Licensing Standards for DayCare Centers

---

Home               About Us               Login               Sign-Up               Products            Contact Us

---

500 - DISCIPLINE

1. Discipline shall be individualized and consistent for each child; it shall be appropriate to the child's level of understanding and be directed toward teaching the child acceptable behavior and self control.

2. Physical punishment shall not be administered to children.

3. The length of time a child is placed in time out shall not exceed one minute per year of child's age.

4. Appropriate discipline techniques include:

a. Look for appropriate behavior and reinforce the children with praise and encouragement when they are behaving well.

b. Remind the children on a daily basis of the rules by using clear positive statements of how they are expected to behave rather than what they are not supposed to do.

c. Attempt to ignore minor inappropriate behavior and concentrate on what the child IS doing properly.

d. Use brief supervised separation from the group only when the child does not respond to a verbal command which instructs the child as to how he or she is supposed to behave.

e. When a misbehaving child begins to behave appropriately, encourage and praise small positive steps rather than waiting until the child has behaved for a long period of time.

f. Attend to the children who are behaving appropriately and other children will follow their example in order to obtain your attention.

g. When the entire group is behaving well, stop and do an activity that they really enjoy in order to reward them for doing well.

5. The following activities or threats of such activities are inappropriate as disciplinary measures and shall not be used for children; these include, but are not limited to:

a. Restraints;

b. Washing mouth with soap;

c. Taping or obstructing a child's mouth;

d. Placing unpleasant or painful tasting substances in mouth, on lips, etc;

e. Profane or abusive language;

f. Isolation without supervision;

g. Placing child in dark areas;

h. Inflicting physical pain, e.g., hitting, pinching, pulling hair, slapping, kicking, twisting arms, biting or biting back, spatting, swatting, etc; or

i. Forcing physical activity, such as running laps, doing push-ups, etc.

j. Associating discipline with food, rest, toilet training or illness.

k. Shaming, humiliating, frightening, physically or mentally harming children or labeling children.

6. Discipline practices used by the center shall be discussed with each child's parents and provided to them in writing at the time of enrollment with a copy signed by the parent maintained in the child's record.

Home               About Us               Login               Sign-Up               Products            Contact Us