Away from Supervision Manual

The Away From Supervision Manual by the West Virginia Child Care Association was updated in 2016 and is now available for purchase.

The manual guides trainees in how to:

• Identify causes for a child’s pain that may prompt runaway behavior.
• Educate the child in alternative ways to handle conflictual situations and assist the child in implementing them in his daily life.
• Identify skills that will help each child to cope with stress without resorting to runaway behavior.
• Understand and adhere to standards that require staff alertness and mobility on shifts so as to ensure proper supervision of children.
• Identify agency norms that may inadvertently enable and/or support the child in his decision to run away.
• Understand the importance of normalizing a no-run expectation within the agency.
• Understand the importance of family involvement and support of the program.
• Identify priorities and develop procedures that ensure proper search responses and strengthen necessary teamwork in search-and-follow episodes. 
• Increase perception and insight of a child’s physical well-being and mental stability. 
• Identify situations that could potentially place themselves or others (staff and children) in a dangerous situation and alternative responses.