow up to be a drug addict) 3 the way we handle people with drug issues needs to be changed. giving a person another drug to get them off a drug doesn't seem like that's helping. I'm not sure what the answer is but i have a hard time understanding the protocol of replacing one for another. 4 i feel the drug manufacturer and the medical community have a lot to blame for over prescribing and not being forthcoming on how addicting these drugs were.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately i fear this epidemic is going to be around for awhile and we wont no the repercussion for quite a few years :(
Hi Veronica,
DeleteThanks for sharing your story. It makes me sad to hear about the suffering of the family and those supporting them experience. They were fortunate to have your support and compassion. Your second point about the stigma makes it difficult for some to show compassion.
I strongly agree with your first point that we, as a society, need to do a better job at supporting the family and making children a priority. What might you or others suggest in terms of public policy? How do we make children a priority? Is there a link between families with drug issues and children with special needs? It seems like our discussion leads to more questions than answers which is good!