Establishing and maintaining effective, clearly-written policy is a board's foremost responsibility.

Good policy is essential to good management. Board policies serve as a guide to staff as they develop administrative regulations. Policies are also important tools in the decision-making process.

Supporting board policy development is a primary mission of OSBA. Our services include policy drafting and maintenance that meet requirements of law and the specific needs of boards and their school systems.

Services

• Policy rewrite - Are board policies out of date? OSBA's rewrite service will support review and completion of a final manual. Along the way OSBA will provide training and in-person consultation and preparation of recommended changes to current policies and administrative regulations.
• Policy desk rewrite - Provides the same great service as a rewrite but without the meetings.
• Small school desk rewrite - If the member is a small school (fewer than 500 students), consider a desk rewrite. OSBA can help with the review process with phone consultations and meetings.
• Charter school policy service - Charter schools are unique and so are their board policy manuals. OSBA's process will provide a complete policy manual that complies with state and federal laws.
• Policy analysis - If help is needed to establish the condition of the board's policy manual, ask us about this analysis service.

 Subscription Packages

• Policy Plus - Our signature service takes the guesswork out of maintaining policy manuals. As laws change OSBA will update the board's policies for adoption. Then, the board/administration chooses between the standard manual maintenance or online policy service and OSBA takes care of the rest. The Policy Update is still issued to stay informed -- OSBA just does the editing work for the board packet. Add this to an existing policy manual maintenance or online policy manual subscription.
• Online policy manual - This online service creates a searchable, centrally located board policy manual that everyone may access instantly.
• Policy manual maintenance - Do you like getting Policy Update (included with this package) but want help storing and organizing the policy manual too? OSBA can help! This subscription includes Policy Update (see below) so the subscriber is updated via a newsletter and published model sample policies and administrative regulations so updates can be accessed quickly and adopt. After the board adopts, send the changes to OSBA to update the stored records. An updated document, including updates of legal references and cross references, are created and emailed by OSBA back to the subscriber if desired.
• Policy updates with online access - Policy Update keeps the subscriber updated via a newsletter and updated model sample policies and administrative regulations so the board can quickly update, revise or draft their own documents.
• Policy updates for charter schools - Policy Update written for charter schools. Charter schools can access this subscription with a Memorandum of Understanding from their sponsor. If you are a district that sponsors a charter school, you may purchase the Charter School Supplemental at a reduced rate.

Publications

Why reinvent the wheel? OSBA completed the legwork and created staff and student handbook templates to be personalized. Whether a charter school or a K-12 district, there is a student and/or parent handbook tailored to the board's specific needs. Handbooks are complete with information about how to use them, what is required by law and sample language.

The Model Handbooks and other publications are scheduled to be released each April.