– January 10, 2017
The policies in place at your district should work to make sure that all stakeholders understand and fulfill their roles and responsibilities. But it can be all too easy to get entrenched in enforcing policies and lose sight of the original objective – to run an effective program.
A community ed software solution can help you communicate and achieve your current district policies.
For example, are your safety policies limited by your ability to communicate quickly? Updates such as food allergies, changes to pickups, medication information, and diet needs have to be communicated timely and clearly. This communication is also important for maintaining parent satisfaction and liability. The means by which you share information within your district will influence how you handle day-to-day operations and events.
Imagine how smart technology could influence your district:
- How would automatic billing for late pickups affect services or invoicing?
- Could the procedure for notifying a parent about a sick child use improvement?
- Do you have to carefully manage staff ratios to stay compliant?
- Are parents anxious about first-come first-serve drop in daycare?
- If your operating costs were lower, how would that affect staffing decisions?
- Would lower operating costs affect decisions about tuition breaks or fee discounts?
- How would self-service affect the way you bill families and accept payment?
Some policies are created to specify the terms of service so you do not overextend yourself on a technicality. Others exist to keep parents or adult education enrollees from walking all over your staff. However, there is a point at which procedure-based policies are overly restrictive for parents and become a turn-off, costing your district numbers that you worked hard to bring in. The next time you review your service plans, ask yourselves how accommodating you could be if other hassles were cleared up with a community ed software solution.
More often than not, problems enforcing policies stem from parents simply forgetting the procedures you are accustomed to. Many conflicts could be prevented if you were better connected with parents. Reaching parents via text and sending email reminders are both effective. Parents are better “customers” when they can access policy documents for themselves using a self-service website.
Could your policies be more accommodating or better enforced with the help of a community ed software solution?
