How Long Is Your Policy Handbook?

[taylorw1210]

I am in the process of re-doing mine and am concerned about the length of it and whether or not parents will actually read it all...

And if you have a lengthy handbook, how do you print it? Do you do it on your own at home or have it professionally printed?

[llpa]

I am in the process of re-doing mine and am concerned about the length of it and whether or not parents will actually read it all...

And if you have a lengthy handbook, how do you print it? Do you do it on your own at home or have it professionally printed?

Mine is eighteen pages. I had two dozen printed from my original copy at Staples, but if I have updates I print them at home. If you saw my post yesterday I def now have doubts about parents reading what I give them. However, I do go over the handbook with parents, page by page, before they start attending.
They initial the last page and it goes in their file.

[drseuss]

Mine is 14 pages plus two pages for a checklist and the contract signature page. I print it myself at home. When I interview parents we sit down and go through every line in the handbook so there is no way they can say they weren't aware of something.

[aDCProvider]

I am in the process of re-doing mine and am concerned about the length of it and whether or not parents will actually read it all...

And if you have a lengthy handbook, how do you print it? Do you do it on your own at home or have it professionally printed?

I have a handbook and an agreement. My handbook 7 pages and is the one recommended by the state, includes some regs and information about family daycare. My agreement is 10 pages and includes program specific policies. I do not print them I email PDFs of enrollment documents to parents after their initial inquiry and ask them to review before I set up a tour, then they must print, complete and return to enroll. I was finding that I was going through loads of paper and ink when giving out my enrollment packet at the tour. I had a month where I had 20+ tours! gave out 25 pages worth of enrollment packets and only had 1 family enroll. I wasted 500 pages and ink. Not worth it!

[MarinaVanessa]

Mine is 49 pages (25 pages printed double sided).

I print mine at home only if and when they are ready to sign up or when I update it and need to hand out new copies to enrolled clients.

Otherwise I have it up on my website for potential clients to read/print or I will email them in PDF form. If I give out copies and they get lost (clients) I refer them to the website and they can look at it there or print it at home.

[melilley]

I lost track of how many pages I have... I know it's at least 20 pages long and includes policies/rules and also my payment policies, sick policy and discipline policy! I don't know if they read it or not, but they have to sign off on my contract that they have read it. I know most actually read my sick policy (part of my hb) because a few have called to question it or call out because their child has one or more symptoms! I have them sign it too.

I print it off and also have a website with it on there. With my last family, I did ask if they wanted a printed one and they said no that they have read it online. I think I'll start asking when I enroll new families.

[kitykids3]

Wow, and I had thought all this time mine was too long for parents to read. I'm curious what some of you put in yours that I might be missing? Anyone care to share??

OP- Mine is 9.5 pages long and then a separate sheet for the signed contract page and one is the rate sheet. I have a separate packet for toilet training policies, photo permission, emergency info, water permission, and Christian education permission. When parents enroll I have them sign all the permissions and contract page and then initial each page of the policy packet. I print it all at home. After they initial I make a copy to keep in file and give original back to them.

[melilley]

Mine is 49 pages (25 pages printed double sided).

I print mine at home only if and when they are ready to sign up or when I update it and need to hand out new copies to enrolled clients.

Otherwise I have it up on my website for potential clients to read/print or I will email them in PDF form. If I give out copies and they get lost (clients) I refer them to the website and they can look at it there or print it at home.

Wow!
Ok now I feel really dumb. I never thought of printing mine double sided. Sometimes I wonder about myself....

One question, I know we both use webs.com, how can you print from there? I only have the free one so I don't know if that makes a difference or not.?

Sorry op, not trying to hijack, just curious.

[Blackcat31]

Wow!
Ok now I feel really dumb. I never thought of printing mine double sided. Sometimes I wonder about myself....

One question, I know we both use webs.com, how can you print from there? I only have the free one so I don't know if that makes a difference or not.?

Sorry op, not trying to hijack, just curious.

I use webs.com too but I have a paid version so I just include the link to googledrive (although I am working on simply attaching a pdf file...just haven't done it yet...)

My hand book is LONG!

I color coded it to break up the sections for easy reading. I also include a table of contents.

I keep a master copy to use during interviews and to refer to when needed but otherwise, my handbook is e-mailed to the parents and they can either save it for later or print it off themselves.

[melilley]

I use webs.com too but I have a paid version so I just include the link to googledrive (although I am working on simply attaching a pdf file...just haven't done it yet...)

Thanks! I'm so computer illiterate that its not funny! I really need to take some computer classes!

[Unregistered]

K.i.s.s.

I keep it simple. Licensing requires us to disclose some things. They refuse to read said disclosures in our handbooks, it has to be on their form. So I took most of that stuff out of my book.
Mine is now 6 or 7 pages. Contract covers ALL financial info and is two pages. Contract also includes agreement to follow all policies.
Registration papers are separate and include privacy & photo policy, as well as a bunch of other policies on separate state-required forms.
Everything used to be included in my own book but I have taken out things required to be on a state-required form, so now mine is much shorter.
I print my own, and never hand them out until they enroll. We read it all together during interview.
I like mine, it is full of pics of my old kids, with permission
I have separate handouts for toilet training, etc. I find that parents do not retain info until it pertains to them, so this works better.
One of my policies is that I can change my policy by notifying one week in advance. The handouts all say "toilet training policy" etc., in the heading, so it all works together

[midaycare]

Mine is about 20 pages and then I have additional pages that include forms for parents to fill out. Maybe 35-40 pages altogether?

[taylorw1210]

I use webs.com too but I have a paid version so I just include the link to googledrive (although I am working on simply attaching a pdf file...just haven't done it yet...)

My hand book is LONG!

I color coded it to break up the sections for easy reading. I also include a table of contents.

I keep a master copy to use during interviews and to refer to when needed but otherwise, my handbook is e-mailed to the parents and they can either save it for later or print it off themselves.

I don't know why I didn't think of e-mailing a copy to all the families and keeping a master hard copy for interviewing purposes! Such a good idea.

I don't have any new families enrolling until August-ish, but I am hoping to have this done way before then and my current families using my new handbook. Most are policies that are already followed but not directly outlined in my current contract and I want to cover myself for the future.

[spinnymarie]

... Mine is 4.5 pages. We have a separate tuition/fees single sheet and a separate contract single sheet. Then there are some consents from the state, maybe 4 half-sheets. About 10 total.
Maybe I am totally missing some things.

[NoMoreJuice!]

Mine is crazy long. I have everything covered from field trips to accident reports to arrival/departure procedures. I also have an appendix with handy stuff like the KS Exclusion policy and samples of my menus. There is almost no topic left uncovered. In my contract, there is a paragraph they must initial saying they understand and agree to the policy handbook, and that they received a copy. I've had to direct parents to that handbook many, many times, and it is so worth it for me to have printed it all out.