The Education Act, 1998, specifies that it is the responsibility of the Board of Management of a school to arrange for the preparation of a school plan and to ensure that it is regularly reviewed and updated. The School Development Planning Initiative (SDPI) was established in 1999 to support the process of development planning in post-primary schools. Key documents published by the School Development Planning Initiative include:

• School Development Planning - 
• School Development Planning - Guidelines for Second-Level schools (This link has been removed as www.sdpi.ie is currently offline)

The above documents provide information and advice on the scope, structure and format of the school plan and on how its content may be organised.

The material in this section of the website is designed to support schools in developing their individual policies in particular areas within the overall context of the school plan. Relevant support material has been collated and integrated into a standard framework, including templates to assist schools in developing particular policies.