Paradigm Development Center (PDC)
MISSION STATEMENT
Paradigm Development Center (“PDC”) focuses on preparing students with autism and learning differences for success in life. Our mission is to provide education services that prepare students for a meaningful, integrated adult life.
PDC uses a holistic educational framework to execute all educational programming. At PDC, a holistic education is an academic education that integrates emotional, intellectual, vocational, physical, natural, and sociological applications. The goals are adaptability, consideration of others, self-awareness, concentration, attention, and calmness. This kind of education not only improves a student’s academic outcomes, but also improves a student’s ability to cope and manage adult life issues.
STANDARD POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Independent Contractors (IC), Interns, and Volunteers at PDC understand that PDC students are always our central focus. All PDC workers should exemplify a high standard of moral, ethical, and professional behavior.
EQUAL WORKER OPPORTUNITY
We are committed to providing equal opportunity in all of our workforce practices and to compliance with all federal, state, and local laws that prohibit workplace discrimination and unlawful retaliation. PDC strictly prohibits all discrimination and retaliation on the basis of race, ancestry, color, age, national origin, ethnicity, religious creed, belief, physical or mental disability, marital or familial status, legally protected medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical condition), gender (including gender identity and gender expression), sexual orientation, citizenship status, AIDS/HIV status, sickle-cell traits, protected activity (such as opposition to or reporting of prohibited discrimination or harassment), or any other status or classification protected by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. PDC will also make reasonable accommodations for disabled applicants and workers and for the sincerely held religious beliefs of applicants and workers depending upon individual circumstances. This commitment extends to all areas of personnel actions, including recruiting, selection, hiring, training, promotion, transfer, disciplinary actions, evaluation, work assignments, benefits, and compensation. Every worker at PDC must follow and adhere to this policy. If you believe that you were treated inconsistently with this policy, please immediately report your concern to the School Director. You will not be retaliated against for bringing forth a complaint in good faith. In the event that PDC determines that this policy has been violated, PDC may take disciplinary action against any violator as it determines necessary including discharge from a PDC worker position.
WORKER AUTHORIZATION
The Immigration Reform Act of 1986 requires PDC to ensure that all workers are authorized to work in the United States. PDC will only work with those individuals who are lawfully authorized to work in the United States. Federal law requires that all workers hired by PDC after November 6, 1986, complete the Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification Form) on or before the first day you work at PDC. Please contact the PDC School Director if you have any questions.
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
We are firmly committed to complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other federal and state legislation designed to ensure equal work opportunities for persons with disabilities. PDC prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in regard to all workforce practices. PDC will make reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental disabilities of qualified applicants or workers unless to do so would cause an undue hardship on the operation of PDC. In addition, if a pregnant worker is in need of any type of accommodation, including light-duty, modified work assignment, or other similar assistance, the worker should immediately contact the School Director. If you would like to discuss or request an accommodation or have a concern related to discrimination or retaliation, please contact the School Director.
WORKER STATUS
This section excludes Interns and Volunteers.
All workers are considered Independent ICs (“IC”), and as such, IC will receive 1099 income for tax purposes. IC must also provide a new, signed W-9 form. IC understands that IC is not eligible to participate in any worker pension, health, vacation pay, sick pay, or other fringe benefit plan of PDC. IC is paid weekly on Fridays either through PayPal or Zelle.
PDC POLICIES
As an independent contractor, intern, or volunteer at PDC, you understand:
- All workers must read and comply with the PDC COVID-19 protocol. Failure to comply with this protocol is grounds for termination of the PDC and worker relationship/contract.
- You must record your hours worked and reasons for absences on the provided PDC Timesheet.
- Dress, grooming, and personal cleanliness standards affect the professional image presented to students, parents, and visitors. You are expected to present a clean, neat appearance and to dress in clothing appropriate for work in a middle & high school setting.
- PDC expects the full attention of its independent contractors, interns, and volunteers while they are working. No phone calls while working with students or campers. Personal calls should be conducted either before or after the workday or during breaks or meal periods and personal phone calls should be kept short. If you need to make a call during your workday, let the PDC Director know.
- PDC believes in maintaining safe and healthy working conditions for everyone. Each IC, intern, and volunteer must be safety conscious. We ask all workers to continually be on the lookout for unsafe working conditions or practices. If you observe an unsafe condition, please warn others and report the condition to the PDC School Director, immediately. If you have a question regarding the safety of the workplace and practices, please ask the PDC School Director for clarification.
