5. Preparing Staff and Parents

If any activities are conditional on student paperwork we recommend collecting those documents before the first day of the program. Find a suitable method of organizing the documents so that your staff can easily access them when needed. You don’t want to be scrambling for emergency contact information or insurance numbers while a student with a broken leg is on their way to the hospital. Rather than rely on hard copies in a locked office, you can scan the documents into Google Drive so anyone on your staff can access them.

If your program starts in June or July you may need to order instructional and office supplies before the start of the new fiscal year. If so, speak with your department’s financial officers about how to pay for supplies in advance of the program. By purchasing through your university you should not have to pay sales tax, and you may be able to access discounts for instructional supplies.

Some of your students have never slept outside of the home before. Ease the transition for them and their parents by hosting an information session. Make sure to explain the daily schedule and monthly calendar, lay out student and parental expectations, and give them an opportunity to meet some of the summer staff and ask questions. This is also a good time to collect necessary paperwork.

You’ll need to design a staff training plan that encourages collaboration, prepares staff to lead discussion, and elicits the staff’s help in planning for the rest of the summer. Depending on how much you expect your staff to do and know, you may need quite a bit of staff training. Columbia’s staff training lasts 30 hours and is spread out over five days before the program. Yale’s staff training is condensed to just two to three days. Much of Columbia’s training time is spent role playing, writing lesson plans for the summer, and planning for the academic year. Staff also spend time writing and preparing for student orientation. Outlined below are the major points you should cover in your training:

Building community and comfort in the classroom

• Role playing scenarios as teachers and students
• Ice-breakers, mixers, and name games
• Seminar-style discussions

Understanding the program

• Purpose, mission, goals of the program, and how we implement them
• Outline of full program
• Listing of staff responsibilities and roles at each level

Policies & Safety

• Clear expectations of staff conduct
• Outline of all student policies and how staff can implement them
• Appropriate and inappropriate consequences for students
• Review of Protection of Minors (POM) protocol and mandatory reporting procedures
• Emergency procedures (consult with public safety)
• Non-emergent medical attention (consult with your compliance office or campus advisor)
• CPR/AED/First Aid Training if necessary for residential staff

Pedagogy

• Teaching objectives
• Working with diverse student populations
• Building student relationships
• Putting students first
• Behavior and classroom management
• Lesson planning

Protection of Minors Training

Most schools also offer some form of training for Protection of Minors (POM), possibly as a webinar that staff may complete online and in their own time. POM training is typically geared towards preventing, recognizing, and reporting child abuse only. The POM training should clarify your staff’s reporting responsibilities if they suspect a minor is being abused. While you are not likely to be mandatory reporters by state law, your university may require mandatory reporting regardless. You should retain documentation that your staff has completed the required POM training.