Providing tobacco free environments is a great way to protect both the current and future health of a child. For the organizations you are partnering with, offer to help develop a tobacco policy if one does not already exist or provide guidance on strengthening their existing policy. Steps taken now to create comprehensive tobacco free policies will help ensure a long-lasting positive impact.
Special Note: All Head Start centers are federally required to be smoke-free indoors. Indiana state law pertaining to child care centers also requires a written policy prohibiting tobacco use indoors (IC 12-17.2-4-3.5). Indiana state law requires all school buses to be smoke-free (IC 16-41-37-2.3); this applies to the Head Start school buses.
Consider how you have worked to create tobacco free policies with other local workplaces and school districts and apply those successes to this policy work. The goal is to encourage organizations to create a comprehensive tobacco policy or amend an existing policy to provide the greatest protection possible against exposure to secondhand smoke.
Steps to Evaluating an Organizations Tobacco Policy
- Inquire if the organization has a tobacco policy
This should be part of your Key Informant Interview. The organization may have a stand alone tobacco policy or it may be a section in their employee and/or parent handbooks or part of another organizational document. Depending on the structure of the organization, this may fall under the policy of a parent organization or the entity they lease their building(s) from. Gather general information about the existence of a policy so you will know how best to proceed by helping them create a tobacco policy or providing feedback on an existing one.
If no policy exists, click here for next steps.
- Request a copy of the organization’s tobacco policy
This can also be done as part of the Key Informant Interview or at follow up meetings. If the organization mentions tobacco use guidelines in more than one organizational document, ask for copies of each in either print or electronic version. If their tobacco policy is posted online, a link to the document with the policy should suffice.
- Determine if the policy is comprehensive or not
The goal is to have a policy in place that requires a 100% tobacco free environment. Follow this checklist to determine if all the components of a comprehensive policy are included and if the language is clear.
- Submit policy to TPC
Share a copy of the current tobacco policy with TPC through the SharePoint site. Once in SharePoint, go to “Forms,” and then “Submit a Tobacco Free Policy” and follow the instructions.
- Share policy recommendations with the organization’s leadership
After receiving feedback from TPC, povide written feedback to the organization outlining how their tobacco policy could be improved and made more comprehensive. Feel free to use language from this Sample Tobacco Free Policy. Be sure to offer praise for components the policy adequately addresses as well as your suggestions for strengthening the policy. Based on your relationship with the organization this could be done through email, in a meeting with your main contact, or at an appropriate committee meeting.
- Listen for and address concerns
Instituting an updated tobacco policy can be a difficult and time-consuming process. Acknowledge concerns the organization may have about changing their policy or enforcing it. Again, your regional director can be a resource to you as you navigate challenges. You can also share your challenges in the Facebook Group and get advice from other coordinators who may have faced similar challenges.
- Provide on-going education and support
Check in with the organization’s leadership periodically to determine if they have been successful in updating their tobacco policy. Offer your support as needed with the implementation and enforcement of the new policy: help educate staff and parents about the policy, assist with signage, provide Quitline and educational materials, etc.