Early childhood Owner/Directors have an enormous responsibility on their shoulders. Making sure that child/staff needs are being met is crucial to a thriving early childhood center. It is important to revise policies when you see that they are not working anymore. Great job, for having a board set up to address these policies. The internet has a vast number of early childcare handbooks out with their policies and procedures. There is no need to recreate the wheel. I did some research for you and found some examples. They need to be tweaked for your employees but at least this is a starting point.
The second example includes Mental Health Days. This is normally overlooked when creating new policies for staff. It is important that staff understand that Mental Health days are o.k. We have so many teachers who are burnt out. I believe this is one reason for the high turnover rate in early childcare.
Example 1.
Employee's work schedules have been established giving consideration to the student/teacher ratio, workloads, and coverage requirements. Employee absences have a detrimental effect on these conditions. While absence for illness and emergency situations may happen from time to time, employees will not be granted leave beyond their accrued vacation, sick, and personal leave as a standard practice. In addition, other situations may occur where an employee needs to request time off from work. Some of these are described below. Requests for leave other than those detailed below shall be referred to the Director, who may grant or withhold approval of such leave.
All such absences shall generally be considered without pay or other compensation for the employee. Please submit requests in advance for approval, whenever possible. Emergency circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Leave without pay will only be granted in extenuating circumstances. Leave without pay must be approved in advance of the requested start date of the leave by the Director. Requests must be submitted in writing. Employees will receive written notice of the approval/denial for a requested leave of absence. Leave without pay which has not been approved by the Director/Assistant Director will be considered a voluntary termination.
Example 2.
PAID VACATIONS Vacation pay is earned after a year of service. Vacations are paid to employees who work a minimum of 35 hours per week and are considered full time. After the first anniversary date of hire, you earn 1 week (40 hours) and after second Anniversary date of hire the employee earns 2 weeks (80 hours). All vacations must be requested on a leave authorization form and approved by administration. Note: Any employee, who leaves in good standing with proper notification, can have pay in lieu of taking accrued time off. Leave of absence without pay may be granted when coverage is available.
MENTAL HEALTH DAYS Up to two (2) sick days may be used as mental health days to reduce stress. Mental health days must be pre-approved by the Program Director after 12 months of service.
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Michelle Dean
United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties
Leesburg FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-19-2018 03:07 PM
From: Michelle Donley
Subject: Vacation and Sick leave policy
We are updating our vacation and sick leave policy. I've been the director for two years and created a committee of teachers and administrators to help develop policies that they feel are fair. It has worked out well. The policies included creating a way for teachers and staff to choose one week or 5 days of vacation for the upcoming year. So right now we are picking our vacation days for 2019 going down the list of staff in order of when they were hired. That has been working out well.
We also have been lenient on our rule of only two people off per day. Things happen and we try to work it out when we can. But now it has been becoming an issue. We've recently had some turnover and new staff that do not have time are wanting to have leave without pay (because it is summer) and now we are going to need to make the expectation clear and only let people take time off if they have earned the time.
What kind of vacation and sick leave policies do you have in place at your center? Any ideas are appreciated!
Thank you!
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Michelle Donley
Director
Bombeck Family Learning Center
Dayton OH
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