FAQ

Our Services

• What do you do?

  We are Early Education Child Care professionals! We care for children and teach them! We are a play-based center, and we use scientifically backed curriculum proven to help young minds flourish and encourage creativity and exploration. We guide children through social occurrences (how to enter play, communicate with words in socially acceptable ways, ask for help, problem solve, etc.).

• What is High Quality?

  Find out what high quality is here! job.utah.gov/occ/parent/findquality.html.

• What forms of discipline do you use?

  Discipline Policy: Our center follows discipline guidelines from the Utah Department of Health. We know and understand that children can behave in ways that are less than perfect; it’s normal and expected! We also know that you cannot control what your child does while you are not here with them; we do not expect you to. As outlined in ‘Behavior Expectations and Positive Guidance’ from Child Care Licensing, all children grow and develop at their own rate, but they follow a general outline. 

  For all students we try to increase vocabulary by talk, talk, talking all day, every day. We use positive phrasing to encourage a socially appropriate response (feet on the floor, talk to them and use your words, soft hands, please, etc.) to encourage active play and co-operative sharing skills. We acknowledge all emotions, calling them by names to help the children learn, and help guide them through struggles to amenable results via compromise or new activities. When possible, we offer choices to students to help them feel some control of their world. For emotions so big they disrupt class, we remove the child from class to the office to allow them to calm down safely, then discuss these emotions and the situation, coming to an agreeable solution before returning to class. The human body needs around 30 minutes to calm; we accommodate as often as necessary.

• Do you offer before and after school care?

  We offer before and after school transportation to Liberty Elementary, Odyssey Elementary, Shadow Valley Elementary, and Good Foundations Academy.  Additionally, we offer transportation for PM Kindergarten at Good Foundations Academy.

  
  

• What training is required for staff / administration?

  Each new staff is required to complete Child Care Licensing's electronic preservice (includes Sections 7-24 of Rule 381-100 as well as several Additional Topics which include child sexual abuse training, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Shaken Baby Prevention, and several others).  After being hired, each staff is required to annually review each CCL section and additional topic.  Each staff is required to have current First Aid and CPR certification and Food Handlers.  

  Annually, each staff member is required to complete 20 hours of training of their choice.  Local conferences, training websites, and in-person meetings are some methods for training we use.

  We also train on ITERS, ECERS, SAPQA, Pyramid Model, and TOP Star, to name a few.  For more details, check out the Our Team page.

A Day in the Life

• Do they follow a schedule? Naps?

  Knowing what is coming up can help alleviate the stress of the unknown, especially for new students. Following best practices for each age group, we have a set schedule for each class that allows children to flourish. We have regularly scheduled mealtimes, rest periods, outdoor adventures, play and free choice as per Utah Child Care Licensing.

• How can I see the menu?

  Our menus are available to clients via our Parent Engagement app.  We use an eight-week summer cycle menu, and an eight-week winter cycle menu. We participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, or CACFP. We also participate in TOP Star, which is a Utah program that helps Teach Obesity Prevention in Child Care Settings; this program encourages more fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, less processed food, as well as increased gross motor and outdoor adventurous play.

• Do we have to bring anything?

  Bring your smiles! We provide food, blankets / sleep sacks for rest time, back packs to students 12 months and up for you to add a weather appropriate change of clothes to.  We do ask parents to provide diapers and wipes.  

• Do you play outside?

  Absolutely!  Every day, with the exception of extreme temperatures found on: https://www.c-uphd.org/documents/wellness/weatherwatch.pdf.

• Do you go on field trips?

  Our school age group does go on enrichment trips during summer and school breaks. Children potty trained and older go on a weekly outing to gymnastics and quarterly field trips.

Facility

• Do you have a plan in place for nature / manmade disasters?

  Emergency, Evacuation and Disaster Plan 

  Our center has an emergency and disaster plan, updated annually, which includes procedures for reporting emergencies and evacuation of the facility. This written plan is at the center and immediately accessible to all staff, substitutes, and volunteers. Evacuation plans are posted in prominent locations of each room or area of the center. The center holds monthly fire drills and quarterly disaster drills, all of which are documented. The center is inspected annually by the local fire authority and maintains fire extinguishers with a current tag. The Administrator, office manager, head teachers, and cooking staff are aware of locations and procedures to turn off all electrical, gas, and water services to the building. In case of an emergency, parents will be notified via Procare or by phone, and in some cases, required to come and pick up their children as soon as possible. Because of this, please assure that we are notified as soon as possible of any change of emergency contact information! Once our center is closed for any emergency, it will remain closed for the remainder of the day, regardless of the result of the emergency.

• How do you keep the facility clean?

  Each classroom has a daily closing checklist. We also have a regularly scheduled cleaning crew coming every two weeks to perform a deep clean. We periodically use our CURIS fogger, a machine that uses hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate our facility. For more information, go to our Safety and Security page!

• What is your illness policy for kids? What about staff?

  Illness and Medical Records State regulations require us to maintain health records of each child and for the child to have a physical examination form filled out by the parent prior to regular attendance.

  For the protection of all, we DO NOT AND CANNOT accept sick children. Staff members will also be excluded if they have a communicable or infectious disease or parasite. Your child should be kept at home if he/she shows any of the following symptoms: 

  * A fever over 100 degrees * Unexplained rashes * Persistent cough * Diarrhea &/or vomiting * Nasal discharge that is not a clear color * Eye / Ear Discharge 

  Your child will be evaluated each day upon entrance to the school. Parents should exercise every precaution and common sense in keeping their child home should other unusual symptoms occur. Progressive Preschool will inform parents in writing via a dated note in the lobby of any communicable illnesses or parasites that are discovered at the facility the same day the illness or parasite is discovered. Staff will ensure that the name of an ill child or staff person remains confidential. If a child becomes ill during the day, he/she will be placed in a quiet, isolated spot in the room and parents will be contacted with a request to take the child home. The condition of which a parent might be contacted is the same as those for which the child should not be brought to school (listed above). In instances where the child is contagious, before returning to school, you may need to provide a doctor’s note stating that they are no longer contagious, or the child has been on an antibiotic for longer than 24 hours. At home, if a child wakes up with a fever, you can administer a febrifuge (fever reducer) and your child can return to school the following day (after 24 hours). If your child is sent home because of a fever, you can administer a febrifuge and return to school two days later (approximately 36 hours later). Ex: if your child is sent home any time on Monday because of a fever, they can return at normal time on Wednesday, if symptoms have abated. 

  If you have more than one child in attendance and you are keeping one home for any of the above-listed symptoms, you must keep all your children home until the ill child is better or we receive a doctor’s note stating they are no longer contagious. If we need to send home one of your children for having one or more of these symptoms, all your children must also go home. Our rationale is one of safety and health concerns: your ill child has exposed your other children. For the sake of all other students and staff in attendance, please keep all your children home till they are all symptom free.

  Please be aware you will still be paying for the child’s slot in his or her absence.