Can't get in touch with emergency contacts...

[thatdivalady]

According to our policy, when a child has diarrhea, vomitting, or high temperature, they must be picked up within 30 minutes. I usually will allow for additional time depending on the work/school location of my parents. However, I have called both the mother and the father (who is the emergency contact) since 10am and have gotten no answer.

What makes this even more interesting, is that this family has given their two weeks notice and the child's last day is Tuesday. Since she got sick while here, she cannot come back until Tuesday, but I am very uncomfortable with being unable to get in touch with either of them. This also happened with the same parent last year when the mother was an hour late picking up the child.

What have you done in similar situations?

[Blackcat31]

In my state, we are to contact everyone on the emergency contact list (I personally require parents to give NO LESS than 3 contact people) and if we cannot reach them after a specified amount of time, we are to call CPS.

I can't imagine a parent leaving their child without a contact person that is available :confused:

Can you try calling the parent's place of work?

[thatdivalady]

The mother was at school and the father (who is the emergency contact) is out of town...

I finally heard back from both almost an hour after my first call. Now I am editing our policy to give us recourse in the future because if this were more serious I am very uncomfortable with not being able to get in touch with anyone.

Do you have any suggestions about timeline and actions? I know that some folks either call CYF or drop children off at the local police precinct.

[Blackcat31]

The mother was at school and the father (who is the emergency contact) is out of town...

I finally heard back from both almost an hour after my first call. Now I am editing our policy to give us recourse in the future because if this were more serious I am very uncomfortable with not being able to get in touch with anyone.

Do you have any suggestions about timeline and actions? I know that some folks either call CYF or drop children off at the local police precinct.

For parents in school I require them to give me their daily schedule (course and classroom number) so that if I should need to call the school directly, the school can get in contact with them.

I also require parents to be available WITHIN 30 minutes of me needing to reach them. If I call and leave a message they have 30 minutes to return my call or I begin calling emergency contact people. If I cannot reach an emergency contact person within the next 30 minutes, (Total of 60 minutes) then I call CPS.

Calling CPS is NEVER something I wish to do but will if I need to as I view being available via phone, text, email or whatever absolutely necessary and go over this topic and my rules VERY thoroughly during my interview with a family so they know EXACTLY what steps I will take if I cannot reach them.

I follow the same set of steps for anything that warrants a child being picked up or sent home.

[Crystal]

Considering they are leaving it won't apply to this family but I would never accept a parent as the alternate emergency contact. Parents are the first point of contact. People other than the parents are additional emergency contacts. I would also require a minimum of three contacts,as it is inevitable that at least one will not be available and if that is the case there is someone else to call.

[mrsnj]

Ditto crystal. Parents are not emergency pick ups. I require their info AND three alternatives I try contacting parents first of course. If no contact I leave a message stating I am contacting emergency picks ups and then go down that list

[AmyKidsCo]

I had a similar thing happen with my brother and sister in law. I had a non-emergency question and couldn't get a hold of them at home, either workplace, on either cell or either pager. They'd taken the day off to go Christmas shopping and forgot to tell me, and forgot cell phones and pagers at home.

It wasn't a big deal since it wasn't an emergency, but I added a place on my sign-in sheet where parents have to write a number where they can be reached EVERY DAY. That way it makes them think about the day - oh yeah, I'm at a conference today... oh yeah, I'll be in meetings all day... etc.

(Heidi, in case you're wondering, I shrunk the required attendance form and added my stuff on the far right.)