Child Safeguarding

In keeping with our commitment to AIS-R’s Mission and the safety and well-being of our students and community, AIS-R has adopted a comprehensive Child Safeguarding Policy based upon international law, Council of International Schools Standards and Practices, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These policies guided the creation of AIS-R’s Child Safeguarding Policy and define the standards by which all students are to be treated as a member of the AIS-R community, regardless of being in person on the AIS-R campus, or learning from home.

Accompanying AIS-R’s Child Safeguarding Policy is the Child Safeguarding Education Program, developed and implemented by AIS-R’s Child Safeguarding Task Force, AIS-R’s Leadership Team and K-12 counselors and teachers. This program has been specially designed for K-12 students and focuses on the four key concepts of child Safeguarding education: Value, Identify, Access and Act. These concepts enable students, faculty, staff and parents to recognize, respond to, and report cases of child maltreatment – including physical maltreatment, emotional maltreatment, sexual maltreatment and neglect, involving adults and/or peers. As part of AIS-R's Distance Learning plans (2020-2022), teachers, students and community members engage with lessons and activities geared toward recognizing, responding and reporting signs of child maltreatment while teaching and learning online.

AIS-R’s Child Safeguarding Education Program is extended beyond our K-12 students to include faculty and staff training and parent education sessions. Annually, faculty and staff attend mandatory Child and Teacher Safeguarding Training sessions twice each year. These sessions include information about how to recognize, respond to, and report child maltreatment, the process by which a faculty, staff and/or community member can make a report, and ways in which faculty and staff can avoid scenarios that could lead to allegations of child maltreatment. Our K-12 counselors and principals also offer information sessions to our parent community about AIS-R’s Child Safeguarding Policy annually during our PTSO Coffee Mornings and through divisional parent information sessions.

Maintaining the mental health, well-being, and safety of our students and community members is a critical role which AIS-R takes seriously, and our comprehensive policy as well as education programs uphold our commitment to this vitally important issue.