Policies

PCPS hours are 8:30 am - 1:30 pm  Monday through Friday depending on classroom schedules. Optional Extended care classes are available: Lunch 11:30 am - 12:30 pm, Early Day 7:30 am - 8:30 am or Stay & Play 12:30 pm - 1:30pm. 

Arrival and dismissal are conducted both inside and outside of the school, classrooms will share their drop-off and pick-up locations to families prior to the first day of school. 

Our drop off window closes at 8:45 am. We understand that occasionally families will arrive late, however we encourage prompt arrival to ensure your child has the opportunity to participate in every planned activity within their classroom.

When parents and caregivers are more than 5 minutes late for arrival, their child will come to the Pilgrim school office to be supervised by the Director or Assistant Director while parents and emergency contacts are contacted via phone. When a pattern of tardiness occurs, the Director will reach out to families informing them that a late pickup fee policy will be implemented for the family. On each tardy, a $5.00 late pick-up fee will be assessed immediately, with an additional $1.00 per minute fee will be assessed for each minute after 10 Minutes. The fee will be added to brightwheel, with check out time serving as acknowledgement of tardiness length of time.

PCPS follows the Illinois State Board of Education Nutrition and Wellness Guidelines for young children to provide a balanced healthy daily snack for all children. Food is prepared, served and stored in accordance with USDA CACFP Guidelines. Each classroom receives one snack per day, classes over 3 hours are also served lunch.

All fresh fruit and vegetables will be thoroughly washed before serving, large pieces will be cut to reduce choking hazards for children. Hard foods such as pretzels or carrots and dried fruits such as raisins are not served in two-year old classrooms.

If your child has food related allergies, please let us know immediately. We partner with families to create a formal personalized health management plan including completing a Food Allergy Action Plan together. All food allergies are posted in the kitchen and classrooms.

PCPS does not serve or use peanuts, peanut products, tree nuts or nut products in our program. We ask families to follow nut free guidance for any celebration snacks. However, as Church and community groups meet in our building outside of school hours, we can not guarantee a nut free environment. 

Pilgrim Community Preschool views each child as an unique individual and strives to set up each child for success by creating a classroom environment where children can trust they are safe to explore and practice new behaviors and skills. Our goal is to set a foundation of respect, kindness and social understanding to support children as they grow older. Discipline is defined as the process of teaching children what behaviors are acceptable and how to behave in a socially and emotionally responsible way. Discipline involves instruction, correction, and affirmation of children and the cooperative partnership between children, teachers, staff and families.

As a DCFS licensed program that adheres to NAEYC standards, the following actions are strictly prohibited at Pilgrim Community Preschool

• Corporal punishment, including hitting, spanking, swatting, beating, shaking, pinching, and other measures intended to induce physical pain or fear 

• Any form of emotional abuse including shaming, name calling, rejecting, terrorizing, humiliation, or isolating/seclusion of a child 

• Threatened or actual withdrawal of food, rest or use of the bathroom 

• Abusive and profane language 

• Any form of public or private humiliation including threats of physical punishment -Section 407.270 IL. Dept. of Children and Family Services Licensing Standards for Day Care Centers 

The Director will directly address any adult engaging in the prohibited practices while at the Pilgrim Community Preschool and such action is subject to possible DCFS involvement. 

Teachers and staff utilize positive guidance techniques for classroom expectations and limits that are enforced in a consistent, calm, kind, clear and direct manner. Positive guidance and discipline techniques include:

• Setting and consistently communicating clear developmentally appropriate expectations for classroom behavior with children. 

• Creating consistency and predictability for children by maintaining consistent rules and expectations for behavior across all staff.

• Designing a classroom environment with defined play areas that minimize distractions, sensory overload or overcrowding with an identified quiet space for independent play and self regulation. 

• Utilizing visual picture cues with print labels for classroom schedule and classroom expectations. Additional visual cues may include social stories, timers and more.

• Using positive guidance language: IE we use our walking feet, inside voices, gentle hands, kind words etc.

When a child is exhibiting challenging behavior that interferes with other children's learning, development and success at play; is harmful to the child, other children, or adults; or puts a child at high risk for later social problems or school failure, additional behavioral support may be required. Examples of challenging behavior include physical aggression (hitting, biting, shoving, whacking with toys), relational aggression (purposeful exclusion), verbal bullying, tantrums, unsafe limit testing, refusal to follow directions or observe classroom rules. Pilgrim Community Preschool teachers and staff will support children’s learning by:

• 
  Focusing on a child’s actions and behaviors rather than personality.

• Providing positive reinforcement and modeling for behavior.

• Redirecting the child with a positive statement to an appropriate alternative activity.

• Providing supportive problem-solving language and strategies that a child may use to communicate how they are feeling and wanting to express in resolving a conflict with a peer.

• Comforting a child until they regain composure.

• Within reasonable expectations of staff availability and classroom safety needs: Providing individualized attention such as accompanying the child to a quieter area to do an activity together until the child is ready to return to appropriate play with their classmates.

• Contacting the office for additional assistance as needed.

