Childcare Policies
If you haven’t yet, please start by reading my previous post Are Children at Risk? In it, I outline evidence that The Network has failed to properly deal with potentially dangerous situations in its childcare programs.
Someone who was or is involved in a Network Church reached out and provided a number of additional documents, and I am sharing them below.
Why it Matters
In early 2002, the Boston Globe reported rampant sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. In 2019, the Houston Chronical reported that over 400 leaders and volunteers had been credibly accused of abuse across churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The #MeToo movement kicked off in 2017, followed by #ChurchToo. Rachael Denhollander is most famous for being a survivor of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics coach convicted of sexual abuse of over 200 women and girls. But in her book What is a Girl Worth? she details how she was molested as a child in her church by someone working in the childcare area, but the church did nothing about it. A child at Village Church (led by Matt Chandler, head of the Acts 29 network) was allegedly sexually abused in 2012 and is only now seeing progress in the courts (detailed in A Church Called Tov).
The year is now 2022, 20 years after the Boston Globe report. We must not believe that churches are somehow safe places by default, or that those working as volunteers, staff, or even pastors are safe by default. We simply do not have that luxury. Schools, childcares, and other organizations that work with children typically have rigorous safeguarding policies in place to protect kids. Many churches have these as well.
Policy Documents
One Specific Church
I have received these documents which I find credible, and they are from a specific Network church, but I will not say which one, at the request of the person who shared them with me. I obviously cannot assert that these are the only documents, and for this reason I encourage The Network to publish all documents related to childcare policies for the purpose of transparency. But they are everything I’ve received, and I’ve only made redactions to hide names, addresses, and phone numbers.
I am sharing screenshots here for ease of viewing, but you can also see the originals.
Policies and Procedures & Labels.pptx
This one has a bunch of template labels, I’ve excluded these from the screenshots.
Serving Instructions-Kids Church.docx
Team Lead Duties.docx
Pre-Service Talking Points-name.docx
Note: “Team Lead Pre-Service Talking Points.docx” has a different version of the same content, and my guess is that it’s an earlier version. I’ve not excluded it from the screenshots.
Office Duties.docx
Copy of Intro Talk Training & Tips.docx
Copy of Elementary Details Insert.docx
Elementary Room Discipline flowchart.jpg
Elementary Room Discipline Flow Chart.pdf
Blue Sky Church
In my previous post, I shared the following artifacts, but I’m pulling screenshots in now:
An email from a Small Group Leader to the parents of volunteers who had been watching the kids in a Small Group for several months.
Observations
I am not a childcare expert, and there’s a lot of info here and I can’t go through all of it. I’d welcome the input of anyone who does work in a school or daycare. But here are some of my observations. All commentary is, of course, my opinion.
I want to also make it clear that I do not blame parents, guardians, or caregivers for placing their kids in these programs. These programs ask for your trust and don’t publish their guidelines. It’s reasonable to assume that they are following best practices. My own kids were in The Network for more than 9 years, and I never thought twice about any of this. The fault here is on the church leadership for these policies and failure to properly earn and honor the trust of the parents.
Rules for preventing sexual abuse
There are a few rules regarding preventing sexual abuse of children - I’ve attempted to list them all here, but I may have missed some (some are repeated across many documents - I’ve attempted to take a representative sample of it).
“Two-Worker Rule”
Example Wording: “At least two volunteers must be present with children at all times. If you find yourself alone with children, please leave the door propped open.” (from "Specific Church” “Policies and Procedures & Labels.pptx”)
Comments: So this rule actually allows for its own violation, by making allowances for what to do if the volunteer is alone with children (leave the door propped open). It should be noted that this is absolutely insufficient protection. An open door only helps in the event that:
Someone can see into it (some angles would not allow that)
Someone does see into it (sometimes no one is around)
A child being sexually abused is aware of it and yells. This is not a universal reaction, particularly with younger children (or infant) who may not understand what’s happening. In a particularly chilling example, Rachael Denhollander (again, in What is a Girl Worth?) recounts having been molested as a teenager by Larry Nassar. This happened in front of her mother and not only did her mother not know, but Denhollander fully believed that it was a legitimate medical technique he was performing to help her (it was not).
