Little Feathers Preschool

Registration packets must be completed at the center or via email. All forms must be filled out for each child and returned before beginning the program. Enrollment in the program is offered on a space-available basis as determined by the teaching ratio. Upon registration, a tour of the facility can be scheduled, and a meeting between the parents and staff describing the program, policies, and sharing of information about the child may be arranged.

Before active participation, each child must have on file: signed parental consent, health history with any special medical or dietary requirements listed, current immunization, tuberculin, birth certificate, and a signed receipt of Personal and Parental Rights Statement in the Parent Handbook.

The Little Feathers Preschool uses the Frog Street Curriculum. This hands-on program aligns with key preschool learning goals and provides the children with the skills they need to succeed in school. The curriculum begins every day at 9:00 a.m. Please have children here by that time.

Operation

The Little Feathers Preschool Program is year round.

Hours

Hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Part-time students are picked up before 1:00 p.m.
Full-time students are picked up any time before 5:00 p.m.

Holidays and Observances

Little Feathers Preschool follows the tribe’s work calendar for holidays and observances:

• New Year’s Day
• Presidents’ Day
• Independence Day
• Memorial Day
• Graduation Day
• Labor Day
• American Indian Day (3rd Friday in September)
• Veteran’s Day
• Thanksgiving & Day After
• Christmas & Day After

Tuition is due on the first (1st) of each month

• A *$200.00 payment is due for part-time and a *$400 payment for full-time students who are potty trained

• A *$250.00 payment is due for part-time and a *$500 payment for full-time students who are not potty trained

• Payment received after the 5th of the month will incur a *$10.00 late charge and your child will NOT be able to attend Little Feathers until paid in full.

• Fees are based on enrollment and not attendance. To maintain enrollment in the school, monthly fees must be paid. If your child is not attending due to illness or vacation, etc., payment is still due on the 1st of the month to ensure your child’s position in the classroom.

Acceptable forms of payment are: cash, check, money order and Per Capita deduction. A fee of *$25.00 will be assessed for any check returned. If more than two checks are returned, another form of payment will be required. The preschool reserves the right to terminate services due to insufficient funds.

A two-week written notice of withdrawal from the program is required and payment is due for those two weeks. Withdrawal from the preschool without notice assumes financial responsibility for those two weeks attending. No refunds or prorated amounts will be given for leaving the program before the end of the last month.

*REFUNDS WILL NOT BE GIVEN AT ANY TIME*

All children must have an extra pair of clothes in their backpack or in their cubby at all times. Children in diapers need two extra pair of clothing in their backpack or in their cubby at all times. Children should be dressed appropriately for the weather and in clothing suitable to play in. Suitable attire includes shoes with straps and shorts under skirts or dresses for girls.

Please remember that children will be engaged in activities that include, paint, glue, glitter, etc. Every effort will be made to protect your child’s clothing, but accidents do happen, so please dress your child in play clothes.

Students must bring a sack lunch from home daily. Please provide them with a healthy lunch, limiting the amount of sweets and unhealthy foods. No soda is permitted. For safety reasons, we do not heat lunches in the microwave nor will any items be refrigerated. If a student does not have a lunch, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich will be provided. Example of an easy healthy lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grapes, carrots, yogurt, Goldfish crackers and a juice box.

Full-time students need to have a blanket and a little pillow in their cubby.

Please make sure to notify your son or daughter’s teacher of any food allergies they may have.

Please do not send toys from home with your child. Toys brought from home are a disruption to the program and could get lost.

If your phone number, address, and/or emergency contact information changes please notify your child’s teacher and the program coordinator immediately. Also, keep in mind that the individuals listed on your child’s sign-out sheet are authorized to pick up your son or daughter unless we are notified otherwise. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU KEEP THIS INFORMATION CURRENT.

The school opens at 7:30 a.m. Part-time students must be picked up before 1:00 p.m., and Full-time students must be picked up any time before 5:00 p.m. Children need to be picked up on time. If you will be late picking up your child, please call the front office to let us know. YOU WILL BE ASSESSED ONE DOLLAR ($1.00) FOR EACH MINUTE LATE.

Once you enter the school to pick up your child, they are your responsibility. Please make sure your child does not wander off if speaking to another parent or a teacher. Your child should be closely monitored in the parking lot of our facility as the cars pose a danger to them if they have wandered away from you.

Only individuals listed on your child’s sign-in and sign-out sheet will be authorized to pick your child up from the Little Feathers Program. For liability reasons, individuals on your authorization list or who will be picking up your child from Little Feathers must be 18 years old or older.

If someone other than one of the authorized individuals on your child’s list needs to pick your child up, please call the program. Unlisted individuals will be allowed to pick your child up only if we have verbal consent authorizing an individual to do so that day only.

Please keep your child or children home if he/she has a fresh cold (an active runny nose or green nasal discharge) or a fever. Student may return when they are fever free for 24 hours without the use of medicine. It is the responsibility of the Little Feathers Program to maintain a healthy environment for all children.

Health checks will be performed daily on each child. Staff will look for the following symptoms of illness:

• Tired, watery or glassy eyes
• Thick mucus from eyes or nose, especially green or orange
• Low energy, fatigue or listlessness
• Lack of appetite or stomach upset
• Red cheeks, itchy scalp, or rashes

It is the responsibility of the parent, caretaker, or guardian to keep a child home when there are signs of illness. If a child becomes ill at preschool, the child will be removed from the group and his/her parent/guardian will be contacted. Immediate arrangements must be made by the parent/guardian to have their sick child picked up from school.

