Best Practices

• Administration
• Hiring and employee practices
• Safety regulations
• Caring for program participants

• Strive to provide program participants with ethical and professional services
• Have a written plan for governance, administration and professional services
• Develop mission statement, philosophy and goals that:
  • Communicate the mission, philosophy, goals.
  • Ensure employees understand & support mission, philosophy, goals
  • Reflect the mission, philosophy, goals in operations.

• Provide services (including assessments) in staff training and qualifications
• Represent the competence, education, training, certification and experience of employees accurately and factually
• Not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation when hiring staff.

• Write an Admission Policy defining the enrollment criteria and delineating inclusion/exclusion criteria that is consistent with the mission.
• Ensure admissions screening process includes physical, emotional, behavioral, and academic history.
• Based on the participant’s needs and limitations and using the admissions screening information, determine if the facility will meet the participant’s needs
• Provide program participants, parents, guardians, with a clear, informed statement of services including risks
• Create a file for each participate detailing family, medical, psychiatric, developmental, educational information.
• Conduct ongoing assessments to determine the continuation of placement
• Provide written discharge/termination summary upon termination or discharge
• Include recommendations for continued care to the participant’s parents/guardians and add this information to the participant’s file.

Write a Behavior Management Plan that includes:

• Protection of participants’ rights during treatment
• Emergency situation procedures
• Ongoing staff training.

• Draft a Participant Handbook or Statement of Program Participant Rights and Responsibilities
• Ensure that the document is appropriate to the facility setting and purpose as well as taking into account state and federal laws.

Develop a policy on healthcare that includes:

• A written agreement
• Descriptions of appropriate and qualified healthcare services.

Include Plant, Technology and Safety Policies and Procedures containing:

• Fire and disaster plan
• Emergency plan
• Policies concerning staff training

Ensure facilities are of a sufficient size, space, configuration and condition to:

• Support the balanced integration of programs and services
• Manage its physical plant to keep risk within acceptable parameters for participants
• Ensure these efforts relate to the facility’s mission and goals.