Quality Rating 3: Information and Policies
Instructions
To meet the requirements for Administrative Policies and Practices: Information and Policies: ADM 1.3, your family handbook, written agreement or contract include your program’s:
- Mission and/or philosophy statement
- Policies and practices for:
- Health
- Safety
- Positive Behavior Practices
- Tuition/Enrollment
- Supporting children with special health needs and disabilities
The Policy or Statement Builder interactives provide step-by-step guides for creating your policies.
Mission and/or Philosophy Statement
It is important for families to know what you believe about children, their development, and the goals of your program. Your mission and / or philosophy statement communicates these beliefs in clear and simple language. Your statement might also include your beliefs about the importance of engaging families in your program.
What does the documentation look like?
If you submitted a philosophy statement for Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Environment: DAP 1.3, include it in your written information for families.
Policies and Practices
Choose each heading to learn more about each requirement relating to written policies.
Your program’s health policies communicate to families the importance you place on their child’s health. These policies describe the steps you take to maintain a healthy environment, ways you support children to develop healthy habits, and other practices you follow to ensure that children are healthy and strong.
What does the documentation look like?
Your documentation describes the health policies and practices you follow in your program. This list gives you an idea of different health topics that you can include in your program’s health policies.
- Wellness / Illness
- Medication
- Allergy / Asthma
- Sanitation
- Personal Hygiene (examples: hand-washing, tooth brushing)
- Immunizations
- Sunscreen
- Opportunities for physical activity and play
As a child care provider or teacher, you understand the great responsibility you have to ensure that children in your program are safe. This includes keeping children physically safe and providing an emotionally safe environment where children can develop and learn.
Your policies describe the steps you take to keep children safe. These policies help ensure that everyone in your program knows and understands their role in maintaining a safe environment.
What does the documentation look like?
Your documentation clearly explains your program’s safety policies and practices. This list offers you an idea of different safety topics.
- Fire Drills
- Emergency Evacuation Plan
- Medical Emergency Procedures
- Drop Off / Pick Up Procedures
- Transportation
- First Aid / CPR Training or Certifications
- Security Procedures
- Inclement Weather
Positive behavior practices are the steps you take to promote children’s healthy social and emotional development. This includes specific strategies and techniques your program uses to encourage positive behavior and to avoid negative behavior or situations before they happen.
Explore different positive behavior strategies in DAP 3.
What does the documentation look like?
The information you provide to families describes the positive behavior supports you offer to children and any specific strategies or techniques you use and why you use them.
Your tuition and enrollment policies help families understand how your program operates and what is expected of them. Including these policies in your handbook promotes clear communication and helps prevent misunderstandings.
Your tuition policy may explain how and when payments are made (payment schedule, accepted payment methods, etc.). Enrollment policies may include the number of children you accept to your program, when families can enroll their children or how a waiting list is used, if applicable.
What does the documentation look like?
Examples of tuition and enrollment topics include:
- Required forms
- Fee Schedule
- Late tuition fees
- Late pick up fees
- Transition practices for children entering or exiting your program
- Siblings
In a high-quality program, all children have access to the same routines, play, and learning experiences, including children with special health care needs or disabilities. A clearly written policy helps families understand how you will support each child’s full participation in your program and your commitment to partnering with them to help their child succeed.
What does the documentation look like?
Policies that show support to all children may describe:
- How you welcome all children and families into your program, including children with special health care needs and disabilities
- How you meet each child’s individual needs
- How you work with specialists like speech therapists or physical therapists
- How you participate in the IFSP or IEP team
- Accommodations, modifications, or specialized equipment used to support children’s participation
- Training related to supporting children’s individual needs and honoring families’ home languages, traditions, and beliefs
Policy or Statement Builder
Develop policies that are important for families to understand about your program. The Reflection Questions below will help you think about what you do in your program to capture it when creating your policies for your Family Handbook. Once you have spent time reflecting on the questions below, you’re ready to build your policies.
Reflection Questions
- How would you describe your programs mission and/or philosophy statement? What are the overall goals of your program?
- What are your policies and practices about health?
- What are your policies and practices around safety?
- What are your positive behavior practices?
- What are your policies and practices about tuition/enrollment?
- What policies are in place so that children with disabilities and children with special health care needs are included?
Optional Level 3:
- How do you communicate with families?
- How do the children engage in physical activity?
- What are your guidelines about nutrition?
- How would you describe your curriculum?
- What kinds of child assessments do you use?
Did you know that if you include the Optional Level 3 Questions in your policies that you may be approved for a higher level in ADM 1?
Policy Builder Resources
Use these optional PDF resources to reflect on your program’s practices and create your policies.
Technology Tips
Choose the way that the provided resources will be most useful to you.
You can:
Download the PDF.
Save the PDF.
Print the PDF.
Edit the PDF.
Where can you learn more?
- The Maryland EXCELS Toolkit includes information on developing a Philosophy Statement on the DAP 1.3 Instructions page.
- Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) It is important to remember that the law and licensing requirements are subject to change. It is your responsibility to be aware of those changes by visiting the Division of Early Childhood Development website and by reviewing emails and newsletters from MSDE.
- Safety and Injury Prevention Early childhood programs keep children safe when their facilities, materials, and equipment are hazard-free and all staff use safety practices such as active supervision. Find resources to help staff and families reduce the number and severity of childhood injuries everywhere that children learn and grow.
- Tips for Keeping Children Safe: A Developmental Guide This tool provides safety tips for early childhood staff working with young children in classroom environments. Each section includes a description of development and safety tips organized by daily routines. Some tips apply to all children. Others address the developmental needs of children in a specific age group.
- Caring for our Children Basics This comprehensive set of guidelines may be helpful in describing your program’s policies or adding other practices to your policies.
- Guide Children’s Behavior Help children behave in positive ways by setting clear limits, modeling cooperative behavior, and dealing respectfully with challenging behaviors.
- NIST Child Care Center: Tuition and Fees Take a look at the Tuition policy for The National Institute of Standards and Technology Child Care Center. You might find ideas to help you improve your tuition policies along with guidance for other important policies to include in your written agreement or handbook for families.
- Side-by-Side: Brendan and Shaun This video from the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council features child care providers and families speaking about the benefits of supportive practices.