# Job Description: Nursery Worker
### [Church Name] · Approved by SPRC [date] · Reviewed [date]

**Reports to:** [the pastor / children's ministry coordinator] — one named adult
**Classification:** part-time, **non-exempt (hourly)**
**Hours:** Sundays [time]–[time], plus [ ] additional hours
**Compensation:** $[ ]/hour, with a stated **minimum call-in** of [ ] hours —
see the notes
**Minimum age:** [CHOOSE — see notes; 18 for the responsible adult]

### Purpose

To provide safe, warm, attentive care for infants and young children so that their
parents can participate in worship, and so that a family's first experience of this
church is one they trust.

### Core responsibilities

**Care and safety**
- Arrive [ ] minutes before service; stay until the last child is collected.
- Receive and release children using the church's check-in/check-out procedure —
  **children are released only to the adult recorded at check-in.**
- Maintain the required ratio of caregivers to children at all times.
- Follow the church's Safe Gatherings / child protection policy without exception,
  including the **two-adult rule** and visibility requirements.
- Administer no medication `[or state the written exception procedure]`.
- Follow the church's allergy and food policy.

**Environment**
- Sanitize toys, surfaces, and cribs after each use.
- Keep the space tidy and hazard-free; report anything broken immediately.
- Maintain the sign-in log and diaper/incident records as required.

**Communication**
- Report any injury, illness, or behavioral concern to a parent *and* to the
  supervisor the same day, in writing.
- Greet new families warmly and walk them through the check-in process.

### Sizes

This role scales by **Sundays covered and hands needed**, not by responsibility:

- **Regular (every Sunday, plus weekday programming):** the responsibilities above,
  plus opening and closing the space and maintaining supplies.
- **Alternating or shared:** two workers on a published rotation; add "coordinate
  handoff and supply needs with the other worker."
- **On-call / substitute:** the same duties, the same screening, and a stated
  minimum call-in payment. **A substitute is not a lower standard of screening** —
  it is the same standard, arranged in advance, which is why the church keeps a
  screened substitute list rather than finding someone that morning.

### Qualifications

- At least one **adult 18 or over** on duty at all times; `[CHOOSE whether
  additional workers may be 16–17, and note that a minor never counts as the
  responsible adult]`.
- Experience with infants and young children.
- Current CPR and first aid certification `[required / preferred / church pays for
  it — choose, and if you require it, pay for it]`.
- Patient, alert, and reliably on time.

### Screening — required

- Background check **before the first shift**, not after.
- Safe Gatherings-type child protection training, renewed on the provider's cycle.
- References checked, including at least one non-family reference.
- `[CHOOSE: many churches require a waiting period — e.g. six months of
  attendance — before an adult may work with children. Decide deliberately; it is
  a well-established safeguarding practice, and it is also the rule most often
  waived in a staffing pinch, which is exactly when it matters.]`

### Working conditions

Lifting infants and small children; frequent bending; exposure to childhood
illnesses; occasional evening or event care.

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**This is a starting point, not legal advice.** Employment law varies by state, and your annual conference may have policies that go beyond the Discipline. Before you rely on anything here for a hiring, firing, or compensation decision, run it past your conference office or chancellor.

Paragraph references are to the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline. This document paraphrases; for the binding text, see the Discipline itself.

From Itineracy Commons — https://itineracy.app/commons/jobs/nursery-worker/
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapt it freely; keep the attribution.
Last updated 2026-07-22.