A three-page sample policy describing how a child care center meets children’s social, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional and spiritual or self-concept needs, with a short bulleted list of practices under each heading.
No sign-up required. Print it and share it with your team — it’s free for any child care program to use.
What’s inside
How to use it
Tips from operators
Learned the hard way across 3,000 child care spaces — and from the directors and educators who join our Lunch & Learns and Learning Labs.
In the PDF, a stray ‘Contacting Supporting Agencies’ heading sits under Intellectual Needs, the bullets beneath it are set in italics, and one Emotional Needs bullet ends with a leftover sentence fragment. Leave those out of your version.
A licensing officer or parent may hold you to every line. Remove any practice you cannot show on an ordinary day.
‘Spiritual or Self-Concept Needs’ is about identity and self-esteem, not religion. Rename it if the wording could be misread by your families.
Do it digitally in ChildFriendly Pro
Build the same plan in ChildFriendly Pro and every observation you log is tagged to FLIGHT, ELECT, ELF or your own outcomes, added to each child’s portfolio and shared with families in their daily journal.
FAQ
Can’t find your answer? Chat with a real person who has run a child care center.
Read more FAQsNo. It is a center-wide policy statement written in full sentences and bullets. There are no fields, checkboxes or signature lines.
No framework or regulation is named. It refers only to the center’s own Philosophy and Mission Statement, so you will need to add any reference your jurisdiction expects.
No. It describes how the program supports development, not what to expect at each age. For tracking an individual child, use a progress report or developmental checklist alongside it.
The wording assumes a center with staff, several rooms and an indoor gym. The six headings still work for a home-based program, but most of the bullets will need rewriting.
More templates
Child Development & Programming
Child Development & Programming
Administration
Family Engagement
Keep learning
Directors & Admin Workshops · Recording
Watch the replay with Park N Play Design on creating inclusive play spaces in child care, plus how Alberta’s Inclusive Spaces Grant works and how to apply.
Watch the recordingNewsletter
We add new templates and tools most months. Subscribe and they land in your inbox — along with Lunch & Learn and Learning Lab invitations.
Join hundreds of child care professionals across North America. CASL compliant.
You can unsubscribe anytime. CASL/CAN-SPAM compliant.
