Episode 235: The Best Practices for Safety and Licensing in Child Care with Tracy Nardo

In this episode, Kate and Carrie chat with Tracy Nardo, a seasoned expert with 36 years in early childhood education. Tracy dives into the importance of safety and licensing in childcare programs, sharing her knowledge on risk management and staff training. She emphasizes the need for comprehensive training from day one and explains the serious consequences of neglecting safety protocols, like hefty fines from OSHA. Tracy also offers practical tips for supervision and documentation, making this episode a must-listen for childcare professionals.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-nardo-b9a43a1aa

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Transcript

Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze

Marie 00:00:01  Welcome to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrie.

Carrie 00:00:06  Today on child care conversations with Kate and Carrie. We're diving into a topic that lights at the very heart of every child care program, making decisions around safety and licensing. We're doing that today with Tracy Nadeau, who has been in the industry almost as long as I have, which, you know, we don't get that very often. So welcome, Tracy, and let's talk about how to keep our employees and the kiddos as safe as possible. Absolutely.

Tracy 00:00:38  Thank you for having me today. So, Tracy, I'm just going to jump in real quick just so that everybody gets to know a little bit about you. And so if you will give us not all 36 years, but give us your start and present and anything in between that you might want to. Oh my goodness. Okay. Thanks, Kate. Yes, I have been in early childhood for 36 years. I have spent the last 14 of those years in like a risk management safety licensing role in early childhood.

Tracy 00:01:07  It is my passion. I'm so excited to talk to you guys today about all things safety and licensing. Well, great. And so you started out though as a classroom teacher. Is that correct? I did, I went yeah, I was I was 18, I started out in the two year old classroom. And if you know anything about early childhood and twos, that's a hard classroom. But I loved it. I love the little ones. So yeah, I would say the little ones, the toddlers, infants, toddlers and twos are probably my favorite. So a lot of people can't say that.

Carrie 00:01:39  That was my parents room as a lead teacher. and I wasn't 18, but I wasn't much older. as a lead teacher, in a toddler twos, they left our center the semester they turned to. So I had 18 months to two and a half, basically.

Tracy 00:01:56  Okay. Very nice. Yeah. Take somebody special. I say that all the time. It takes somebody very special to work in a toddler and two's classroom.

Tracy 00:02:05  Yes. I tell everybody.

Carrie 00:02:06  I will take.

Tracy 00:02:07  Those infants and I will take those school agers. Y'all get the middle. So. So you have found yourself and risk management. You even mentioned that you view this as the missing piece. Why is this the missing piece? I think schools are so busy these days, and sometimes training goes by the wayside. You know, since Covid, I think a lot of people are struggling with staffing. And so the minute we find somebody on paper that looks good, we hire them, we get them in the door, and then we have to put them in the classroom because they're needed for ratio purposes. And we sometimes forget to train them properly so they're left in the classroom. Hopefully that teacher will train them on all the policies and procedures. And then, you know, something may happen. And when you do that investigation on the Y, sometimes it turns out where they haven't been trained properly. So I think training is sometimes the missing piece or that I have found.

Carrie 00:03:08  We're trainers. We think training is all is almost always the answer to a problem. Right? Because that's our mentality. When we were directors, it was all about training, like in the orientation at my center, is it not? The first year it took me a couple of years to get to this point, but I was like, I will only pay for up to 150 hours of training per year. And by saying that in the orientation, people are like up to 150 hours. Yeah, it it changed their mindset from the state requires X number to oh, I can take more than that. I can I can continue to learn and deepen. Yeah. So that people who wanted to get their CDA in one year, that's great. That's 120 hours. Let's get that. And then whatever licensing requires on top of it. And yeah so I would agree I think if you don't start with good quality training. Yeah. Day one or even before day one. Yeah. Then yeah you can definitely miss some things.

Carrie 00:04:14  Definitely.

Tracy 00:04:15  And I think it's I think it's really good to to put them in the classroom, you know, kind of see if they've never been in childcare, put them in the classroom. They need to know that they are changing diapers and they have to lift a certain amount of weight before they can accept that job in that particular classroom. So I think there's a lot of things that they don't know. So putting them in there just to kind of, you know, with a maybe a mentor teacher is helpful. So, Tracy, if you were having a conversation with a, a fairly new director and you could give her a piece of advice related to licensing or risk Management. What would be the number one thing? You would tell her that. Wow. Boy, I just I was very sexist there. The male or female director. I would tell them the reason why. Why are we doing training? Why is it so important? Why are we talking about safety? All the whys to all the training pieces.

