Create a Preschool Handbook of Your Policies and Procedures

The best thing you can do to ensure your preschool’s success (and your sanity!) is to train your parents. Truly, after ten years, my preschool runs like a well-oiled machine. I have two locations, eight teachers on staff, and 150 students enrolled every year.

With two locations, I can’t be in both at once, so I have to ensure that they both run seamlessly without me. That means training my teachers and my parents what I expect so when I am not on site, it still runs seamlessly as if I was there.

While you don’t need to worry about two locations or teachers at this time, you’ll want to still ensure you train your preschool parents. I know I’ve done it right when, in mid-September, I have a pretty smooth-sailing job as Director until February when registration starts picking back up. It wasn’t always like this, though.

I didn’t always have a policies and procedures handbook. When I first started, I just made up ideas on the fly and implemented them. That left parents confused and sometimes concerned. Now I’ve learned to stick to my program for at least one full school year. If I want to make changes, I wait until the next school year.

Write down all your policies in your handbook and go over it with prospective parents on your tour. The handbook outlines how you will run your preschool, what they can expect from you, and what you expect from them in return.

While each preschool will have their own version of this handbook, they generally address these policies and procedures:

• About Our Preschool
• About Our Director
• Hours of Operation
• Enrollment Policies
• Tuition and Fees
• Payment Process
• Safety
• Preparing Your Child for the First Day
• Arrival and Departure
• Curriculum
• Daily Schedule
• Snack Schedule
• Potty Training
• Field Trips
• Health and Sickness
• Behavior and Discipline
• Communication