APPENDIX A
NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct (2024, draft)
Note. Reprinted from Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (pp. 6–13), by National Association for the Education of Young Children, (2024, draft) https://www.naeyc.org/resources/posi...thical-conduct
Ethical responsibilities for early childhood educators working with young children, families and other educators
1. Ethical Responsibilities to Children
Our paramount responsibility is to provide education and care in diverse settings- including centers, homes, and schools- that are safe, healthy, nurturing, and responsive for each and every child. We are committed to supporting each child’s development; fostering joyful learning; respecting individual differences; and helping children learn to play, live, and work in community. We are also committed to promoting children’s self-awareness, self-worth, physical and mental well-being, competence, and resiliency.
We shall:
1.1- Do no harm to children
1.2- Care for and educate children in positive emotional, social, cultural, and learning environments that are developmentally appropriate, cognitively stimulating, and that affirm, support, value, and promote all aspects of each child’s identities and abilities.
1.3- Support children’s well-being by:
a. encouraging the development of strong bonds and trusting relationships between and among children, families, educators, and communities.
b. recognizing the multiple assets all young children bring to the early learning program as unique individuals and as members of families and communities.
c. partnering with families and communities to promote those assets through cultural consistency, connections, and stability between the program and home.
1.4- Be aware of and apply all program policies regarding our obligations to children consistently, fairly, and without bias.
1.5- Use appropriate, and, to the extent possible, valid, unbiased, and reliable assessment systems, which include multiple sources of information, to understand and assess children’s learning, development, and program experiences.
1.6- Treat child assessment information confidentially and share this information only when there is a legitimate need for it.
1.7- Be familiar with the risk factors for, and signs of child abuse and neglect, including physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse and physical, emotional, educational, and medical neglect.
a. Be familiar with the ways in which reporting suspected abuse and neglect may be unjustly influenced by biases and stereotypes having a disproportionate impact on under-resourced communities, communities of color, and persons with disabilities.
b. Follow state laws and community procedures (including reporting, informing, resource connections, community supports, and follow-up) that protect children against abuse and neglect when we have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or serious neglect.
c. Assist in taking appropriate action or informing a parent and/or others who can act when another person shares a suspicion that a child is being abused or neglected.
1.8- Strive to prevent, limit, and eliminate suspensions and expulsion of children in early childhood settings.
a. Strive to build individual relationships with each child; make individualized adaptations and transition plans in teaching strategies, learning environments, and curricula; and consult with the family so that each child benefits from the program.
b. Collaborate with the child’s family and appropriate specialists to determine the additional services needed and/or the placement option(s) most likely to ensure the child’s success if after such efforts have been exhausted, the current placement does not meet a child’s needs, or the child is seriously jeopardizing the ability of other children to benefit from the program (Aspects of this principle may not apply in programs that have a lawful mandate to provide services to a particular population of children).
1.9- Only utilize and integrate technology, interactive media, and artificial intelligence when it is done intentionally, responsibly, and within the framework of developmentally appropriate practice, and particularly to support learning goals established for individual children, strengthen family relationships, and provide equitable access for children with special needs.
1.10- involve all those with relevant knowledge (including family members and staff) in decisions concerning a child, making every effort to use families’ preferred language while ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information.
1.11- Not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children.
1.12- Not base high-stakes decisions, such as those related to enrollment, retention, or assignment to special education services, on a single assessment, such as a test score or a single observation.
1.13- Not permit or participate in research that could hinder the education, development, or well-being of children.
1.14- Not participate in practices that discriminate against children by denying benefits, giving special advantages, or excluding them from programs or activities based on their abilities and identities (aspects of this principle do not apply in programs that have a lawful mandate to provide services to a particular population of children).
2. Ethical Responsibilities to Families
Families are the foundation of children’s development. As families and early childhood practitioners typically share a common interest in a child’s well-being, early childhood educators must recognize a primary responsibility to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with each child’s home, family, and community in ways that enhance that child’s development and well-being.
We shall:
2.1- Partner with families to ensure that each family is involved in significant decisions affecting their child, and that family input contributes to the planning and implementation of the program and policies.
2.2- Work to create a respectful environment for and a working relationship with all families.
2.3- Make every effort to use two-way communication to effectively communicate with all families in their preferred language, calling upon external resources for translation and interpretation, which may include responsible use of artificial intelligence and interactive technology, when programs do not have sufficient internal resources.
2.4- Apply all policies regarding obligations to families consistently, fairly, and without bias.
