After last week's SWBC Ministry Training Day we are taking additional steps to help mitigate safety concerns.

The changes below are effective beginning tomorrow, Sunday, March 24, 2019.

For a quick summary:
1. All children Nursery through 6th grade are to be checked in and wear an ID tag.
2. All children Nursery through 6th grade are to be picked up by parents at the door of their classroom.
3. All volunteers are required to wear ID tags.

Purpose of security changes
To magnify God by showing love to the children and their parents by giving our best in providing safety and protection while children are in our care at SWBC.
We want to ensure we know whose children we have, where the children are, and what volunteers are with them at all times they are in the care of SWBC.

Identifying All Volunteers
Starting last Sunday, all volunteers are expected to wear an ID tag.
This serves our purpose in several ways: 
• Easy name familiarity with children and parents in classes
• Permanent records of students/adults who are serving and responsible for children
• Allows visitors or those less familiar with volunteers to easily identify who they should speak with for questions or issues. 
• Identify teachers when giving feedback regarding their children
• Quick identification of adults expected to be in rooms before/during/after class for safety.

Identifying All Children
All children from nursery through 6th grade are required to check-in on Fellowship One via the iPads and wear their ID tag. 
Check-in applies to Sunday Mornings and Evenings currently. On Sunday Mornings, please see the volunteers at the Check-In Desk if you need assistance.

Teachers will remind children in the classroom to leave the tags on, but we must have cooperation from the parents to help train the children to keep their ID tags on during the duration of the morning.

Identification of all children will serve our purpose in several ways:
• Quick name reference for children whom teachers are not familiar.
• Quickly and easily identify any children not checked in.
• A permanent record of children who are in our protection and their assigned classroom.
• Provide a contact phone number for parents on tags and allergies for those up through Kindergarten.

Releasing of Children
No children, from nursery up to and including 6th grade, are to be released without a visual validation for the handoff from their teachers to the adults picking up their children.

Parents need to ensure they are picking up their children no later than ten (10) minutes after class. For those who are volunteering in other areas see notes above and coordinate with your children's teachers.

Parents are required to pick up children at the door before releasing to ensure children are correctly placed back under the parent's authority.

For parents volunteering in other areas during this time, their student age (7th-12th grade) children can pick up their siblings with the parents’ permission. The parent’s tag must be with the student and serves as the parent's authority given to the students. Otherwise, these children will be delivered to the parents by one of the volunteers in the class after all other children have been picked up.

Visual validation of parents can happen in two ways: 
1. Volunteers who are very familiar with a family may release the children to the parents without a parent tag. 
2. All other visual identification will require the parent tag to be presented and must match the code on the child(ren)’s tag.

If you have any questions, concerns, or need some clarification, please contact me directly via email, church office phone, or catch me in person.