as a director of an early childhood program?

I would do an entire portfolio. It would include an inventory of the items you already have and then compare to how many students are enrolled. I would also include pictures of equipment that is damaged or in poor condition. If you have control over where the items get purchased I would include a cost comparison, it shows that you did your research and got the best deal for their money.

EC is right I think, as a general rule. However, I worked for several years for an early childhood program that was part of a school district and because we reported to the school board, we did have to justify purchases sometimes, especially high cost items, and field trip requests always had to be justified. We would write up our request in such a way that it was clear why this planned trip had educational value to the children. We would also include a brief description of activities to be done before the trip to prepare the children and follow-up activities for after the trip to support our learning objectives. The same applied to big money purchases for the center or classrooms. We would describe educational value of the items requested and how we would prepare the children for using the items, and what we would do to support the educational goals.

It’s actually very easy to do since almost everything has some educational value for preschoolers. Social interaction, how to behave in public, plus the knowledge to be gained from the destination or materials are all acceptable goals. The only things I never tried to request were entertainment items like video games!

I was director of a not-for-profit day care center for eighteen years and never had to justify my purchases. I wrote a budget with the help of the treasurer but had flexibility within the total and as long as income was steady. I did discuss major purchases with them such as a new bus or playground equipment and we worked together to fund raise.

They hired you for your professional skills and judgment. If they are not willing to let you use them, find another job. At the very least you should not have to justify purchases under about $1000. Your responsibility should be to report regularly, probably monthly, on income and spending. Checks should require two signatures and someone other than you should do a monthly financial statement.

Justifying what you need and explaining it in detail is quite tedious. Rather than organizing your proposal by what you need to successfully complete each lesson plan, list what equipment and materials you need by what skill the children will develop. For example, you need pencils, crayons, chalk, paintbrushes, etc. for fine motor skills. You’d like, x, y, and z for gross motor…..Chances are when you prepare your lesson plans you use that type of outline anyway. Or say things like to develop scientific skills, we’ll need… That way it’s not sounding frivolous and it shows how it directly benefits the children to perform that activity.