6.10 Serious Occurrences
Some incidences in licensed early years settings are considered serious occurrences by the Ministry of Education. These occurrences require additional investigations, reporting, documenting, and posting of information for families. All licensed settings will have policies and procedures for serious occurrence reporting. Employees, students, and volunteers will be trained in these policies and procedures during their orientation. It is important for employees to be aware when an incident becomes a serious occurrence and report this to their supervisor after managing any first aid or safety precautions necessary.
Regulation
1. In this regulation … “serious occurrence” means,
(a) the death of a child who received child care at a home child care premises or child care centre,
(b) abuse, neglect or an allegation of abuse or neglect of a child while receiving child care at a home child care premises or child care centre,
(c) a life-threatening injury to or a life-threatening illness of a child who receives child care at a home child care premises or child care centre,
(d) an incident where a child who is receiving child care at a home child care premises or child care centre goes missing or is temporarily unsupervised, or
(e) an unplanned disruption of the normal operations of a home child care premises or child care centre that poses a risk to the health, safety or well-being of children receiving child care at the home child care premises or child care centre.
(Ontario Regulation 137/15, under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014. © King’s Printer for Ontario, 2015)
Supervisors or the licensee will conduct an investigation into the incident, along with any of the appropriate authorities such as Children’s Aid Society and the Ministry of Education. Affected families will be contacted as soon as possible to be notified of the serious occurrence. A report is filed on CCLS for the Ministry with any follow up information attached. A serious occurrence notification form must be posted by the license for the public to be aware that a serious occurrence took place. The notification form is updated accordingly and must be posted for 10 business days. An annual report is prepared by the licensee to assess any patterns that may have developed. The annual report will be reviewed by the program advisor during their licensing visit.
