Child safety policy

Mitlea is not an emergency service and cannot dispatch help. If a child is hurt or in danger, call 911 first. Then tell us what happened, so that we can act on it.

Everyone who uses Mitlea: families, caregivers and administrators. It applies to what happens in messages on this site and to what happens during a session booked through it.

A caregiver writes her own profile and publishes it. Verification is separate and voluntary: a person at Mitlea looks at a document — a government photo ID, a background-check report, a CPR or first aid card — and records that they saw it, when it was issued and when it expires.

A badge appears only from that record. A badge whose evidence has expired stops showing. Mitlea does not retain the documents themselves.

The absence of a badge means we have not checked that thing. It does not mean someone failed a check.

• We are not present during a session, and we do not monitor, supervise or record one.
• We do not employ caregivers and cannot direct how they work.
• We cannot predict behaviour. Checking a document tells you what the document said on the day someone looked at it.
• We are not a childcare licensing body and we are not an emergency service.

Meeting a caregiver before you book her, and trusting your own judgement, remains the most effective safety measure available to any family.

• Never leave a child unsupervised, and never leave a child with anyone the parents have not agreed to.
• Never be under the influence of alcohol or drugs during a session.
• Never use physical punishment, shouting, threats, or humiliation as discipline.
• Do not transport a child in a vehicle unless the parents have agreed to it in advance.
• Do not photograph or film a child, and do not post about a child anywhere, without the parents' explicit permission.
• Do not let anyone else into the home without the parents' agreement.
• Follow the care instructions, allergy information and medication instructions the parents gave you, and ask when you are unsure.
• Tell the parents about any injury, accident or incident, however small, before you leave.
• Keep the arrangement on Mitlea, so that the booking, the payment and the record all exist.

• Give accurate and complete information about your children: ages, allergies, medication, medical conditions and routines.
• Give a way to reach you during the session, and an emergency contact who can be reached if you cannot.
• Tell your caregiver about anything in the home she needs to know — a pool, a dog, a firearm, a medical device.
• Be clear about who may collect a child, and who may enter the house.
• Come home when you said you would, or tell her as soon as you know you cannot.
• Treat your caregiver as the experienced adult she is.

Report from the conversation with the person concerned. It is one form, it takes effect immediately, and you do not have to justify it to anyone first. You can also block someone from the same place; blocking is immediate and does not notify them.

If you cannot reach the conversation, email hello@mitlea.com.

Reports about a child's safety are recorded as the most serious kind we have, are worked before anything else, and are never closed automatically. A report can also be about an off-platform payment request, abusive messages, a no-show, or a profile that is not who it says it is.

We will tell you what we did where we can. Some of what follows a report involves another person's private information, and we will not share that.

• An administrator reads it. Child-safety reports are read first.
• We may suspend an account, hide a profile, cancel bookings or remove someone from Mitlea entirely while we look into it.
• We record what we did, in an audit log that cannot be edited afterwards.
• Where a report concerns a crime, we will tell you to contact the police, and we will cooperate with them.

Where the law requires Mitlea, or a caregiver, to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the authorities, that obligation is met. Mandated-reporter law is set state by state: who counts as a reporter, what triggers the duty and how fast a report must be made all differ, and in some states a person caring for children is a mandated reporter whether or not anyone has told her so. Exactly what applies to a platform and to an independent caregiver in each state we operate in is on our pre-launch legal checklist, and will be stated here precisely once counsel has answered it. We are not going to guess at it in a safety policy.

Breaking this policy can mean a warning, the removal of a profile from search, the cancellation of bookings, or permanent removal from Mitlea. Where a child has been put at risk, removal is immediate and is not appealable through a support conversation.