2.5- Provide families with complete, honest, and non-biased information concerning the program’s enrollment practices, philosophy, policies, curriculum, assessment system, cultural practices, and personnel qualifications.
2.6- Positively respond to families’ requests to the extent that the requests are congruent with program philosophy, standards of good practice, and the resources of the program.
2.7- Interpret and communicate assessment information and results fairly, accurately, and in ways that convey the strengths of children as well as acknowledge the limitations of the evaluation instruments. Guarantee that assessment results are accessible to families.
2.8- Explain to families how data about their child will be used, maintain confidentiality, and respect the family’s right to privacy, except in the case where a child’s welfare is at risk, when it becomes permissible to share confidential information with agencies, organizations and/or individuals who have legal responsibilities to intervene in the child’s interest.
2.9- Ensure that parents and legal guardians have access to their child’s records and classroom or program setting, except in the case where access is denied by court order or other legal restriction.
2.10- Inform the family of injuries and incidents involving their child, of risks such as exposures to communicable diseases that might result in infection, and of occurrences that might result in emotional stress.
2.11- Strive to be familiar with community resources and support services; appropriately refer families as needed; and follow up to ensure that services have been provided appropriately and received.
2.12- Work proactively in cases where family members and/ or staff are in conflict with one another and to help all parties involved express their particular needs and perspectives to make informed decisions and to support family members in doing the same.
2.13- Not involve children in research projects without fully informing parents or legal guardians, andproviding them with the opportunity to give or withhold consent without penalty.
2.14- Not use our relationship with a family for private advantage or personal gain or enter intorelationships with family members that might impair our judgement or have a negative impact on children.
2.15- Not honor any request from a family that puts a child in a situation that, in the context of professional expertise, knowledge, and judgement, would create physical or emotional harm. In such instances, we shall communicate with the family the reason(s) why the request was not honored and work toward an alternative solution.
3. Ethical Responsibilities to Colleagues and Employers
A caring, cooperative workplace respects human dignity, promotes professional satisfaction, and supports and sustains positive relationships. Based upon our core values, our primary responsibilities to colleagues, including staff and volunteers, and employers are to establish and maintain inclusive environments and respectful relationships that support meaningful work as well as each individual’sphysical and mental well-being.
A- RESPONSIBILITIES TO COLLEAGUES
We shall:
3A.1- Recognize and honor the perspectives, strengths, and contributions of our colleagues to the program.
3A.2- Honor confidentiality related to job performance, and respect a right to privacy regarding personal and personnel issues.
3A.3- Exercise care by acknowledging and addressing personal biases in expressing views regarding personal attributes or professional conduct.
3A.4- Express concerns regarding colleagues’ behavior, competence, fairness, ethics, or accuracy in a way that shows respect for personal dignity and diversity.
a. As long as children’s well-being is not at risk, we shall attempt to resolve the matter collegially and in a confidential manner.
b. If children are at risk or the situation does not improve after it has been brought to the colleague’s attention, we shall report the colleague’s unethical or incompetent behavior through official channels and/or to an appropriate authority.
3A.5- Not participate in practices that discriminate against a colleague.
3A.6- Not participate in practices that diminish our colleagues’ reputations or impair their effectiveness in working with children and families.
B- RESPONSIBILITIES TO EMPLOYERS
We shall:
3B.1- Follow all program policies. When we do not agree with program policies, we shall attempt to effect change through constructive action.
3B.2- Inform the program’s administration or, when necessary, other appropriate authorities, when we have a concern about circumstances or conditions that impact the quality of education and care within the program.
3B.3- Speak or act on behalf of an organization only when authorized by that organization; and take care to acknowledge when we are speaking for the organization and when we are expressing a personal judgement.
3B.4- Be familiar with laws and regulations that serve to protect the health and safety of children in our programs and be vigilant in ensuring that these laws and regulations are followed.
3B.5- Not participate in practices that are in violation of laws and regulations designed to protect the health and safety of children in our programs, and in the case that we become aware of such violations, we shall take appropriate action consistent with this Code.
4. Ethical Responsibilities to Community and Society
Early childhood education programs operate within the context of their immediate community made up of families and other institutions concerned with children’s well-being. Our responsibilities to the community are to provide programs that meet the diverse needs of families, to cooperate with agencies and professions that share the responsibility for children, to assist families in gaining access to those agencies and allied professionals, and to assist in the development and resourcing of community programs that are needed but not currently available.
