Guidelines for Individual Programs

Create your PIC program guidelines

Program-specific policies and guidelines are required in order to ensure program staff and volunteers know how to handle and respond to situations if they occur during program activities.

We developed a template to help you create your required program-specific policies and guidelines. The template includes numerous topics to consider when creating your program-specific guidelines and is intended to serve as a starting point and a formatting guide.

Because every program is different, these rules and procedures should be tailored to your own needs. There is no set standard that every program should use, so there may be additional areas or factors that your particular program should address based on the type of activities offered.

In addition to the template, programs are encouraged to review the additional guidance below as well as consulting with IU Public Safety staff at iupic@iu.edu if needed.

Get the PIC program guidelines template

Reporting obligations

First and foremost, your rules and procedures should make clear that ANY person who suspects a child has been abused or neglected must report this information to the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) at 1-800-800-5556, to their local law enforcement, or to the IU Police Department. Faculty, staff, students, volunteers, and other university personnel MUST ALSO report any suspected abuse or neglect to the Indiana University Superintendent of Public Safety at iupic@iu.edu.

This requirement cannot be satisfied by requiring volunteers to report to a supervisor. It is always the responsibility of the person who suspects the abuse or neglect to report to DCS or law enforcement, even if a supervisor is notified.

In addition to educating your program volunteers about their duty to report, you may also want to consider requiring an internal reporting process to their supervisor/program leader to ensure the program can put appropriate safeguards in place and take any necessary and appropriate action as a result of the report.

Share your guidelines

It is important that, once your program has created a set of guidelines, you share the information with all program staff and volunteers.

Sharing your program guidelines ensures all individuals involved with your program are not only knowledgeable regarding all safety risks, necessary actions they may need to take, and the expectations for conduct, but that they also are able to enforce the policies and guidelines that have been created for your specific event.

Applicable policies

All programs must ensure they are following not only the PIC policy, but also any other applicable IU policies.

Your program should search the IU policies website and consider consulting with your department/unit to determine what relevant policies you should incorporate into your program policies and guidelines.