Additionally, a “two-worker rule” where the workers can be married or siblings does not protect against a conflict of interest. While at Vista, my wife and I watched kids at Team Vista (each parent couple would take a meeting each year). This is obviously unsafe as many spouses have protected their spouse from accountability, and in some cases even enabled them.
Compliance: This rule is broken at many, many small groups across the network, each and every week. A small group only adds a second childcare worker when there’s enough kids that one can’t handle it. And even though there is only one volunteer, at least in the small groups I was in, the door was almost always closed in order to manage noise from the kids (this was true even when Luke Williams, Lead Pastor of Vista Church, would visit our small group).
“Physical Contact”
Salvation Army Rule
Example Wording: “Appropriate touch is defined using the Salvation Army Rule: ‘No touching where a bathing suit covers.’” (found in "Specific Church” “Policies and Procedures & Labels.pptx” AND in “Blue Sky Childcare Policies.docx”)
Blue Sky adds:
Do not allow kids 3 years old and older to sit on your laps.
In the interest of maintaining safety and propriety, no children should sit on laps if the lighting is dimmed or off.
Any male kids’ workers should limit touch to side hugs and only when appropriate.
Comments: First, in my opinion, this is dangerously insufficient while also being nonsensical. A girl’s bathing suit doesn’t cover her legs at all, but does frequently cover her back. So hugs are not permitted (hands would touch the back), but (sorry to get graphic) putting a full hand on the inner thigh is ok? This is awful. and must be fixed immediately. A document from a non-Network church I’ll share soon says “no touching between the navel and knees”, which seems at least far better, though still potentially problematic for girls.
Second, I’ve seen references to the “Salvation Army Rule” in papers both at Blue Sky Church and at Specific Church. I don’t know how to say this gently, so I’ll just say it: There does not appear to be any such thing. I’ve searched for “Salvation Army Rule” and come up with nothing relevant. When I search “‘Salvation Army Rule’ ‘bathing suit’”, I get literally zero results on Google. When I Google for “No touching where a bathing suit covers” I get exactly one result, from some fiction book, it looks like. Is it possible this rule exists? I guess, but when the Internet has never heard of something, it’s a pretty decent bet that it does not.
At worst, this was someone in The Network (in 2014 or earlier) trying to increase the credibility of this rule by invoking a trusted name like “Salvation Army.” But the rule itself makes no sense, and I can’t imagine that the Salvation Army still uses it in this form. The only context I’ve ever heard a “don’t touch where a bathing suit covers” rule is in pastors giving advice to couples who are dating. They are trying to give advice for limiting physical contact while dating. But that’s a wildly different scenario than defining appropriate touch with children.
Furthermore, this policy fails to cover ways in which a volunteer may try to get a kid to touch the volunteer. That form of sexual abuse is also common, and it’s negligent for the church to not address it in any way.
While I understand the rule for “male kids workers”, it’s almost impossible to imagine that this is maintained. Do male kids workers refuse to give high fives to the boys in their classroom? I know I’m being pedantic, but there’s a reason why organizations typically have lengthy documentation for this. It’s complicated and needs to be spelled out. The singling out of “male” here without providing justification also unhelpfully reinforces a view that women cannot sexually abuse children. They can and do. If I were writing it, I might make it something like this: “because parents and guardians are more skeptical of male volunteers, we require that men keep physical touch to side hugs and high fives or fist bumps. While we also require carefulness from our female volunteers, this rule helps parents and guardians feel more at ease.”
Side note: The Blue Sky policy only makes mention of “parents” not “parents or guardians” or “caregivers.” This is a significant miss when these days children may be under the care of any number of people.
The lap-sitting rule makes sense, though I’d probably extend the second part and make it “No children should sit on laps if not in full and well-lit view of another volunteer to whom they are not related. This includes if the lights are dimmed or off. In general, lights should only be dimmed or off if a movie is being watched.”
Compliance: I wasn’t in kids program often, so I honestly can’t say. But this is one where full compliance would not mean safety.