As individuals, we acknowledge our responsibility to provide the best possible programs of education and care for children and to conduct ourselves with honesty and integrity.
Because of our specialized expertise in early childhood development and education and because the larger society shares responsibility for the welfare and protection of young children, we acknowledge a collective obligation to advocate for children within early childhood programs and in the larger community and to serve as a voice alongside young children and families.
We shall:
4.1- Communicate openly and truthfully about the nature and extent of services that we provide and be objective and accurate in reporting the knowledge upon which we base our program practices to those served, the public, and with relevant oversight bodies.
4.2- Rely on our professional perspectives, relevant experience, knowledge of child development, and standards of practice to provide informed opinions on issues, practices, products, or programs.
4.3- Ensure that any research we conduct appropriately reflects the diversity of the population upon whom its results may have future impact.
4.4- Exercise caution particularly when recommending commercial products or services.
4.5- Inform ourselves about the systems, policies, and practices that contribute to inequitable and unethical outcomes for children, and work to change them.
4.6- Hire or recommend for employment persons whose competence, qualifications, and character make them well-suited for the position.
4.7- Make a case-by-case determination of whether to report problems and disclose program identities to appropriate authorities or the public. These determinations must be based on a fair assessment of the evidence which concludes that a program or agency that enacts policies or provides services intended to protect children’s health and safety or ensure children’s well-being, is requiring employees to violate this Code or failing to meet its obligations. If a fair assessment determines that a public report is not necessary, this decision should not put children at risk.
4.8- Not mislead families or the public by offering services that we do not have the competence, qualifications, or resources to provide.
Ethical responsibilities specific to program administrators
Administrators of programs for young children, including those operating, owning, or working in family child care settings, have a wide diversity of pedagogical and operational responsibilities. Program administrators face unique responsibilities and ethical challenges in the course of managing and guiding their programs and assume leadership roles within and beyond their programs. Administrators may be responsible for providing pedagogical leadership, managing program operations, and representing the field to the community.
As managers and leaders, they are called upon to build and sustain relationships with a wide variety of constituencies; share their professional knowledge and expertise with families, personnel, governing boards, and others; demonstrate empathy for the families and children they serve; and communicate respect for the skills, knowledge, and expertise of teaching staff, other personnel, and families.
Programs providing early education and care operate under various public and private auspices with diverse governing structures, funding streams, missions, and levels and mechanisms of oversight and accountability. Administrators must be responsive to these various structures, while ensuring the program’s stability and reputation through licensing, participation in quality rating systems, and accreditation; recruiting, selecting, orienting, and supervising personnel; maintaining a safe and secure facility or home where children and staff can thrive; and following sound fiscal practices.
Administrators accept primary responsibility for executing the program’s mission as well as developing and carrying out program policies and procedures that support that mission. They also make a commitment to continue their own professional development and to support the continuing education of the personnel in the program they lead. Administrators may also support educators and staff in being advocates for all children, and may participate in their own advocacy capacity in helping children and families gain equitable access to high-quality, inclusive early learning environments.
Given the nature and complexity of their responsibilities, administrators often face additional ethical challenges, particularly when conflicts surface in the areas of enrollment policies; dealings with personnel; and competing obligations to families, licensing and monitoring agencies, governing boards, sponsoring and fiscal agencies, and others in the community.
The next section examines Administrators’ ethical responsibilities to coworkers and employers that are included in the Code of Ethical Conduct, Section III, Part A and Part B and offers additional sets of ethical responsibilities unique to early childhood program administrators, specifically addressing two areas of their professional relationships: (a) with personnel they supervise and/or employ, and (b) with sponsoring agencies and governing boards.
ADMIN 1: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO PERSONNEL
We shall:
Admin 1.1- Provide staff members with safe and supportive working conditions, environments, and facilities that respect human dignity and diversity, honor confidences, value well-being, encourage professional growth, and facilitate ethical decision-making.
Admin 1.2- Make every effort to seek out and provide resources that ensure that all children, including those with special needs, can benefit from the program.
Admin 1.3- Support and encourage personnel in their efforts to implement strengths-based programming that enhances children’s positive and joyful learning and development.
Admin 1.4- Work to achieve shared understandings between families and staff members. In the case of disagreements, we shall help all parties express their particular needs and perspectives.
Admin 1.5- Seek out, value, and draw upon different kinds of education, training, professional experience, lived experience, and expertise held by personnel, when making decisions concerning children and programs.
