Day Care Safety
Posted on Jan 07, 2010 with Comments 0
While accidents can happen anytime and anywhere, it is prevention and general awareness apart from alertness and ready, qualified disaster management or medical aid programs that personnel at daycare should be trained for that can reduce or eliminate danger to child safety.
Knowing that the childcare you are sending your child to is mindful of state regulations on how a licensed daycare should run and that the administration takes due notice of safety guidelines to keep equipment of a certain standard as well as train employees to meet with potentially child-threatening situations in a capable manner is what helps parents work with an easy mind, confident in the knowledge their child is in good hands.
Never be afraid to ask questions about the safety regulations and the facility’s compliance with them of your daycare center manager; ever since the McMartin preschool trial occurred in the late ’80’s, parents have woken up to the need of being careful about the kind of environment they leave their children in. From factors such as daycare employee background checks conduction to knowing if there are surveillance cameras on the campus and any other monitoring devices for ensuring all children are safe at all times, there are other daycare safety measures that must be looked into for ensuring parents as well as daycare providers have their needs met.
Do check for licensed daycare operators, whether the employees there have any past offenses such as sex offenders or violent crimes revealed in their background checks, whether the center takes responsibility and adequate precaution in making parents sign a sheet for who will drop and collect the child besides a list of people who are allowed to visit or pick up the child from daycare etc. Only these designated persons should be allowed to come in contact with your child and always alert your kid to remember your code word for emergencies, so you know he or she is safe at all times should anyone else try to collect the child instead.
Check the nature of equipment provided by the daycare center, such as guarded windows, no sharp toys or rusty nails or broken furniture apparent or any hazardous electrical outlets that have not been covered etc. At times, simple precautions like checking for debris and unsafe toys or even ordinary stuff like hanging window cords can prevent accidents and save children’s health and life at the daycare, so parents, be aware and alert about your rights and choose a facility that provides well for your child.
Chew on this: About ten years ago, close to 31,000 children below the age of 4 were admitted to U.S. healthcare emergency rooms for injuries that were caused in daycare and school environments; so, perhaps being cautious about child safety is one way to ensure your child doesn’t end up as a statistic.
