Revised | Originally Published: February 10, 2023 @ 3:48 pm

Overview

These 5 important policy headings should appear in the writeup of every policy in your program’s Operating Handbook, Parent Handbook, or Staff Handbook. These policy headings are used infrequently in early learning settings, resulting in muddy policies. It is challenging to get everyone on the same page when your governing document is open to interpretation, imprecise, and lacks coherent structure.

Taken as a whole, these policy headings are a practical structure for creating clear, concise, and easy-to-manage policies. Individually, they ensure each of your policies contains the information necessary to make them accurate, understood, well documented, properly enacted, and well managed.

The 5 Important Policy Headings

I recommend not only using these policy headings but also using them in the order in which they appear below.

Purpose

Purpose is the first of the policy headings you should always include. In this section, you should clearly explain, in a sentence or two, the reason the policy exists. It may seem unnecessary, but simply stating your policy’s purpose does two jobs. First, during the writing process, including this section forces you to note the policy’s goal, focusing your mind on the topic as you begin to write. Second, it makes reading the completed policy document easier for users. They can skim your crisply written purpose headings to see if that section of the document contains the information they’re seeking.

For example, the purpose heading for a policy about annual closing days might read, “This policy outlines our annual closing days for holidays, professional development, and building maintenance.” You can fall back on a boilerplate opening for this section to simplify the writing process. Some examples: “This policy clarifies…”, “This policy explains…”, or “This policy establishes…”.

It should be noted that you may not need it if you cannot explain the policy’s purpose in a sentence or two. That alone should be sufficient reason to include it.

Policy

In the next heading, Policy, clearly state your program’s position on the subject. Policies document guiding rules and principles.
They are intended to help steer an organization and provide consistency and continuity. Policies help caregivers, parents, and children know what to expect in different situations.

Procedures

The next of our policy headings is Procedures. Procedures grow from policies and document how a policy is implemented. Procedures are policies in action. They explain “the way things are done around here.” This section clearly explains how the stated policy works in your program.

Policy topics range widely. Some must be implemented rigorously, and others must be best enacted with abundant flexibility. They should be written accordingly.

Below are four style options for composing a set of procedures:

• Declarations–Declarations are used to share information, usually in a few short paragraphs
• Guidelines–broad recommendations that offer structure and flexibility intended to direct action and decision-making
• Instructions–describe how to deal with specific tasks or situations with more structure than guidelines
• Protocols–an exact set of instructions that must be followed to complete a specific task to assure quality, safety, or compliance

You’ll find a handout explaining these terms here.

Notes

Of the 5 policy headings, Notes is the most flexible. Think of this as a place to share supporting documentation related to the policy. What’s included in this section will vary from policy to policy and, in some cases, may not be necessary. Include material that will make your policies and procedures easier to understand and follow. Here are some examples:

• Visual Aids–Include visual aids to help users picture key aspects of the policy. For example, if your arrival and departure policy mandates children are signed in and out of the program each day, consider including a photo or drawing showing where the log sheet is located. If a staff policy designates a particular area of the parking lot for employee vehicles, include a bird’s-eye view illustration of the parking lot highlighting that area.
• Documentation–Sometimes, you should include documentation that supports, explains, or clarifies the policy. For example, if a state regulation requires that you use a specific protocol for administering medication or changing diapers, include that information under this heading. Or, if your program supports rough-and-tumble play, add links to books and articles about the topic under this heading in your related policy.
• Related Forms–This is also an excellent place to share examples of any paperwork associated with a policy. This increases familiarity with such documents and helps readers associate the paperwork with the policy. For example, in the Visual Aids heading above, I mentioned a log sheet for signing children in and out of the facility each day. Sharing that log sheet under the Notes heading of the arrival and departure policy lets new families know what to expect.
• Related Policies–Finally, consider including links to related policies under your Notes heading. For example, your policy on rough-and-tumble play may link to your program philosophy, or the policy covering your program’s daily schedule could link to your napping and meal policies.

Tracking

Tracking, the last of our policy headings, deals with document control. The goal of this policy heading is to give your policy a unique identity and document when it went into effect, who approved it, and its history of revisions. This information isn’t important until it is very important. Imagine a child breaking her left arm on your playground. A few weeks later, a letter from a lawyer’s office shows up explaining that the child’s family is suing, claiming lack of supervision and professional negligence.

Having this tracking information in such a situation is beneficial. It documents what policies covering child supervision and playground safety was in place the day the injury occurred and demonstrates the program’s attention to detail and structure.

Here’s the basic tracking information each policy should have:

• Unique Identifier–This can be as simple as assigning each policy its own number. Or you can get fancy and give each an alphanumeric identifier. For example, maybe HS-E-001 is the ID for your emergency drills policy (HS for Health and Safety, E for Emergency, and 001 to separate the drills from the other health and safety emergency policies)
• Version Number–In addition to a unique ID, each policy should have a version number. For example, V 1.0 when it is first created, V 1.1 when a typo is corrected six months later, and V 2.0 when it is revised completely a few years later.
• Approvals–List the date the policy went into effect and who approved it. The owner-operator of a family child care program may handle approvals independently. A sizeable non-profit program may have an advisory board or committee responsible for approving policies. Policies for a parent co-op may be approved by a committee of parents and staff.

The information can be shared in a single line under the Tracking heading, for example:

HS-E-001 V-3.1 Approved by Health and Safety Committee effective 03/14/2020

A couple of tracking notes:

• You should also archive the past versions of each policy. In some cases, you may need to refer to a past version in reference to something that happened when it was in effect. Remember that imaginary broken arm? If that happened before a policy change, you’d need to be able to reference the policy as it was the day of the event.
• You should also be able to document the approval process in some way. This is less important if you have a one-person family child care operation, but if a board or committee approves a policy, it’s good to have meeting minutes noting the approval on file.

Policy Headings Wrap-Up

Using these policy headings as a template for each policy you create provides structure and assures each policy contains the necessary information. This structure makes your policy documents more user-friendly since readers can find the information they seek in predictable locations.

Definitions is a sixth policy heading you could consider adding. Under this policy heading, you would define words, phrases, terms, abbreviations, and jargon that may confuse readers. However, unless your policy documents are only made available in print, I recommend including these definitions in a glossary at the end of your document and hyperlinking them throughout the text. I’ll go into this more in another post.

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