Admin 1.6- Provide access to continuing professional development and advancement, and work to ensure that it reflects current research and is relevant to staff members’ responsibilities.
Admin 1.7- Provide training for and hold program staff accountable for knowing and following all relevant standards and regulations.
Admin 1.8- Develop and maintain written policies for the protection of confidentiality and the disclosure of children’s records, which shall be made available to all program personnel and families.
a. Disclosure of children’s records beyond parents or legal guardians, program personnel, and consultants having an obligation of confidentiality shall require familial consent (except in cases of suspected abuse or neglect).
Admin 1.9- Develop and maintain comprehensive and clearly stated, written personnel policies that define program standards and expectations, are given to all new staff members, and are easily accessible and available for review by all staff members.
Admin 1.10- Apply all policies regarding work with personnel consistently, fairly, and without bias.
Admin 1.11- Appropriately address incidents that are not consistent with our policies.
Admin 1.12- Be familiar with and observe laws and regulations that pertain to employment discrimination, and make hiring, retention, termination, and promotion decisions based solely on a person’s competence, professional preparation, record of accomplishment, and ability to carry out the responsibilities of the position.
Admin 1.13- Be familiar with and abide by the rules and regulations developed by unions or other groups representing the interests or rights of personnel.
Admin 1.14- Evaluate the performance of all staff.
a. Inform staff whose performance does not meet program expectations about areas of concern and, when possible, assist them in improving their performance by providing additional supports and coaching.
b. Inform staff about grievance procedures if they do not agree with their performance evaluation.
Admin 1.15- Conduct personnel dismissals, when necessary, in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.
a. Inform staff who are dismissed of the reasons for termination.
b. When dismissal is for cause, ensure there is evidence of inadequate or inappropriate behavior that is current, accurately documented, and available for review
Admin 1.16- Be accurate and truthful in making personnel evaluations, judgements, and references.
Admin 1.17- Not make hiring, retention, termination, and promotion decisions based on an individual’s identities.
Admin 1.18- Not allow staff to implement activities or practices that put any child in a situation that creates physical or emotional harm.
ADMIN 2: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO SPONSORING AGENCIES AND GOVERNING BODIES
We shall:
Admin 2.1- Review all program policies set forth by sponsoring agencies and governing bodies to ensure that they are in the best interest of the children.
Admin 2.2- Comply with all relevant regulations and standards that support quality care and education for young children and families.
Admin 2.3- Do our jobs conscientiously, attending to all areas that fall within the scope of our responsibilities.
Admin 2.4- Manage resources responsibly and accurately account for their use.
Admin 2.5- Evaluate our programs using agreed-upon standards and report our findings to the appropriate authority.
Admin 2.6- Thoroughly and honestly communicate necessary information, while making every effort to preserve confidentiality in the absence of a compelling reason.
Admin 2.7- Express our professional concerns about directives from the sponsoring agency or governing body when we believe that a mandated practice is not in the best interest of children
Ethical Responsibilities Specific to Adult Educators in Professional Preparation Programs
Adult educators working in professional preparation and training programs maintain a primary responsibility to the development of knowledge, skill, and dispositions in adult learners. This will further one’s ultimate commitment to the well-being, learning, and development of young children. This ECE work includes related and intertwined obligations to support and nurture adult learners and to provide caring and competent professionals to work with young children and their families.
As to the obligation to help develop caring and competent professionals, those facilitating educator preparation and professional development must look to the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators, which presents the essential body of knowledge, skills, dispositions, and practices required of all early childhood educators working with children from birth through age 8, across all early learning settings. Likewise, the Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position statement lays out eight key recommendations focused on preparing current and prospective early childhood educators to provide equitable learning opportunities for all children (NAEYC, 2024, p. 12).
With these supports, and as they fulfill their day-to-day responsibilities focused primarily on the professional preparation and development of adult learners, teacher educators and professional development specialists encounter some unique ethical challenges in the context of a complex network of relationships, including those with sites providing practicum experiences, employing institutions of higher education, and agencies that provide professional development. These entities, agencies, and institutions also have ethical obligations to early childhood education students, teachers, and faculty members, but again, those obligations are beyond the scope of this Code of Ethics.
Therefore, this section is designed specifically to set forth a conception of early childhood teacher educators’ professional, ethical responsibilities in the context of three relationships with:
a. adult learners;
b. sites providing practicum experiences, and
c. institutions of higher learning, and agencies that provide professional learning opportunities.
