Commentary
Chaperons may include young adults who are a minimum of 21 years of age.
Supervision of youth ministry includes the following:
- Ensuring the safety of the young people while at a program or activity
- Assisting the Coordinator with the implementation of a program or activity
- Seeing that the guidelines for behavior and safety are followed
Chaperons should be apprised of their role and responsibilities for each distinct youth ministry program or activity, as it may be different depending on the situation.
Many times young people arrive early and stay late after youth ministry events. Parishes are responsible for providing adult supervision while they are on parish grounds, both before and after programs. Parishes can be found responsible for accidents and injuries occurring on parish grounds.
Because of the requirements of the For Sake of God’s Children program, adult leaders are reminded that they must plan earlier and better.
Related Policies
5.3 Maintain the appropriate ratio of cleared adults to youth participants: 1936
5.3.1 Two cleared adults per the initial 7 youth for 8th grade and below 1937
5.3.2 Two cleared adults per the initial 10 high school youth 1938
5.3.3 One cleared adult per each additional 10 youth in all age groups 1939
5.3.4 Never one cleared adult working alone with youth 1940
5.3.5 Cleared adults should be in proportion to the gender breakdown of the youth participants attending the event 1941
5.3.6 Reasonable consideration should be given to the number of cleared adults required for events with greater number of participants 1942
5.4 Young adults who are 18 (and out of high school) to 20 years of age, who assist with youth ministry, are not considered chaperones. 1943
5.5 All chaperones must have received clearance for service (acceptable background check) from the Diocese of Wilmington, and every chaperone must have a Volunteer Covenant on file with his or her respective parish office.