Archives: Lessons

Now, we will discuss the eight Family Engagement Strategies, outlined below:

Course Objectives:

There are many things that you can do to reduce the risk of child abuse or neglect from occurring in your early care and education program. Click the arrows in the boxes below to see more information about how you can help to minimize child abuse and neglect.

Bend over Backwards to Minimize the Risk of Child Abuse and Neglect – refer to page 24 of your Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse participant handout.

We Deserve to be Free From Child Abuse and Neglect – Print this or save as a reference for where to report and common indicators of child abuse. https://www.hdilearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Deserve-to-be-free.pdf

If you suspect, report!

Know your program’s child abuse reporting policy and follow it. If your program does not have a policy, suggest that one be developed.

Report whenever you have reasonable cause to believe a child is experiencing abuse or neglect. YOU are responsible for ensuring that a report is made to the proper authorities. Therefore, you should make the report yourself.

Your program might have policies and procedures to notify your supervisor instead of immediately reporting your suspicions, you still are responsible for reporting.  Telling your supervisor does not eliminate your responsibility to ensure a report is made. In fact, BOTH you and your supervisor are now responsible for reporting the suspicion.

Who do I call to report?

1. When a child IS NOT in immediate danger, call:
   • Your county Department for Community Based Services
   (see Appendix B, pg.23) OR
   • Child Protection Hotline at 1-800-752-6200 (toll free) Use this number before 9:00am and after 5:00pm.
2. When a child IS in immediate danger and needs protection (for example, when a very young child or child with a disability is left alone), call 911 or your local police department.
   If in doubt, call the hotline or your county Department for Community Based Services office and they will talk with you about your concerns. They will help you sort things out, such as whether a specific incident must be reported and to whom.

What do I report?

There is a lot of information that officials receiving a child abuse report would like to have.  The more information officials have, the better they will be able to help the child.  But it is better to report their suspicions with the minimum amount of information needed by officials than it would be to wait until more information can be gathered.

That information can be divided into two categories: 

(1) Need to know

(2)Helpful to know

“Need to know” information

• Child’s identity: name, sex, and approximate age
• Person believed to be responsible for the abuse or neglect, if the person is known
• Nature and extent of the abuse/injury, neglect, or threatened harm
• Where the child can be found (day care, school, home address, etc.)
• Any immediate risk to child OR to a worker going to investigate (e.g., guns in the home)
• Name and address of the reporter (optional, but strongly encouraged)

“Helpful to know” information (but not essential to make a report)

• What happened to the child and when?
• How do you view this situation and what firsthand knowledge do you have?
• What are the names and address of the parents or caretakers?
• Have you been involved with the family or have you attempted to work with them on the problem?
• How did the parents respond to any attempts to help?
• Are there others who have information which may be helpful to the investigation?

Need a sample form that can be used to make a report? Refer to page 25 of your Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse participant handout.

Do YOUR part to protect children

In 2000, early care and education professionals nationwide reported 2% of the child abuse cases that were investigated.

However, in Kentucky, only .02% of the investigated cases were made by early care and education professionals.

Refer to the handout Listen to Children for more information on how you can help a child.

Domestic Violence

Childcare providers are also mandatory reporters of domestic violence, as well as child abuse and neglect. We encourage providers to include this statement in their policy manuals so that the families in their care understand the providers’ responsibilities. Reporting domestic violence can be very different than reporting child abuse, because the victims have the right to refuse services, unlike child abuse cases. The Division of Child Care encourages all childcare providers to receive additional training on this topic.

In the event of a possible domestic violence situation, childcare providers should use the following contacts:

• In the event of an emergency on the premises, call 911
• Child/Vulnerable Adult Abuse – 1-800-752-6200
• Spouse Abuse – 1-800-544-2022

Listen to the Children https://www.hdilearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Listen-to-the-Children.pdf

Sample Reporting Form can be found on page 25 of your Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse participant handout.

Typical Concerns When Reporting https://www.hdilearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Typical-Concerns.pdf

What Happens When I Report? https://www.hdilearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/What-happens-when-I-report.pdf

In this section of the course we will cover the following topics to help you understand how to identify child abuse and neglect.

