The Children's School at Saint John's

The Children’s School at Saint John’s strives to create an environment that is safe healthy, and fun for children to learn and grow.

The purpose of the behavior policy is to help identify contributors to behavior problems, provide a means for teachers to help develop appropriate interventions for problematic behaviors, and to identify children for whom The Children’s School is not able to meet individual needs.

A child is considered to engage in problematic behavior when:

1. He or she demonstrates a pattern of repeated or escalating behavior, for example, being aggressive toward other children (e.g., hitting, teasing, biting) or being aggressive toward property (e.g., destroying toys, books, or other school property), and this behavior has not responded to usual practices (e.g., discussions with child, redirecting), or
2. Any single event occurs that, at the discretion of the teacher, is considered problematic.

In these types of situations the following steps will be implemented. Please note that any timeline indicated are subject to change, depending on the particular child and situation.

1. All parents of the children involved will be informed of the incident(s).
2. Within a week after parents are informed, a meeting will be scheduled between the parents of the child engaging in the problematic behavior and the child’s teacher to discuss possible reasons and determine appropriate interventions.
3. Teachers will immediately begin documenting future episodes utilizing the “behavior problem log” and the parents of the child engaging in the problematic behavior will be provided with a summary of the checklist on a weekly basis. The parent of any child who continues to be the recipient of the problematic behavior will be informed of any additional episodes, either in verbal or written format. Copies of the behavior problem log and summary forms will be kept in the child’s folder for three months and then will be discarded.
4. If the behavior continues despite implementation of the agreed-upon intervention, that is, if additional incidents occur, a meeting with the teacher(s), director of the school, and all parents will be scheduled.
5. If there is no resolution of the problem, then a second meeting will be scheduled with the child’s parents to discuss alternative possible avenues to explore. Such avenues may include facilitating a referral system for evaluation with appropriate community-based services (mental health clinics, child psychologist, or pediatrician, etc.).

The Children’s School at Saint John’s will not expel, suspend, or other-wise limit the amount of care (including denying outdoor time, withholding food, or using food as a reward/punishment) provided to a child  or family on the basis of challenging behaviors or a healthy/safety condition or situation unless the condition or situation contains the following:

1. A continued threat to the safety (physical or emotional)of other children, or the child themselves, is in existence.
2. Parents are unable to play an active (participating) role in the process of addressing problematic behavior, and work jointly with the teacher(s) involved.
3. The school is unable to provide the best environment for each child to thrive.