Tracy 00:05:13  Because sometimes, you know, you might do something virtually online and you're just kind of clicking through and you're doing three other things at once. But the reality is, if if they're really focused and you're talking about the reason behind it, it's not just a we're going to click it, click it, click it and then get that certificate. So really really diving into the why. So what would you tell them. Having that having that having that crucial conversation. what's the why on safety and licensing. Well if it's on safety and licensing then it could be if we're not doing these things, it could result in higher insurance premiums. It could result in a licensing violation. It could result in a fine or a license licensing violation, OSHA violation, any type of fines. Yeah. So do you recall.

Carrie 00:06:03  How scary the OSHA fines can get?

Tracy 00:06:06  Yes. Let me I can give you an example of one. there was a disgruntled employee who called OSHA about. There was pinkeye running rampant in a school, and they were saying, well, you know, how how do you guys clean the building? What are you using? Are you.

Tracy 00:06:25  Are there steps that you are taking? Is there a cleaning checklist that you are documenting that cleaning procedures being done. And you know, they they do their investigation. That fine was $6,500.

Carrie 00:06:38  $6,500 because multiple people got pinkeye.

Tracy 00:06:43  And they did an investigation and they may or may not have had a cleaning checklist. They may or may not have had their spray bottles labeled. They may or may not have had the proper procedures following the cleaning. So yes, my favorite things. Standard operating procedures and checking.

Carrie 00:07:04  And maybe they weren't even washing their hands properly. Like yeah.

Tracy 00:07:07  There's a lot.

Carrie 00:07:08  Yeah, I tell people Kate took a whole semester class in how to hand wash. And they're like, what? How was that a thing? And I was like, she was in nursing school. She had a whole semester that was about hand washing and cleaning surfaces. Yeah. And they're like, how? I don't even know how you do a one hour class in it. I was like, I've taken a five hour class in hand washing.

Kate 00:07:32  I mean, if you're getting ready for surgery and you're doing surgery prep, you can dang well bet they're going to make sure and we have a lab. It wasn't just that I sat in on lectures. We had skills and labs anyway, so wow.

Tracy 00:07:47  Wow.

Kate 00:07:47  Well then I say we can squirrel Tracy. This is kind of what we mean.

Tracy 00:07:52  Well, yeah. Carrie. Carrie, that is so true. Like, hand-washing is all part of that, right? So. And again, if the training pieces were there, would they have followed them? Did they get that that training. So you just kind of go back and do the root cause of the why.

Kate 00:08:10  I think sitting here. I mean, depending on who you're talking to. I mean, I think if any owners listening to this and going, it's going to cost me 6500 if these people don't know how to clean. Like, I mean, seriously, let's get like. Like that should be scaring every owner, actually every employee.

Kate 00:08:26  Because I don't know how many months for some of them that might be in salary, but, you know, could you imagine I just I can't even imagine. That's just. And I know that those fines are pretty hefty, but that's a big.

Carrie 00:08:36  And there's the ones for shoes and other things. But yeah, I, I have a thing about the shoes because of OSHA fines.

Tracy 00:08:47  Yes, absolutely. But yeah, I don't know how they determine their fines and you know. But but yes, it can be very hefty. And then, you know, after a certain certain time frame, every year insurance gets renewed. Right. And then they want to go back and they want to look at licensing violations, OSHA violations. And, you know, should we continue to insure them so that that has come up lately. So that's a big thing.

Kate 00:09:11  Absolutely. Tracy what's another either frequent problem. Like you walk in and you can't believe the number of programs that are doing something that they should know better, or what's a for another scary story I like stories.

Tracy 00:09:25  Transitions. I would say, more than not, state licensors will tell me that the number one violation in their state is transitions. Unsupervised children. I can't tell you enough. In 36 years that I have walked into a classroom and a child is left inside when they've gone outside. A child is left in the bathroom when they've gone outside or during a fire drill. They've been left on the bus. So really focusing on the importance of that. Why? It's this is a passion of mine. You know, I've seen children left on a bus. So they drive back. They drive. They go pick up the kids from public school. They come back, they get off the bus, they get them inside, and there's one left on the bus. And because they fell.

Carrie 00:10:12  Asleep driving school to the centre.

Tracy 00:10:15  And they did not do the bus sweep where they go and check every seat to make sure that everybody is off that bus. You know, in some kids, if they're like in, I don't know, a hot state like Texas or in the middle of summer or Arizona, it could be very hot and that could end very badly.

Tracy 00:10:32  Right. Because they can't pull that lever to get that door open. So there's been a lot of scary situations I've seen, you know, teachers are talking on the playground and a child goes right through the fence and they're often about so. So you know it's yeah, it's transitions and it's supervision. Sadly enough. Without a doubt.

Carrie 00:10:52  So what is your favorite way for people to do the. No. I call it nose to name. Yeah.