Example: If your child is sent home at noon with a fever, they cannot return the next day, and they have to be free of the fever for 24 hours before they can return.

All working parents should make sure they have a back-up sitter for when their child is sick.

Parents are responsible for immediately reporting any childhood diseases and/or contagious viruses to the school. If not reported, your child will be removed from the program. Contagious viruses such as Molluscum Contagiosum must be covered with airtight bandages, and the child must be fully clothed (pants and a long-sleeved shirt) as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The child will be sent home immediately if a parent does not comply.

COVID: If your child has been exposed to COVID please keep them home for a minimum of 3 days, maximum of 5 days in case symptoms start to occur. If child has tested positive they are allowed to return after symptoms are fully gone.

Doctor’s notes are not satisfactory to our program. Only a medical release from a pediatrician will be accepted for any illness, i.e. allergies, virus, runny nose, etc.

NO MEDICATION will be administered by the program unless a signed “release of liability” is given.

Regular routine head checks will be done on each child in the Little Feathers Program. If live head lice or nits are found in your child’s hair, you will be called and your child will be sent home from the program. Your child may not return to the program, until they have been thoroughly treated.

Children not potty trained must have 5 diapers in their cubby every day. Children 3 years old must be fully potty-trained, which means they can fully wipe independently. We understand that young children are still developing bathroom habits and have frequent accidents. We try to keep accidents at a minimum by taking all children to the bathroom at regularly scheduled intervals. If a child has an accident at school, the child is immediately taken to a bathroom. Dry clothes are handed to the child to dress him/herself from the point the clothes are removed to the point the child is dressed; two adults are always present. All soiled clothes are sent home to be washed. If a child has diarrhea, the parent will be called immediately.

If accidents happen periodically, a parent-teacher meeting will occur.

Parents/Guardians are encouraged to attend field trips with their child/children. If parents/guardians work during Little Feather’s operating hours and are unable to attend the field trip, the child may still attend.

Children at the school must be covered by their own health insurance. The school is not liable for any injuries that occur at school.

Little Feather’s Preschool holds regularly scheduled fire and earthquake drills. It is crucial to the safety of the children that they learn proper emergency evacuation procedures. In our effort to simulate emergency conditions during fire and earthquake drills, children are required to exit the building, as they are. Emergency plans are posted in each classroom.

In the unlikely event that Little Feather’s Preschool has an intruder/volatile person; we will follow our preparedness plan and contact the local police department.

In the unlikely event that the center is ever severely damaged or declared unsafe, the staff will evacuate all children to a designated emergency shelter to wait the arrival of a parent or guardian. Most likely, the school will be evacuated to Vivian Banks Charter School field. Should such an emergency occur, the administration of Little Feather’s Preschool will notify each child’s parents.

All issues involving a child of the Little Feather’s Preschool Program will only be discussed with the parent/parents or legal guardian/guardians of the child.

The Little Feathers Program cannot deny parent’s information regarding their child or deny them from picking their child up, unless there is court documentation on file stating one or both parents are not allowed to pick up the child or receive information regarding the child or children.

For the purpose of this Disruptive and Aggressive Behavior Plan Policy, aggressive and disruptive behavior includes but is not limited to hitting, pushing, biting, throwing classroom objects, pinching, spitting, or any behavior that continually disrupts the other children and interferes with instructional time.

**Please note the highlighted section in the application asking about your child’s behavior and emotional or physical problems. If any are listed or communicated before a start date, we will give it a trial of one month and communicate if our school is the best fit for services for your child, as we are not equipped to work with special needs students.

The following sequence of events will take place following the excessive or severity of any of the actions named above:

1. The teacher and teacher’s assistant will document each event. This documentation will include the following information: time of event, which child or children were involved in the incident, what occurred during the incident, and how the teachers handled the situation. If the first incident is severe, then step two will occur immediately; if there are two to three consecutive incidents, the student will get sent home from school.
2. A parent-teacher conference will be arranged with the teacher and the parent or guardian of the child who is initiating the disruptive or aggressive behavior. During this parent-teacher conference, a Behavior Plan will be established and include the following: both the teacher and the parents or guardian of the child will discuss the different forms of discipline that occur in the child’s day, between the classroom environment and home environment. Teachers and parents can decide the best plan or strategy to break the child from aggressive or disruptive behavior.
   Once the plan is in effect and the child improves, both teachers and parents will continue using the selected strategy or strategies. If the child continues to repeat the same behaviors and does not show any improvement, another parent-teacher conference will be held to discuss what has been effective in the current behavior plan and what has not been so effective. A revised plan will be put into effect.
3. The child will be referred to outside resources if a second plan is required.
4. The final course of action will be to remove the child from the Little Feathers Program for the safety of the child, other children in the program, and the staff.

The Little Feathers Preschool Staff are legally mandated child abuse reporters. This is required by California State Law.

Mandated Reporting Law (California PC 11166) Child abuse must be reported when one who is a legally mandated reporter, has knowledge or observes a child in his or her professional capacity, or within the scope of his or her employment, whom he or she knows or reasonably suspects, has been the victim of child abuse.

Article 2.5 of the Penal Code provides that it is a crime for certain professionals who have a working relationship with children not to report suspected abuse to the proper authorities.