ABOUT US

Health and Safety

“Your children need to know they are loved and safe. Everything else is adult business.”
— Jeannine Lee

THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF EACH CHILD IS OUR TOP PRIORITY. As such, we have incorporated the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Health and Safety Guidelines for Child Care Services into Bright Days Policies and Procedures. While it is not a requirement for privately operated care homes to follow these guidelines, you can feel confident knowing that all Bright Days child care homes maintain these standards. We ensure a healthy and safe environment for your child. Our full time Child Care Coordinator conducts regular inspections at all homes to ensure that these policies and procedures are being followed and maintained.

REDUCING THE SPREAD OF GERMS and communicable illnesses is an ongoing priority at Bright Days. We have implemented strict sanitary and hygiene practices as part of our Policies and Procedures. As children are more prone to illness due to their developing immune systems, these practices are an important part of our daily routines to keep children safe and healthy and prevent the spread of infections. A few of these include:

• Hand washing before and after each meal or snack, and after potty time.
• Toys that have been mouthed go directly into a separate bin to be cleaned and sanitized later, before another child is able to play with them.
• We follow the AHS Cleaning and Sanitizing Schedule for Child Care Facilities for all toys, equipment and household areas.
• AHS Diapering Procedure is strictly followed, ensuring a sanitary changing area for your child every time.

Our Early Childhood Educators prepare and serve all of the meals and snacks to the children throughout the day. To ensure that there is no risk of food borne illnesses or contamination from other sources, they have all completed the AHS Food Safety Certification Course

OUR EDUCATORS ARE CERTIFIED IN CHILD/INFANT CPR & FIRST AID. Each home is equipped with an Occupational Health and Safety Code ‘Type P First Aid Kit’. To ensure that there are no surprises when dealing with any unlikely events, all Educators follow emergency preparedness best practices, including regularly scheduled fire drills. In addition to this, each home has posted evacuation and natural disaster emergency procedures.

Our screening and hiring process for our Educators is extremely thorough to ensure that your child is in the best care possible. In addition to the careful selection and vetting of all candidates, we always conduct criminal record checks, including vulnerable sector searches on all of our Educators, as well as anyone else who may have access to the child care homes (organic food delivery/craft supplies, etc).

We do not have signs in front of our child care homes, or any other advertising that indicates that it is a child care/early learning centre, and the homes are in residential houses in the neighbourhoods that we serve. This is to ensure extra security and safety measures so it is not apparent to a passer by that the home is a child care facility. All doors are locked throughout the day and the Early Childhood Educators will only answer the door for parents/authorized guardians, or expected deliveries. The homes are selected on quiet streets to provide a safe drop off/pick up environment for you and your child.

NATURAL, NON-TOXIC CLEANING SUPPLIES are used in all Bright Days child care homes. This includes hand soap, laundry detergent, dish soap and dishwasher detergent, as well as all household cleaners and disinfectants. Most every day cleaning products on the market today include chemicals that emit fumes that are not safe for humans, many of which have not been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We can’t protect our kids from all the evil in the world, but we can easily limit their access to harmful chemical exposure on their skin and lungs. Using natural, ‘greener’ products also helps reduce pollution to our waterways and the air. All craft materials/supplies are also non-toxic, safe and appropriate for children of all ages.

ALKALINE WATER FILTRATION SYSTEMS are installed at all Bright Days child care homes. This removes unwanted chemicals such as chlorine as well as heavy metals often found in tap water. The average diet today has a more acidic PH level, which can lead to inflammation and illness. The water filtration system we use naturally infuses calcium, magnesium, and other nourishing alkaline minerals back in which are normally filtered out of tap water. The water goes through a series of natural filters which include ceramic, carbon, sand, stone, and minerals. The result is great-tasting water which helps your child to stay healthy and hydrated.