Tracy 00:11:01  Yeah. So what is.

Carrie 00:11:03  Your favorite way to help people with those transitions? And make sure, like if you're training a director or an owner in okay, this is what you need to tell your staff. What is it that you how do you train them on that?

Tracy 00:11:17  Yeah. So I call we call it name to face. So we, you know, if we're going outside, we are lining up at the playground door and we are checking, you know, you know, Casey and I'm looking at your name and Kate, I'm looking at your name.

Tracy 00:11:30  I'm really putting a name to a face. And then we're going through a threshold. So that's one transition. Once we get outside, they're going to do it again. Did we bring all the kids outside that we said we did. And then we're going to do that name to face again. And then when we come back in from outside, outside on the playground, we're going to do that name to face. We're not going to count kids, because let me tell you a story. There's been so many times where we're taking ten two year olds outside and we bring ten kids back inside, but they're not the right ten. So it's really important to to put a name with a face. So during every threshold you do a name to face and the importance of that and the why? Because they can go missing. They can get caught up in a different line and not realize it and just walk in with all the other children. So really focusing on name to face.

Kate 00:12:21  What a great tool. And you know, hopefully folks know this, but we know that sometimes as directors we make assumptions that our staff know this.

Tracy 00:12:31  Yes, exactly. Yeah. And you know yeah, like I said, I've taken ten kids out. I've got ten kids back in the classroom. But we realized that there's only nine of them that belong here.

Kate 00:12:42  Oh, I mean, I am I'm a huge person for, you know, having a lanyard with all of the information, including an index card with my list of people. yeah. Even more now at my age, because I may only I may know that there's ten. I may think I know what their names are, but there's a strong possibility I'm wrong. And this way, I have it right there, and I don't have to. I don't have to worry about that part. I have all of their names. And if anybody's got allergies or anything like that, right. I like.

Carrie 00:13:14  The lanyard. In addition to the tablet or the the clipboard, because sometimes we put the tablet or the clipboard down somewhere, but the lanyard is attached to you and it's much harder to lose.

Tracy 00:13:27  Yeah, I like that idea. Yeah. And you mentioned the allergy list.

Kate 00:13:31  This shows you how long we've been doing this because, you know, we didn't have tablets before. You could have clipboards. But yes.

Tracy 00:13:40  I was in I was in the clipboard. More phase two. So we had all of our Band-Aids and pens in the middle. Yes.

Kate 00:13:48  Yep. Yep. There's something to be said about those stolen go clipboards. I loved those things. Yeah. Like sitting there going. I don't even have one anymore. I may have to go, go, go to Office Depot and get me a metal. Just because I don't know. I don't have a reason for one, but I feel like I want one. I mean, I have my colorful clipboards, but anyway. Yeah.

Tracy 00:14:11  I hear you.

Carrie 00:14:13  So I want to know. Whoops. Okay, that was weird. I want to know what took you from the classroom into the like, because this is a very niche element of the industry.

Carrie 00:14:25  So what? Was there a story? Was there something that made you go? I'm going over there.

Tracy 00:14:31  No, no. I had been a director for years, and then I was a district manager for over a couple of schools, and I just thought I wanted to do something in the licensing realm because that is what I knew. And I came across a job looking, just randomly looking. And it was perfect for me. It had the licensing, it had the safety, and from then it just grew. And so growth opportunity has just taken me where I am today. And it's just become this passion of mine.

Kate 00:15:03  Oh well, Tracy, thank you so much for sharing your passion. If other people have questions and they want to talk to you or they want to connect with you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Tracy 00:15:12  Oh, they can reach me on LinkedIn anytime.

Kate 00:15:15  Awesome. And so that's Tracy Nado and a r d o. Right. Okay. All right. And then Tracy, who are you with? If they're trying to make sure.

Kate 00:15:23  Because I actually think I think I think there's more than one of you. and so if they were going to try to make sure they have you, they should be looking for. Yeah.

Tracy 00:15:33  I'm with Salisbury schools and I'm the licensing specialist.

Kate 00:15:36  Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Tracy Carey. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we wrap up this episode?

Carrie 00:15:43  Well, if you liked this show, share it with those who should follow what we said. Share it with. I usually have a rhyming one, and it just went completely out of my head. But please share the show with other people who need to know about it, and go in and leave a review on the podcasting app of your choice, whether that is on Buzzsprout. You can also send us messages, going in through buzzsprout. You can send us little messages. those are a lot of fun for us, but reviews and messages are great and we will talk to you next week.

Marie 00:16:22  Thank you for listening to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrie.

Marie 00:16:26  Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director. And if you've learned anything today. Leave us a comment below and share the show.