- Any work-related injury or accident, no matter how minor, is to be reported to the PDC School Director. immediately. If emergency medical care is required, this also should be reported to the PDC Director, immediately.
- There is no leaving early unless you have specifically arranged it with the PDC School Director. If you need to leave early or you need to come in later, contact the PDC School Director at (281) 755-6631.
- Teachers are expected to prepare for a class before the class begins. To be clear, teachers and teaching assistants should read materials and prepare classroom documents and activities before their class begins.
- Workers should never touch or hug students for any reason. If a student is struggling or having a difficult time, the PDC worker should offer praise, offer a listening ear, or allow the student to take a short break.
COMPENSATION POLICY
In establishing its wage compensation program, PDC strives to achieve the following:
- Attract and retain highly competent workers.
- Maintain internal equity among workers based on similar education, skills, and responsibilities.
- Reward workers according to performance. How workers do their jobs directly influences their compensation, pay increases, and career growth. Annual evaluations assist in providing objective measurements of work performance.
- Comply with all governmental regulations.
The procedure for establishing pay rates and job ranges is:
- To evaluate each job in objective terms.
- To establish a salary or rate for each job, taking into account its relative value to PDC.
- To determine a job’s worth in comparison to the marketplace.
- To set an individual’s salary by using such factors as performance, time in the specific job, the worker’s education, and the worker’s unique skill set and special achievements. The School Director is responsible for the overall administration of all compensation programs.
WORKDAYS/PAYDAYS
Our work week begins every Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. daily. Upon worker authorization, PDC will make direct payments every Friday afternoon by either PayPal or Zelle.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS
In accordance with applicable law, PDC will not work with any person in a position that requires direct contact with students who have been convicted of a disqualifying offense identified under Texas Penal Code Section 22.011. Although not an exhaustive list, the type of offenses that are disqualifying include convictions relating to sexual misconduct; voyeurism; assault; battery; murder; abuse of a child, adult, or developmentally disabled person; kidnapping; false imprisonment; certain firearms offenses; carjacking; and other similarly egregious crimes. You should note that the listing of offenses that disqualify an individual from working with PDC is PDC’s minimum standard. PDC may determine, in its sole discretion, that other offenses require disqualification from work if PDC concludes that such offenses may impact the specific job. Such disqualification will be based upon an individualized assessment of the circumstances and can occur at any time during a worker’s time with PDC or during the application process. PDC runs Criminal Background checks on all new workers in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws. The workers who work with children may also be required to submit additional criminal background checks if they have lived outside of Texas within the past 5 years. Workers are required to report to the PDC School Director within 24 hours any change in their criminal background (including, but not limited to, arrests involving alcohol or drug offenses). You must also report within 24 hours if there are any changes to your driving record if driving is a part of your job functions or if you drive for PDC in any way. PDC will assess the information to determine whether the worker remains eligible to work at PDC in the current or alternative position in accordance with applicable law. Failure to self-report may result in immediate termination. You may obtain a copy of our full Background check policy from the PDC School Director.
DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE POLICY
As a part of its commitment to safeguarding the health of its workers, providing a safe place for its workers to work, and promoting a drug-free working environment, PDC has established this Drug-Free Workplace Program (“Program”) relating to the abuse of drugs (including alcohol by its workers). Drug abuse, while at work or otherwise, seriously endangers the safety of our students, workers, as well as the general public, and creates a variety of workplace problems including increased injuries on the job, increased absenteeism, increased health care and benefit costs, increased theft, decreased morale, decreased productivity, and a decline in the quality of products and services provided. This Program is established in part to detect and remove abusers of drugs from the workplace, to prevent the use and/or presence of these substances in the workplace, and to assist workers in overcoming any dependence on drugs in accordance with the following guidelines.
HOLIDAYS
The eight (8) designated holidays, which are subject to change at PDC’s discretion, are:
New Year’s Day.
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
Presidents Day
Martin Luther King Day
DRESS CODE AND GROOMING
All workers should maintain professional standards of dress and grooming. One’s personal expression will be respected. However, dress must always be tasteful and respectful to the ages of the children we serve.
Sleeveless shirts are allowed. Shorts must not be excessively tight, hanging off the hips, or exposing any private parts of the body. As it relates to shoes, be mindful that we will be walking through grass and woods and doing physical activities. It may be wise to bring indoor and outdoor shoes.