• Be Observant For Signs and Indicators
• Neglect
• Physical Abuse
• Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma (PAHT)
• Sexual Abuse
• Emotional Abuse
• Children with Special Needs

You can follow along with the content on pages 8-16 of your Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse participant handout.

In this section of the course we will cover the following topics to help you understand the law in relation to child abuse and neglect.

• Describe children’s rights
• Define child abuse and neglect
• Understand reporting
• Identify mandated reporters

You can follow along with the content on pages 5-7 of your Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse participant handout.

Welcome to the second module of Early Care Orientation OnLine (ECOOL):  Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse & Neglect (CA)

This module will take approximately 1 hour to complete.

• Check-In (Self-Assessment)
• Know the law
• Identify signs of possible child abuse
• Report suspicions to appropriate authorities
• Minimize the Risk of Child Abuse and Neglect
• Check Yourself (Post-test)

Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse – Please print or download a copy for future reference.

Welcome to the first module of Early Care Orientation OnLine (ECOOL):  Health, Safety, and Sanitation (HSS)

This module will take approximately 2 hours to complete.

The module consists of four parts:

• Check-In (Self-Assessment)
• Prevent Injuries
  • Supervision
  • Safety Hazards
  • Medication
  • Allergies
  • Emergency Situations
• Prevent Spread of Infectious Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Immunizations
  • Health Check
  • Wash Hands
  • Milk
  • Diapering
  • Cleaning and Sanitizing
  • Food Contamination
• Check-Out (Post-test)

Health, Safety and Sanitation Handout – Please print or download a copy for future reference.

Kentucky Child Care Regulations – Regulations are referenced throughout ECOOL and are important for all early care and education professionals to be aware of. Please print or download a copy for future reference. (GET LINK differentiate between types)

In this section you will learn about the following important topics that prepare you to limit the spread of infectious disease.

• Infectious Disease
• Immunizations
• Health Check
• Wash Hands
• Handle milk/formula properly
• Diapering/toileting
• Clean and sanitize
• Food Contamination

You can follow along with the content on pages 22-40 of your Health, Safety, and Sanitation participant handout.

Prevent Injuries

Let’s take a look at how you can plan for children’s safety through appropriate supervision.

• Supervision
• Safety Hazards
• Medication
• Allergies
• Emergency Situations

• medication
• allergies
• supervision
• safety hazards
• Emergency situations

Safety First

Your top priority is to keep children safe while they are in your care by doing the following:

• Closely supervise children.
• Recognize, remove and/or limit potential safety hazards.
• Administer medication properly.
• Be aware of allergies.
• Prepare for emergency situations.

In this section we will cover the following topics to learn how to prevent injuries in a child care setting.

• Supervision
• Safety hazards
• Medication
• Allergies
• Emergency Situations

You can follow along with the content on pages 5-21 of your Health, Safety, and Sanitation participant handout.

This training fulfills the mandatory 6-hour orientation requirement for early care and education professionals in Kentucky.

ECOOL consists of three modules, divided into multiple lessons. Each lesson contains multiple topics and quizzes. All lessons, topics and quizzes must be completed before moving forward. Use the course navigation on the right to see what you have completed (look for the green circles).

• Health, Safety, & Sanitation (2 hours)
• Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect (1 hour)
• Recommended Practices in Early Care and Education (3 hours)

In this course, you will take on the role of “Terry Trainee”, a professional from the local disability organization, Access & Equity Inc. You are interested in starting a Disability Disaster Action Team in your own community, Tornado Gap, and are visiting neighboring town Disasterville, USA to learn from their work. As part of your training, you will learn from professionals and community members in Disasterville in order to assist with creating a whole community approach to emergency planning in your own community which considers and includes everyone’s needs.

As you connect with professionals and community members, you will be faced with choice points along the way to help gauge and increase your knowledge about inclusion and accessibility in emergency preparedness. This course has five different lessons which you will need to complete to receive a certificate of completion.

This course is designed to increase your knowledge about whole community emergency planning as well as provide you the basic information needed to connect with your own local emergency planners, public health professionals, and community.

If you need tech support help, please scroll to the bottom of the page and select the “Contact Us” button and a team member will reach out to you for assistance.”

Sorry. You must be logged in to view this form.

This is content1

This is content 2