Embedded Files
Human Resources and Compliance
Job Descriptions and Credentials a. The Gads Hill Center Children's Services Department maintains job descriptions and qualifications for all staff. GHC works to ensure all staff can fulfill the roles and responsibilities of their positions to ensure high-quality services to children and families. b. Required Credentials: Until the system for transcript/qualifications review is implemented with Gateways to Opportunity, all staff credentials, including those of substitute or temporary staff, should be uploaded into the Assigned HR Module. c. Job descriptions must be reviewed annually and updated, as needed, by management. Changes in HS/EHS/CCP-funded programs, if any, must be communicated to the governing body and the Policy Committee.
Directors may not be classroom staff. All teachers are full-time classroom staff and cannot hold an administrative role outside the classroom. e. All center-based programs are expected to have an on-site director. f. All education and family support management and staff must be registered and credentialed in Gateways. Required credential levels are specified below by position. g. Agencies may request a waiver for credentials from DFSS in certain circumstances. GHC supervisors and staff must apply for a credential waiver as outlined below (K.n) and demonstrate staff progress in obtaining the required credentials.
Criminal Background Checks
Per the Human Resources Personnel Policies, GHC staff ensures that all staff persons, including contractors, complete the following steps prior to final hire: interview; reference check verification; ex offender registry check; state criminal check, including fingerprint checks; FBI check, including fingerprint checks; Illinois Department of Child and Family Services Child Abuse and Neglect check or Statewide Automatic Child Welfare Information System. Until these checks are cleared, an employee or contractor cannot have unsupervised access to children. Regular volunteers have background checks and volunteers never have unsupervised access to children. Further, the background check policy states that all employees, including all existing, newly transferred, and executive-level staff, as well as all consultants, contractors, and auxiliary staff must undergo the complete background check process at least once every five years. GHC HR staff ensures that all employee records are kept, maintained, and regularly updated.
DCFS Background Check Form
CFS_718-B_Authorization_for_Background_Check_for_Child_Care_(Fillable).pdfCPS Background Check Form
Chicago Commons Fingerprint Consent Form - HS EHS Staff.pdfCPS/DFSS Background Check Form
CPS Background Check Form - PFA & PI Staff.pdfHiring & Criminal Records Check & New Hires
Agencies must ensure that all staff, including contractors, substitutes, and any temporary staff, complete the following steps prior to final hire:
1. Interview
2. Reference check verification
3. Sex offender registry check
4. State criminal checks, including fingerprint checks
5. FBI checks, including fingerprint checks
6. IDCFS Child Abuse and Neglect check or Statewide Automatic Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS)
7. Register with Gateways to obtain level status for the position they are applying for, when applicable. ii. Child Supervision – Until these checks are cleared, an employee or contractor cannot have unsupervised access to children. Agencies must include in their HR/personnel Policies language to that effect
Required Readings:
All new staff will be oriented on the following:
· Child Abuse and Neglect regulations, policies, and procedures
· Gads Hill Center guidance and discipline policy
· DCFS Day Care licensing standards
· Program Parent Handbook
· Job description and function in department
· Agency personnel policies and employee handbook
· Risk Management Plan, including exposure control guidelines and universal precautions
All new staff members sign the following:
· A job description outlining position requirements, essential functions, and primary objectives.
· A statement outlining the responsibilities of mandated reporters of suspected child abuse and neglect.
· The agency Guidance and Discipline policy which clearly delineates how discipline of children may be administered by staff.
All agency staff will receive a minimum of 15 hours of training annually related to the essential functions of their position, as well as a refresher of the orientation outlined above. Annual pre-service training will be conducted to provide the bulk of this training, in addition to training on nutrition and the guidelines of the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Staff training is documented in agency training logs and in staff personnel and professional development files.
Training in CPR and First Aid are provided to all direct service staff on an annual basis. All classrooms will at all times have, at minimum, one teacher/youth worker who is currently certified in CPR and First Aid.
Volunteers
Regular volunteers must have background checks. Volunteers can never have unsupervised access to children. The complete background check above must be conducted on all employees/ contractors at least once every five years.
Executive Level Staff Background Check Policy – All CSD staff funded in whole or in part by Chicago Early Learning Programs (HS/EHS/CCP/PFA/PI) or who oversee CSD programming or administrative work must have a completed background check based on the agency’s new hire policy, and must be re-conducted, at least once, every five years.
Consultants, Auxiliary, Substitute, and Temporary Staff – Consultants, auxiliary, substitute, and temporary staff must follow the same policy as executive-level staff. An agency’s procurement and contracting policy must include language requiring staff working on a CEL-funded contract to complete all background checks.
Documentation of background checks in CARES /Early Bird—Please refer to the Criminal Record Check Documentation – Policy Clarification for guidance on entering CRC information in Cares/Early Bird. All staff, including consultants, auxiliary, substitute, and temporary staff, must be entered in CARES/ Early Bird.
All GHC Volunteerss must have been screened for appropriate communicable diseases. Illinois mandates a physical and background check for each regular volunteer. A regular volunteer is defined as a person volunteering three hours or more a week. Agencies must ensure that children are never left alone with volunteers.
Standards Of Conduct
CSD staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers must abide by the following standard of conduct.
1. Ensure agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers implement positive strategies to support children’s well-being and prevent and address challenging behavior.
2. Ensure agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers do not maltreat or endanger the health or safety of children, including that they must not: a. Use corporal punishment or isolation to discipline a child and no physical abuse of any child. b. Binding or ties a child to restrict movement or taping a child’s mouth. c. Use or withhold food as a punishment or reward. d. Use toilet learning/training methods that punish, demean, or humiliate a child. e. Use any form of emotional abuse, including public or private humiliation, rejecting, terrorizing, extended ignoring, or corrupting a child. f. Use any form of verbal abuse, including profanity, sarcastic language, threats, or derogatory remarks about the child or child’s family. g. Use physical activity or outdoor time as a punishment or reward.
2. Ensure agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers respect and promote the unique identity of each child and family and do not stereotype on any basis, including gender, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or family composition.
3. Ensure agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers comply with program confidentiality policies concerning personally identifiable information about children, families, and other staff members. 48
4. Ensure agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, and volunteers never leave a child alone or unsupervised while under the agency’s care. ii. Agency Standards of Conduct should also include language that encourages collegial behavior and upholds professional workplace standards. iii. Standards of conduct must be included in the agencies HR/personnel policies and policies must include appropriate penalties for violating them. This must include appropriate penalties for staff, consultants, contractors, and volunteers who violate the standards of conduct. iv. The standards of conduct must include process for dealing with infractions against the agency, program staff, families and other program volunteers or consultants. v. DFSS recommends that all agencies use the standards of conduct mandates written by the federal OHS because they denote best practices. For HS/EHS/CCP-funded agencies, the parent hand-book must include the standards of conduct required by the HSPPS and be approved by Policy Committees and governing bodies. vi. Standards of conduct should be included in parent hand-book. vii. The Commitment to the Standards of Conduct Acknowledgement Form must be
1. Signed by all agency staff, consultants, contractors, substitute staff, temporary staff, volunteers, and collaborative governing body members (including board, parent committee, and policy committee members).
2. Signed and dated Commitment to the Standards of Conduct Acknowledgement Forms should be kept in the appropriate personnel files and be available for monitoring review.
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