5 child safety policies to make your congregation safer (Part 1)

When it comes to keeping your congregation’s children and youth safe, the best place to start is by creating a formal policy to guide your programs and adult interaction. By establishing guidelines, expectations, and parameters for administrators and volunteers—as well as the parents entrusting children to your care—your congregation is communicating that protecting the safety of children is a priority, and also helping to ensure a secure environment for children’s activities. A formal, published policy demonstrates your commitment to complying with legal requirements and, subsequently, fosters trust among congregants and the families that participate in your children’s and youth ministry programs. 

In the first of this two-part series, we provide you with five safety policies that churches should consider when developing child protection policies and procedures. While every congregation is unique, and your children’s protection policy should reflect the needs of your congregants and their children, these five policies provide a solid foundation for moving forward. 

1. Screening and Training for Children and Youth Workers
   Screening and training prior to placing staff or volunteers in positions where they interact with children is vital, and this policy should clearly address requirements that need to be met.
   
   • Outline the application process that all adults must follow in order to work with children and youth. 
   • Clearly indicate who is not eligible to work with children and youth, for instance individuals with a history of abuse. 
   • Outline the screening process to be followed and the individuals subject to screening, such as background checks, to help ensure they have a safe and appropriate history.
   • Establish the training that an adult must complete in order to work with children or youth, for instance mandated reporter training, as well as who will provide the training and any annual requirements that must be met. 
   • Include other requirements, such as minimum age, minimum age gap for the group with which they are working, or minimum regular attendance. 

To learn more about how effective screening processes promote safety and protect your congregation, read this article from our blog. 

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2. Supervision of Children and Youth

An effective policy should specifically address the responsibilities of adults caring for, and interacting with, children in your congregation. Areas to include: 

• Who is responsible for ensuring that adults who has not been successfully screened and approved do not have unsupervised access to children and youth.
• Child supervision guidance, such as the two childcare worker rule that requires two adult childcare workers to be present when supervising one or more children during any church-sponsored program, event, or ministry involving children.
• Responsibilities that pertain to observing the environment and equipment for unsafe situations.
• Procedures and protocols for removing children from potentially dangerous conditions.
• How to report problems, such as abuse or suspected abuse, and who to report them to.
• Any local or state requirements and the governing body, as well as the phone number to contact and the directions provided by state officials.

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3. Children’s Rooms and Facilities

Rooms and facilities where children’s activities and events take place, whether dedicated full-time or on an as-needed basis, should have clear policies that address who is permitted in these areas and when. 

• Provide occupancy and staffing standards for rooms where children’s activities are taking place, and what to do when occupancy exceeds appropriate numbers or staffing levels are not being met.

• Outline who can have access, typically only children and screened childcare workers.
• Address exceptions, such as when a child wants a parent/guardian to walk them to the area, and when an escort is required for non-screened childcare workers.
• Identify the location where parents/guardians may drop-off and pick-up children, and the process for doing, including sign-in and sign-out procedures.

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4. Discipline and Behavior Expectations

Establishing clear rules, expectations, and consistent messages about behavior are key to effective discipline procedures. 

• Set the tone for childcare workers and the environment your congregation wants to foster, for instance, childcare workers will be loving, firm and consistent with instructions; teach, encourage, and monitor the children but not to take active steps of discipline
• Guide workers on the acceptable approaches to disciple, such as: Verbal correction will be used in a loving manner when necessary.
• Address how childcare workers should handle situations in which a child becomes physically aggressive toward an adult, other children, or themselves, and the procedures and processes to follow. 

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5. What to Do in Unplanned Situations

While the goal of your child protection policy is to promote and ensure the safety of your congregation’s children, there will inevitably be unexpected situations that don’t neatly fit into the guidelines. On the rare occasion that this occurs, childcare workers must know what to do: 

• Provide the procedures to follow to ensure that the children remain supervised and out of harm’s way. 
• Indicate who should be notified and how, including church staff and/or leadership. 
• Outline the written documentation that must be completed to maintain records of who was involved, at what time, and the activity and circumstances, and how that documentation should be processed. 

These five policy areas can help congregations safeguard children and youth while ensuring that workers understand their roles and responsibilities, and parents’ expectations are aligned with your programs. 

In part two of our series, we will look at five additional child safety policies to make your congregation safer. 

Explore how Servant Keeper can help support your child safety policies with secure and fast child check-in and check-out services, room tracking to manage child-to-adult ratios, the ability to conduct background checks, and more. Visit us here.

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