The ASBA Model Policy Service

Make your district's policies available online.

Making policies is one of the board’s major responsibilities and policies are also very important in setting the tone of your district. We’ve developed our policy service to help make your job of writing and maintaining your district’s policies more manageable. A good policy manual is also a great tool for helping bring new board members up to speed on how things are done in your district and can really help to bring the “Andys” on your board in line. It is a very legitimate expense for your district.

Most policy manuals are not only out of date, but they are full of unnecessary policies that merely rewrite state and federal laws. Our policy manual is not just a rewriting of education laws; it’s a good example of where less is more. While there are some laws that require you to have a policy, most do not. That’s why there is a law book – to keep you from having to rewrite all the laws into a policy manual.

Our manual is designed to be user friendly. The numbering system is as straightforward as you can get. There are eight sections. The first section is section 1. The first policy is number 1.1; the second policy is number 1.2 and so on throughout the manual. The policies are concise, readable, and understandable. There’s not a lot of fluff, but instead the manual contains the policies required by state and federal laws and the standards of accreditation. There are also additional policies that we recommend and that districts have found beneficial.

Where it applies, the policies have legal references listed so you can know where to look if you want more information. For the legal references, we cite to the law and not to the Act. An act can be changed by subsequent acts which can either alter parts of the original act or even eliminate the original act all together. Acts can also be very difficult to look up especially as they get older. Laws are much easier to research.

Purchase of the Policy Service does not in and of itself change any policy you presently have. It is only through the adoption process that you can change or replace your existing policies. The policies are meant to be adopted only after you’ve reviewed and revised them to suit your district. While some policies are pretty well cast in stone and have little wiggle room, others allow more flexibility in being tailored to suit your district. It’s during and after the adoption process that our “Policy Service” is so helpful. You can call Paul, Kristen, or Ron for assistance in fine tuning the policies to meet the needs of your district. And for the life of the contract, which is $1100 per year for 3 years, we monitor changes in state and federal laws and the Arkansas Department of Education’s Rules and make the necessary changes or write new policies as the situation dictates.

It is simply unrealistic to expect a superintendent to be able to keep up with all the different sources that can require new policies or changes to existing ones. While it is true that our policies require your district’s review to tailor them to suit your district, it is much easier to tweak a policy than it is to research and write one from scratch. Bad policies and conflicts between old and new policies can be much more expensive than the cost of our policy service. Conflicting policies can also put those in charge of implementing the policies in difficult positions, as they have to decide which policy to follow.

Our goal at ASBA is to help you fulfill an important, often overlooked, responsibility of the Board of Directors, the writing and maintaining of district policy and to do it so well that you’ll wonder how you ever got along without our service.

For more information about the Model Policy Service email Paulette Walker or call (501) 372-1415.

Related Links:
Online Model Policy Service
Legal Services
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