Assignment

Early childhood education administrators are responsible for setting and maintaining the policies and procedures of the child care center or school. Using Chapter 3 of the text and at least one other source (be sure to cite your source), choose one of the following policies and one of the following procedures, and explain how you would address the problem.

Policy (choose one)

1. Sick Policy: Your center has a policy that children cannot come to school if they have a fever, yet Mrs. Thompson brings her son Tyler to school anyway.

2. Late Payment Policy: If parents are more than 30 days behind on payments, the child may not attend. Mr. Miller brings his daughter Sophie to school even though he is 45 days behind in payments.

3. Biting Policy: Your center abides by the "three strikes" rule for biting. Connor has bitten children three times, yet his parents plead with you that he be allowed to still attend school.

Procedure (choose one)

1. Daily Health Check Procedure: Each teacher is supposed to perform a daily health check for each child but Sarah, the Pre-K teacher, repeatedly forgets. This time, she missed a case of chicken pox which has now spread to several other children.

2. Time Out Procedure: Teachers routinely use the "time out" method to handle misbehavior in the classroom but Linda, the teacher in the toddler classroom, has been leaving children in the time out chair for long periods of time.

3. Fire Drill Procedure: During a fire drill, teachers are supposed to keep their children as quiet as possible in order to hear instructions. Every teacher does a good job with this procedure, except Bill, the Pre-K teacher, who allows children to run and scream during fire drills.

In your discussion post,

1. Explain the difference between a policy and a procedure.
2. Provide two to three examples of each.
3. Outline one to two ideas for implementing or enforcing policies and procedures.
4. Evaluate one to two potential challenges that may arise with your policies/procedures and propose solutions.

Your discussion post should be at least 200 words in length.

Guided Response: Review the posts of several of your peers with focus on how they would address each problem. Respond to two or more of your peers as if you were the parent or the teacher in the scenario. How would you respond to the proposed solution? Each response should be at least 50 words in length.