Non-acceptable clothing items include those that may be deemed provocative to our students or maybe too casual for a school environment.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Workers must maintain the confidentiality of all trade secrets, intellectual property rights, and other confidential information of PDC, its students, parents, and other family members, contributors, suppliers, or joint venture parties that are entrusted to them, except when disclosure is legally mandated or expressly authorized by PDC. “Confidential information,” for this purpose, includes any proprietary or other non-public information of PDC, or of other entities or organizations, or of any of the students, parents, and other family members that PDC makes reasonable efforts to keep secret.
Confidentiality needs to be preserved as it relates to the individual student and their families. Discretion should be used at all times. All written and oral reports about children are confidential. If you wish to privately discuss a child with the previous teacher, this is acceptable. Gossip of any kind is destructive and should not take place at PDC. All discussions should take place in a private setting.
Workers who receive a request to disclose confidential information must consult with the PDC School Director and receive written confirmation that the disclosure is legally allowed or required before any such information is disclosed.
Nothing in this policy is intended to interfere with or restrict any worker’s federal or state labor law rights, including all rights under the National Labor Relations Act, or any whistleblower protections under federal or state law.
CHILD ABUSE REPORTING OBLIGATIONS
Child Abuse Reporting Obligations: As PDC workers, we have a responsibility to provide the children we teach and interact with the opportunity to obtain the best education possible. However, our responsibility does not end there. We also have a legal responsibility to report any information that we receive that leads us to suspect that a child has been abused, neglected, or abandoned.
Unfortunately, child abuse, neglect, and abandonment are all too frequent occurrences in today’s society. In our capacities as PDC workers in an educational institution, at some point in our careers, we are likely to come into contact with child abuse, neglect, or abandonment. This prompts the question, “How do I recognize and deal with such a situation when it occurs?” This policy is designed to provide guidelines for reporting suspected child abuse, neglect, and abandonment.
Texas law requires that all School personnel report suspected child abuse, neglect, or abandonment to the State’s Abuse Hotline [Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400]. The following conduct should be reported under this policy:
“Abuse”: Any willful act or threatened act that results in any physical, mental, or sexual injury or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired.
“Neglect”: when a child is deprived of or is allowed to be deprived of, necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment, or a child is permitted to live in an environment when such deprivation or environment causes the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired or to be in danger of being significantly impaired.
“Abandonment”: A situation in which the parent or legal custodian of a child, or in the absence of a parent or legal custodian, the caregiver responsible for the child’s welfare, while being able, makes no provision for the child’s support and makes no effort to communicate with the child, which situation is sufficient to evince a willful rejection of parental obligations.
If you have any belief or concern or thought that you have witnessed, or heard about a situation possibly involving abuse, neglect, or abandonment of a student, by any person who is a parent, custodian, caregiver, or is otherwise responsible for the child’s welfare, or is in a supervisory capacity over the child (for example, another relative, pastor, physician, counselor, etc.), you must report your concern to the PDC School Director. If you know or have reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected, you must report it to the Abuse Hotline, either by calling the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400.
Workers who report concerns of suspected abuse, abandonment, or neglect are expected to cooperate in any investigation by child protective services. In addition, workers who, in good faith, report suspected child abuse, neglect, or abandonment are immune from civil or criminal liability for reporting such information and participating in any investigation. PDC will not retaliate against any worker who makes a report under this policy. Other than the report itself and the communication of appropriate information to the PDC School Director, or as approved by the School Director, the information about the suspected child abuse, abandonment, or neglect should remain confidential for the protection of the child.
You should also understand that the failure to promptly report suspected abuse, abandonment, or neglect can result in criminal charges for a first-degree misdemeanor. In addition, an educator’s teaching certificate may be suspended from any person who knowingly failed to report child abuse, abandonment, or neglect. Finally, workers are reminded of their obligations to report worker misconduct that affects the health, safety, or welfare of children. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action and could result in the suspension of an educator’s teaching certificate or termination of an independent contractor contract.
Sexual Predator and Sexual Offender Notification: PDC would like to inform you of the Texas Department of Law Enforcement sexual predator and sexual offender registry website that gives access to sexual predator and sexual offender public information. Parents and workers should regularly visit the public registry to review it for individuals who may have prior criminal records and sex offenses. [https://www.registeredoffenderslist.org/texas-sex-offenders.html]