Security & Pick-up
Example Wording: Children are to be released only to an adult with a matching family number. Any children being picked up should be filtered through a teacher. (from "Specific Church” “Policies and Procedures & Labels.pptx”)
Comments: This one seems reasonable, though it wasn’t always enforced with well-known families (though to be honest, it was still enforced pretty well even with them). Not a lot more to say here.
Compliance: Mostly good from what I saw. My wife handled Kids Check-in/out at times, but did not have a background check performed, which I think I would want to see fixed.
Restroom & Diaper
Example Wording: Diapers and bathrooms are to be performed by female volunteers in designated areas and in the presence of other volunteers. When taking children to the restroom, the main door to the restroom is to remain open. If needed you may enter the stall. (from "Specific Church” “Policies and Procedures & Labels.pptx”)
Comments: This is not in the Blue Sky policies doc from 2014, which is quite the omission (it’s talking mostly about small group childcare, but still - there should be a policy). The limit to female volunteers I think is valid, though I’d again explain it’s for the comfort of the parents.
It starts off with “in the presence of other volunteers”, but then by, “if needed you may enter the stall”, it gets worse - are two volunteers entering the stall with one child? That’d be surprising. There’s also nothing here about making sure the bathroom does not have someone else in it (like in another stall) who was just at the church.
There’s room to improve on this.
Compliance: At Vista, it seemed like in the middle of service, they’d do a bathroom break and all the kids would go to the bathroom at the same time. That makes sense to me, but I’m not an expert.
Background Checks
Put simply, this is quite limited. As stated, the 2014 email shows two volunteers being asked to fill out the application over four months after having started watching children. The Blue Sky application also only says that a background check may be performed and that references may be contacted. It’s unclear how often this was actually done.
Background checks should be required prior to anyone starting work in kids program. I always thought this was the case and was shocked to see that the kids application does not state that it will. And this is coupled with the Blue Sky email in 2014 that shows that it had not been done. It’s possible that they do it every time now, but haven’t updated the online application to make that clear. I’d be happy to make the update here if someone can confirm that these are always done.
Mandated Reporter
Literally nothing in any of these documents references the obligation to report if they either witness abuse or believe that it has been occurring outside of the church (at home, school, e.g. if they see bruises/cuts, or a child simply tells them). There’s no training for any of that here.
Injuries
Example Wording: “Parents should be notified of all accidents that result in head injury or the drawing of blood, at a minimum.” (Blue Sky Policies)
Comments: So broken bones are a judgment call? I’m sorry to be snarky, but this just appears to be sheer laziness. How about, “Parents should be notified of all incidents that result in injury including but not limited to all head injuries or any injury which requires the use of the first aid kit or in which the child requires prolonged comforting to calm down (x minutes or more). Injuries in which the child is clearly calm can be told to the parents after service.” I’m not an expert, so I’m sure that’s still not good enough, but I feel confident that it’s better.
Compliance: I guess I wouldn’t know if they weren’t complying, but I did note on several occasions that they told me about injuries after service that were comparatively minor.
Other Things
I’m including this section to show the attentiveness that they paid to other areas:
“Wear a nametag when providing childcare…” (Blue Sky Policies)
“Note: when printing make sure it is in black and white. Unless it’s necessary.” (Office Duties)
“Dress Modestly” which includes: “Wear clothes that you don’t have to continuously pull up or down. Examples: spaghetti straps, backless shirts, or short shorts.”
Just note that this does not include a note that men should wear belts that keep their pants from falling too low.
Other versions of this rule just flat out say those three examples are not permitted.
A bunch of notes on discipline process - what to do if the child is disruptive. But there’s just very little here about keeping the children safe from the workers.
I’ve seen no policy on what a parent or guardian should do if they have a concern (which should clearly and emphatically state that they should file a report with proper authorities first if they believe something criminal has occurred).
Summary
There’s nowhere near enough here. I’ll share a sample doc tomorrow from another church that includes far more robust policies. I’d love to hear what observations you have as you look at these, and I’m happy to receive any additional documents from any additional churches.