NAEYC Code Summary

Summary of the Main Concepts of the NAEYC Code
NAEYC stands for the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the Code of Ethical Conduct was produced by this association in 2011 as a guideline for responsible behaviour, to help Early Childhood Education (ECE) practitioners to resolve ethical dilemmas they face in the workplace each day ("Position Statements," n.d.). The code is divided into four sections: responsibilities to children, responsibilities to families, responsibilities to colleagues, and responsibilities to community and society. Each section is comprised of ‘Ideals’- practices which are encouraged and show professional behaviour, and ‘Principles’- practices which require absolute adherence when working in an
Although the area was relatively safe, and many parents in the area allow children to play together outside in the streets without adult supervision, this level of independence could be a sign that this girl was home alone, or that no one was noticing that she was missing. However, I know why my manager spoke to her about our policy, had anything happened to her while she was in the library then we would have been liable. Nevertheless, the girl cycled away from the library alone, and I feel like someone should have been contacted before this
Being alone in a public building (the library) exposed the child to a number of uncontrollable factors that could harm her, for example, ‘stranger danger’. However, neither my manager nor I (the only members of staff on duty that day) followed P-1.6, where we report ‘reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or neglect’ to the ‘appropriate community agency’, nor did we ‘follow up to ensure appropriate action has been taken’. Furthermore, by allowing the child to cycle away we may have been seen to be applying I-2.3, respecting ‘the dignity of each family and its culture, customs and beliefs’, as we did not restrict the freedom of the child to cycle alone, which may have been a child-rearing decision made by the parents, but this could also be seen as neglectful on our part as we were aware that she was cycling alone in the dark and we did not inform any authorities. Another Principle that relates to the specific library age restriction policy is P-3 B.3, which states that ‘We shall not violate laws or regulations designed to protect children’ with regards to responsibilities to employers. It could be seen as being responsible to our employer that my manager spoke to the child about our age restriction policy, but it could also be seen as going against policy to not report suspected neglect. We may have endangered the child more by