• Completing documentation of behavior with anecdotal notes and observations to best understand the function of the behavior.

• Collaborating with families.

Pilgrim Community Preschool adheres to DCFS, CDC, IDPH and Oak Park Health Department guidelines, policies and recommendations. Each classroom is equipped with a HEPA filtered air purifier and handwashing sink, PCPS staff and cleaning service complete daily cleaning and sanitizing procedures, implement robust hand washing routines to create and maintain a healthy environment. In addition, teachers conduct daily health checks of children upon arrival and monitor wellness throughout the day. Teachers are monitoring for signs of illness including rashes, persistent and productive coughing, sneezing or runny nose with mucus that is not clear, watery/red eyes, headache, stomach aches and lethargy. When a child presents with symptoms at arrival or during the school day, they will be sent home. When a child becomes ill at school, family and emergency contacts will be notified to pick up the child, who will be monitored in Office by the Director or Assistant Director. Children sent home ill from school are required to remain home for the remainder of the school day AND the entirety of the following school day.

Per DCFS policy and IDPH guidelines, children and staff who have a fever, are vomiting or have diarrhea any time within 24 hours before a school day are required to stay home. Children and staff who are sent home ill from school are required to stay home for the remainder of the school day PLUS the entire following school day. Children and staff who are sick are required to stay home at a minimum until they are:

1. Fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicines, diarrhea and vomiting free for 24 hours without the use of medication AND

2. All other symptoms have improved including cough, eye discharge, nasal mucus is clear AND

3. Are well enough to actively participate in the daily activities AND

4. Those experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 including fever, headache, new cough, sore throat, runny nose, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, must also have a negative Covid-19 test in order to attend school OR a doctor's note confirming a different diagnosis for their illness. 

To meet the criteria of requirement 2 for improvement of symptoms: children’s cough, sneezing and running noses must not be persistent (occurring once every 3-5 minutes), coughs must be unproductive (not coughing up phlegm), and mucus must be clear. Children with wet or barking coughs, mucus that is yellow or green, and noses requiring wiping/assistance wiping more than once every 5 minutes, discharge from eye or pink eyes, new rashes or lethargy should be kept home and possibly seen by a health care provider. If children arrive at school and are identified as not meeting this requirement, we will contact parents to pick them up from school and begin the exclusion period from school due to illness policy outlined above. 

Families are asked to complete the Illness Reporting Form when a child is absent from school due to an illness or has experienced vomiting or diarrhea within 24 hours of school attendance. Completing the confidential form the first day of symptoms and prior to arrival to school, families will (1) describe the symptoms (2) the date symptoms began (3) results of diagnostic testing or diagnosis from a health professional. The Director and Assistant Director will review the submission, providing return to school guidance within 24 hours of completion. Submitting this form also alerts the school of any potential highly communicable diseases that may be present in the school (see below) which by DCFS policy, may require additional return to school guidance and classroom cleaning/mitigation. If children or staff have been exposed to or diagnosed with a communicable or highly contagious disease listed below they must notify the school via brightwheel messaging as soon as possible so additional classroom mitigation and guidance can begin. It is also recommended that if multiple family members are experiencing illness at home, that if at all possible; PCPS children also remain home to monitor symptoms, reducing likelihood of spreading illnesses. The following illnesses are some of the highly contagious diseases that will require additional communication to families and staff, additional classroom mitigations and authorization to return to school:

COVID-19       Chicken Pox     Conjunctivitis (pink eye)  Fifth Disease     Head Lice

Hand Foot Mouth Disease      Impetigo                             Influenza           Measles            

Mumps          Ringworm          RSV                                    Scarlet Fever    Strep Throat

When notified of a highly contagious disease in our school, the Director will notify families and staff within the classroom and Pilgrim Church leadership of potential exposure, keeping confidentiality for the afflicted child/staff member. Additional information about the disease including symptoms, return to school guidance will also be shared and robust classroom/shared space sanitation will occur. If a child has been out of school for more than three days without communication, teachers will contact their family for information on the child's well-being. 

IDPH Certificate of Child Health Examination must be completed prior to the first day of school attendance. Completed health forms must document that the child is up to date with all age-appropriate routine screening and immunizations as published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Centers for Disease Control of the United States Public health Service (CDC-USPHS) and the Academy of Family Practice (AFP).

Hand washing is important for preventing the spread of illness. In accordance with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' regulations, we require that all children, staff and any parents assisting thoroughly wash their hands prior to the start of class, and throughout the day, as required.

Through brightwheel, all families are required to have updated contact information, including phone numbers for all parents, caregivers and at least one additional emergency contact person. All emergency communication will be first through brightwheel messaging, with email and phone calls as secondary communication forms.

For minor accidents, basic first aid is provided including topical ice, band-aids, or cold compresses. Staff will complete an incident report, through brightwheel identifying the nature of the injury, time and what support or first aid was provided. Teachers may call families afterwards to check on the child and answer any additional questions. 

For more severe accidents, the parents or emergency contact person will be notified and arrangements will be made to transport the child either home or to the hospital depending on level of severity.