Michigan Daycare Discipline and Emergency Plan Policy Requirements

Why Michigan Requires Both Policies Before You Open

MiLEAP licensing consultants check for two written documents during your original home inspection: a discipline and guidance policy and an emergency preparedness plan. These are not optional best practices — they are administrative rule requirements. If either is missing during the on-site inspection, MiLEAP can require corrective action before licensure.

Both documents must be kept accessible in your licensing notebook during operating hours.

What Your Discipline and Guidance Policy Must Include

Michigan's child care home rules prohibit corporal punishment, verbal abuse, withholding food as punishment, and any form of physical restraint not related to immediate safety. Your written policy must state these prohibitions explicitly and describe the positive guidance techniques you will use instead.

A compliant policy typically covers:

• Age-appropriate redirection — how you handle conflicts between toddlers versus school-age children
• Consistent boundaries — your approach to explaining rules and consequences at a level children can understand
• Prohibited practices — a clear statement that spanking, shaking, isolating children in locked rooms, and threatening language are never used
• Staff training — how you ensure assistants and staff understand and follow the policy

Keep the written discipline policy with your licensing records. If you provide it to parents, retain any acknowledgment you collect in the child's enrollment file.

Building Your Emergency Preparedness Plan

Your emergency plan must address evacuation procedures, severe weather sheltering, and reunification with parents. MiLEAP expects the plan to be specific to your home's layout — not a generic template.

At minimum, your plan should document:

• Two exit routes from every floor used for child care, with diagrams showing primary and secondary exits
• A designated outdoor assembly point where you take children after evacuating — far enough from the structure to avoid falling debris
• Severe weather shelter locations — an interior room on the lowest floor, away from windows
• Contact procedures — how you will reach parents or emergency contacts during a crisis, including your plan when cell service is disrupted
• Relocation site — if the home becomes uninhabitable, where you will take children and how parents will be notified
• Practice schedule — document the required fire and severe-weather drills and retain the dates in your records

Post your evacuation routes and assembly point on the wall near the primary exit. Keep the full written plan in your licensing notebook.

How the Two Policies Work Together

During the on-site inspection, the licensing consultant walks through your home looking at physical safety and documentation simultaneously. They will check that your fire extinguisher is mounted, your exits are unobstructed, and your emergency plan matches the actual layout. They will review your discipline policy for prohibited-practice language and compare it with your enrollment records.

Building both documents before your inspection — rather than scrambling after a corrective action — saves weeks of licensing delays.

Get Templates That Match Michigan's Rules

The Michigan Home Daycare Licensing Guide includes fillable worksheet templates for both your discipline policy and emergency preparedness plan, pre-structured to meet MiLEAP's administrative rule requirements. Complete them before your inspection, not after.

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