An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 21 – Child Care Centers/Preschools

In the event of an emergency, the preschool must make prompt arrangements for obtaining medical treatment if the child’s parents cannot be reached or if the injury is such that there should be no delay in treatment. 2916 If a child is taken to a hospital for emergency medical treatment, the accompanying teacher must bring that child’s signed consent form for medical treatment. 2917 If a child is not required to have a consent form for medical treatment, the accompanying teacher must bring the phone numbers of the child’s parents or legal guardians who can assume responsibility for the child in an emergency. 2918 E. F OOD S ERVICES Full-day preschool programs must ensure that each child has a lunch and must offer a midmorning and midafternoon snack. 2919 Half-day preschool programs must offer children a midmorning or midafternoon snack. 2920 Snacks shall include at least one serving from at least two of the four major food groups. 2921 Preschools can satisfy this requirement if parents send meals or snacks for their child. 2922 Preschools providing meals to children must ensure that all food is safe and that the quality and quantity of food is sufficient to meet the needs of the children. 2923 Preschool staff must select, store, prepare, and serve food in a safe and healthful manner. 2924 Preschools must immediately discard any contaminated food. 2925 If meal service is elective, the preschool must ensure it has sufficient food for all children who elect meal service in their admission agreement. 2926 Federal regulations set forth the actual requirements for children’s meals, including minimum amounts of milk, vegetables and fruit, grains or bread, and meat or meat alternatives to serve the children. 2927 Preschools serving meals should comply with all of these food-related requirements. DSS can demand the preschool provide documentation on food purchased or used over any given period to ensure compliance. 2928 Preschools must submit a sample one week menu to CCLD when submitting the license application documentation. 2929 After the preschool receives its license, menus must be written and regularly posted at least one week in advance in an area accessible by parents. 2930 LCW Practice Advisor Preschools should make copies of the menus

available for parents to take during drop off or pick up. Preschools may also want to post the menus on their website for parents to review at their leisure. These options would be in addition to posting a copy of the menus at least a week in advance. Preschools must keep past menus on file for at least 30 days. 2931

If food is prepared off the preschool’s premises, the preparation source must meet all applicable requirements of commercial food services, including all sanitation requirements. 2932 The preschool must have the equipment and staff needed to receive and serve the food and clean up following the meal. 2933 Even if using a third party food preparation source, the preschool must still maintain equipment to prepare food in-house or have an alternative source for food preparation and service ready in case of an emergency. 2934

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 651