New State Regulations
On March 15th, we had our routine Virginia Department of Social Services state inspection for our state license. Please review the details of the new standards that will be implemented from this date forward. These standards exist to keep children safe across the Commonwealth, so we ask for your compliance in implementing these necessary items listed below. Understand, these are state-wide regulations.1. Lunch Boxes: Standard 22VAC15-30-620 states, “When food is brought from home, the following shall apply; food shall be sealed and clearly dated and labeled in a way that identifies the owner.” How this impacts TMS: We will need to first make sure your child’s lunch box is clearly DATED. The suggestion was to get a piece of masking tape and list the dates your child comes to lunch on the tape; we will cross off each day at dismissal. See example below; this would be how it would look on Wednesday morning: 
Second, the lunch box needs to be labeled with their name. I would suggest a permanent marker on the outside of the lunch box. Some of the tags from the go green lunch boxes have fallen off; if so, please clearly re-label your child’s lunch box.
2. Injury: Per regulations, any time first aid is administered we are required to write an injury report and inform the parents of the treatment.How this impacts TMS: As you know, it has been TMS practice to always inform parents of bumps and bruises. Now you will receive emails and/or copies of injury reports. For more serious bumps, cuts, or bruises, we will ask for the parent to sign the injury report which will then be kept in the injury/accident file. The injury report will be completed any time any first aid is administered. So, you may hear more from us regarding band aids than in prior months. We will also need your assistance to sign and return the forms to us for the injury report. 3. Field Trips for Afternoon Students: Parents are required to sign out their student specifically to the parent who is transporting their student to the field trip site. How this impacts TMS: We will now obtain individual permissions from each parent acknowledging that permission is given for their student to ride with a specific parent. We have two remaining afternoon student field trips so you receive new permission slips prior to these trips. Again, we appreciate your consideration as we implement these changes. If you have any questions about the standards listed above, please call the office.Sincerely,Amanda Edmondson