TRUTH BE TOLD

THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL SAFE ARRIVAL

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By DR VICKI BISMILLA

When I was a school principal, one of the most important duties we performed as office staff was the Safe Arrival Program.

This program is mandated for all schools in Ontario by the government’s Safe Arrival Policy instituted in 1999.

Parents/guardians are required to inform their child’s school each time their child is going to be late, absent or leaving early using the school’s safe arrival system.

The safe arrival telephone system is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can call on the day of your child’s planned absence or in advance.

In the school office the school secretary and the team of safe arrival parent-volunteers start calling parents as soon as classroom attendance is taken and the folders begin arriving in the office.

First they check off any absent child whose parents already phoned about the absence. Then they look at the list of absent students whose parents did not call.

In an average elementary school, there are 600+ students. So the absentee student list on any given day can be quite long. Each volunteer starts phoning parents on their share of the list, first at home, then at work and also cell phones. This way if the parent forgot to call and the child is safe with the family, the volunteer proceeds to the next child. However, if the parent sent the child to school and the child has not arrived, then immediately the child is searched for and, if necessary, emergency services are called.

So you can see from this process how critically important the School Safe Arrival program is. If you are a parent of a school student, please do your part in your child’s safety and phone the school so they are not wasting time on your missed step and can go on to students who may be in danger. As you know there have been tragic cases of children being victimized. The walk to school is safe for tens of thousands of kids, but cannot be taken for granted. All parents know that hazards exist. It is heartbreaking to read about missing children and the missingkids.ca database is a study in sorrow.

As a retired Superintendent of Schools and principal I know firsthand about the critical importance of the Safe Arrival Program in schools and having done this school safety work for most of my life it has come as a complete shock to me that daycare centres do not have a safe arrival policy, they are not required to phone parents when a baby/child is not dropped off at daycare as usual. There was a tragic case this summer following which Ontario parents have started a petition to our provincial government to mandate a Safe Arrival Program for daycares. I urge you please, wherever you live, to write to your provincial government to mandate the Safe Arrival Program in your province’s daycare centres. When a child does not show up at daycare, the daycare must contact parents immediately. There are so many variables that can cause danger to children, and daycares are responsible for our tiniest, most vulnerable, most precious, voiceless citizens.

If you are an Ontario resident, please follow this link and sign the petition to urge the Ontario Ministry of Education to mandate safe arrival phone calls to parents by daycare centres.

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Editor’s note: Dr Vicki Bismilla wrote to the Ministry of Education and Childcare, asking if they would consider mandating a safe arrival program in daycare as they do for schools. The response she received from Kerri Graham, Senior Policy Analyst, below:

“Thank you for your letter about establishing a safe arrivals policy for licensed child care in Ontario.

“The Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (CCEYA) is the current legislation governing child care in Ontario. The CCEYA includes regulations related to policies and procedures, building and accommodation, equipment and furnishings, playgrounds, records, staffing and group sizes, nutrition, programming and health and medical issues in licensed child care programs.

“While licensed child care programs in Ontario are not currently required to have safe arrival or safe dismissal policies, each individual licensee may choose to do so, and we know that many programs have such policies in place. It is also important to note that the direction in those policies and procedures must follow any requirements in the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 (CCEYA) or any other legislation to ensure procedures are as safe as possible for children and staff.

“In 2020, as part of our five-year review of the CCEYA, we consulted on a range of proposed regulatory amendments, including those that would have required safe arrival and safe dismissal policies in licensed child care. Following stakeholder feedback that we defer making regulatory changes during the pandemic, we decided to wait and consider implementation of some of the proposed items at a later date.

“Going forward, we will give thoughtful consideration to safe arrival and dismissal policies for licensed child care. Our ministry assesses child care health and safety requirements regularly and we remain committed to listening to feedback from parents, like yourself, along with child care providers and sector experts.”

Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.