Although this section is rooted in the ethical responsibilities and recurring ethical dilemmas that early childhood teacher educators face in associate and baccalaureate and graduate degree-granting institutions, many of its provisions are equally applicable to early childhood educators who provide access to credentials, nondegree professional learning opportunities, and mentoring to adults in early childhood education and care settings.
PREP 1: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO ADULT LEARNERS IN TRAINING CLASSES AND HIGHER EDUCATION COURSES
We shall:
Prep 1.1- Provide learning experiences that are consistent with the best practices for adult learners and that are responsive to the strengths, needs, learning styles, cultures, languages, practice settings, and stages of development of adult learners at all points in their educational journey.
Prep 1.2- Provide sound educational experiences for adult learners that enable them to understand and nurture the optimal development of children, communicate with and provide support for families, and attend to their own health and well-being.
Prep 1.3- Inform learners of conduct and work expectations, including institutional standards for writing, performance, and academic integrity, including the responsible use and integration of artificial intelligence.
Prep 1.4- Honor confidentiality, sharing only necessary information about an adult learner, only to those who need to know, and only through appropriate professional channels.
Prep 1.5- Build into all required training minimum required levels of demonstration of understanding and competence, and give all learners equitable pathways to succeed, demonstrate competence, and perform at high levels.
Prep 1.6- As applicable, ensure adult learners have in-person and, where necessary, virtual access to practicum settings, including centers, schools, and family child care homes, where staff are qualified to work with young children, where mentors can successfully support adult learners, and which to the greatest extent possible reflect the diverse communities in which adult learners will be working.
Prep 1.7- Provide and recommend the use of institutional and additional support for adult learners, including but not limited to dual language learners and multilingual adult learners, who have the potential to work effectively with young. children but have difficulty meeting academic standards, as well as those who demonstrate academic excellence but experience difficulty working with young children in practice.
Prep 1.8- Help adult learners identify alternative educational paths and goals when after we have made concerted efforts to work with the adult learners, it becomes apparent that they are not able to benefit from our training, class, or program.
Prep 1.9- Support adult learners who come to us with concerns about a colleague’s competence, fairness, ethics, or accuracy by helping them clarify their concerns, and deciding and following through on a course of action to address the problem.
Prep 1.10- Not sell products and/or services from which we stand to gain financially in professional development unless they are relevant, serve educational goals, and we have explicitly stated this connection at the outset of the training.
Prep 1.11- Not allow adult learners to pass a course or move to the next level of professional credentialing if they have not demonstrated expected levels of knowledge and competence in course or training content or if they do not demonstrate the ability to relate positively and effectively with children and families.
Prep 1.12- Not allow adult learners to complete a program if we have direct evidence that they may cause harm by endangering children’s physical, emotional, or psychological well-being.
PREP 2: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO PRACTICUM SITES
We shall:
Prep 2.1- Clearly state all parties’ roles and responsibilities and prepare adult learners, mentors, and administrators for practicum experiences.
Prep 2.2- Recognize and respect the reciprocal relationship between the early childhood program and the institution of higher education, and work to be a partner in addressing needs and providing appropriate support for all parties’ efforts to fulfill their roles and meet program expectations.
Prep 2.3- Ensure that qualified personnel conduct regular supervision of practicum experiences in order to support professional development of adult learners and monitor the welfare of children.
Prep 2.4- Honor confidentiality, guard the privacy of the programs, its teachers, families, and children—including on all social media platforms—and instill in adult learners a professional obligation to do the same.
Prep 2.5- Make every effort to move adult learners to more appropriate placements in the event that a practicum placement is not supporting adult learners’ professional development or is not beneficial to the student or children.
PREP 3: ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS TO INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND AGENCIES PROVIDING TRAINING
We shall:
Prep 3.1- Offer professional learning and instruction only in areas in which we have or can obtain appropriate experience and expertise.
Prep 3.2- Ensure that relevant course and training content is aligned to the Professional Standards and Competencies.
Prep 3.3- Respect the integrity of courses by following approved course descriptions and updating content based on up-to-date research.
Prep 3.4- Evaluate adult learners fairly and without bias, using those standards that are congruent with the mission of our institution and regarded as accepted practice in the field.
Prep 3.5- Keep roles separate when our involvement with an adult learner involves more than one role (e.g., instructor, employer, supervisor), and provide decisions, recommendations, and give feedback appropriate to the different contexts.
This version of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct is in draft form as of 2024 and subject to final revisions by NAEYC.
