Health and Safety at Guidepost
A child must feel secure in order to grow and learn, which is why health and safety come first at Guidepost. We are uncompromisingly committed to exceptionally safe, nurturing learning environments for all of our children, parents, and staff.
Exceeding Childcare Standards
Our commitment to safety is vetted from the inside out. Our campuses all comply with state licensing and regulatory bodies and are held to industry-leading operational standards through national and international accrediting agencies.
Staff Qualifications
Our staff are highly trained in safe sleep guidelines, proper food handling, child development, emergency preparedness, and other classroom protocols that uphold a safe learning environment every day.
- All Guidepost employees are background checked and must pass multiple interviews related to qualifications and prior experience. They must also demonstrate a clear love and respect for working with children.
- We extend background checks to applicable outside vendors, ensuring that anyone with regular access to campus is screened.
- Guidepost staff are CPR and First-Aid certified.
- We partner with the internationally accredited teacher-training institute, The Prepared Montessorian, to ensure every Guidepost educator has ongoing access to training and professional development.
Campus Security
Our campuses are secured 24/7 with restricted access and regularly inspected, enclosed outdoor play spaces. Exits and entrances are monitored, and staff work closely with parents and caregivers for drop off and pickup.
- Only parents and approved caregivers can sign children in and out each day using our secured SmartCare system.
- Guides supervise children at all times and are trained to immediately respond to any kind of safety incident.
- All classrooms adhere to required staff-to-children ratios, which vary by location.
- School teams enforce a strict visitor policy, and every approved guest is escorted by a staff member at all times.
- We cover all bases with emergency preparedness including fire drills, severe weather drills, shelter-in-place, evacuation plans, and medical emergency care plans.
Health and Wellness
We value preventative health measures that actively promote healthier school communities, ensuring families can count on Guidepost as a safe, clean, joyful space where children can thrive.
- Our staff perform daily well checks.
- Our Campus Illness Policy utilizes best practices for preventing, containing and minimizing spread of common childhood illnesses.
- We partner with families of children with special health needs to ensure the best, individualized care.
- Staff adhere to state and local guidelines for proper food handling with snacks and meals.
- Our schools are nut-free, and we work with families of children with food allergies to solidify allergy prevention plans.
- Our environments are regularly cleaned, sanitized, inspected, and our staff work with children to ensure proper hand washing and hygiene.
COVID-19 Learnings & Protocols
Guidepost Montessori has been safely and consistently operating its campuses through the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are proud to have been one of the first providers to offer Emergency Care for Essential Workers in 2020. Since then, our COVID response teams have been diligently evaluating the latest evidence and adapting our protocols appropriately to ensure reliable, safe, nurturing learning environments for all. We believe that childcare and education are essential, and we deliver on this need for continuity with both on-campus and in-home options.
Our commitment to continuity of education
Whether you enroll on campus or in a home-based program, we offer flexibility between programs so that you can switch between in person and virtual on your own terms, per your family's own risk tolerance.
While we do offer short-term virtual programming in the event of a warranted classroom closure for campus families, parent-elected enrollment in Guidepost Virtual School is a fully operational program run by certified Montessori Guides that serves thousands of families in a full-time capacity — with included shipments of hands-on Montessori learning materials!
We are deeply committed to operating our in-person and at-home programs in a way that minimizes disruption and lends necessary stability to foster healthy, thriving school communities.
Responsible implementation of in-person learning
Campus measures will vary by location. When making decisions about quarantine, travel, mask-wearing, we pay close attention to the requirements of local health departments and licensing agencies, and our practices are informed by our best understanding of COVID-19, local conditions, and authoritative sources such as the CDC.
We will continue to follow our local and state mandated requirements, but our north star will be a responsible and guided implementation of our fully realized, high-quality programming in our schools.
Evidence-based guidelines to keep classrooms safely open
In the event a guide or child tests positive, our approach is to look at which individuals were exposed rather than automatically closing classrooms, though in some cases, if all children were exposed, we will be effectively closing the room.
Vaccination is the greatest action we can take to prevent the spread and severity of COVID-19. For staffing, we require documentation of vaccination status so that we can make appropriate decisions about minimizing risk on our campuses. We encourage families to get vaccinated as well.
In the event of a positive COVID case on campus, you can expect thorough, prompt communication from your school team. School teams are supported centrally by our Compliance Team to solidify highly responsive support in gathering the facts, creating a timeline, and communicating details as quickly as possible.
We are in this together
We commit to transparent, fact-based decision making in close partnership with our parents and staff. Our top priority is to safely maintain a stable learning environment where each child is supported academically, socially, and emotionally. As circumstances change and evolve, we will evolve with them and communicate changes as necessary.