Arrival, Drop-Off & Daily Health Check: the full procedure

Greet each family, perform a quick daily health check, and formally transfer care with a timed sign-in confirming who is authorized to pick up.

• Applies to: All classroom and greeting staff.
• Frequency: Every arrival.
• Scope: Covers the operational arrival, sign-in, and care-transfer process. The health-check criteria and any exclusion decisions defer to the center’s health & safety plan, the child’s pediatrician, and state child-care licensing.

What you need

• Sign-in sheet or check-in app
• Daily health-check checklist
• Authorized-pickup list
• Parent contact log
• Thermometer (per health plan)

The procedure, step by step

1. Greet warmly — Welcome the child and parent by name at the door to start the day calmly and build the family relationship.
2. Daily health check — Conduct the daily wellness check as the child enters — observe appearance, behavior, and skin, and ask the parent about illness or changes since last attendance, per your center health plan.
3. Ask the parent — Confirm sleep, meals, medication, mood, and anything staff should watch for that day, and note items needing follow-up.
4. Record the result — Document the health-check outcome and follow your center/licensing exclusion guidance if symptoms are present; refer health questions to the family and their provider.
5. Sign in with time — Log the child’s arrival with the exact time and the name of the adult dropping off.
6. Confirm pickup plan — Verify who is authorized to pick up today and capture any change in writing against the authorized-pickup list.
7. Transfer belongings & info — Receive bottles, food, diapers, or medication per intake rules and store/label them correctly.
8. Support separation — Hand the child into the room with a predictable goodbye routine and reassure the parent before they leave.

Quality check before you finish

• Every child has a completed health check before the parent leaves.
• Arrival time and drop-off adult recorded.
• Today’s authorized pickup confirmed and documented.
• Any symptom or concern logged and acted on per the health plan.
• Labeled bottles/food/medication stored correctly.
• Health-check records retained per your licensing retention period.

This is a free, source-anchored standard operating procedure (SOP) you can print and hand to staff. It documents the work sequence for a Daycare Center business — not safety or regulatory rulings, which defer to the cited authorities, the applicable code, and your own health-and-safety plan. Open the tool above to print it, toggle ink-saver, or (with a free ToolFluency Business account) edit it to match your own workflow.

Sources

• Caring for Our Children (NRC/AAP/APHA) — Std 3.1.1.1 Daily Health Check (nrckids.org)
• UNC Healthy Child Care — Daily Health Check (healthychildcare.unc.edu)