diff --git a/lib/sass/plugin/staleness_checker.rb b/lib/sass/plugin/staleness_checker.rb
index edea6196..7cc0f769 100644
--- a/lib/sass/plugin/staleness_checker.rb
+++ b/lib/sass/plugin/staleness_checker.rb
@@ -25,9 +25,12 @@ module Sass
       @dependencies_cache = {}
 
       class << self
+        # @private
         attr_accessor :dependencies_cache
       end
 
+      # Creates a new StalenessChecker
+      # for checking the staleness of several stylesheets at once.
       def initialize
         @dependencies = self.class.dependencies_cache
 
@@ -37,6 +40,12 @@ module Sass
         @mtimes, @dependencies_stale = {}, {}
       end
 
+      # Returns whether or not a given CSS file is out of date
+      # and needs to be regenerated.
+      #
+      # @param css_file [String] The location of the CSS file to check.
+      # @param template_file [String] The location of the Sass or SCSS template
+      #   that is compiled to `css_file`.
       def stylesheet_needs_update?(css_file, template_file)
         template_file = File.expand_path(template_file)
 
@@ -49,6 +58,20 @@ module Sass
         end
       end
 
+      # Returns whether or not a given CSS file is out of date
+      # and needs to be regenerated.
+      #
+      # The distinction between this method and the instance-level \{#stylesheet\_needs\_update?}
+      # is that the instance method preserves mtime and stale-dependency caches,
+      # so it's better to use when checking multiple stylesheets at once.
+      #
+      # @param css_file [String] The location of the CSS file to check.
+      # @param template_file [String] The location of the Sass or SCSS template
+      #   that is compiled to `css_file`.
+      def self.stylesheet_needs_update?(css_file, template_file)
+        new.stylesheet_needs_update?(css_file, template_file)
+      end
+
       private
 
       def dependencies_stale?(template_file, css_mtime)
@@ -95,10 +118,6 @@ module Sass
       rescue Sass::SyntaxError => e
         [] # If the file has an error, we assume it has no dependencies
       end
-
-      def self.stylesheet_needs_update?(css_file, template_file)
-        new.stylesheet_needs_update?(css_file, template_file)
-      end
     end
   end
 end