Emergency Planning for Childcare Programs

In an emergency, adults can walk out of a building on their own. A room of infants and toddlers cannot. Children depend on you to carry them, count them and keep them calm, so a childcare program needs a plan that is much more detailed than a normal workplace plan.

Federal childcare funding rules require programs to plan for evacuation, relocation, shelter in place, lockdown, staff training and drills, reuniting children with their families, and care for infants, toddlers and children with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Your state sets further rules, including how often you drill. This guide explains what is specific to childcare. General workplace alarm and exit rules still apply to you.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Find and explain the main parts of your program's emergency plan
• Choose between evacuating, sheltering in place and locking down
• Move infants and toddlers safely
• Account for every child, before and after you move them
• Take part in drills, and keep families informed

What a Written Plan Includes

Every program should have a written plan, reviewed at least yearly and whenever something changes. Ask to read yours in your first week, and find these parts:

Know What to Do for Each Threat

Different threats call for different actions. Your plan will name them, and you must know each one.

Plans differ by region. Your state may require planning for earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires or floods. Also plan for a missing child, a power or heating failure, a loss of water, and an unauthorized person who tries to take a child.

Posted Information

Keep these posted by every phone, where a substitute can find them under stress: 911, Poison Help (1-800-222-1222), and your program's exact address and phone number. In a panic, people forget their own address. Post exit routes in each room. Some rules also ask you to post emergency steps, your meeting place and the names of the staff in charge.

Moving Infants and Toddlers

Babies and toddlers can't follow a line to the door, so you need a plan for the actual number of children in your room. Common methods include:

• Evacuation cribs. A crib with sturdy wheels that holds several infants and fits through the door. Keep the path to the door clear.
• Carriers. Staff wear a baby carrier or evacuation apron, which keeps hands free.
• Wagons or multi-seat strollers. Useful for toddlers, if they fit the route.
• Walking ropes. Older toddlers hold loops on a rope with an adult at each end.

Practice with real children during drills. Find out how long it takes. Some methods that look fine on paper fail at stairs or narrow doors. If your room is on an upper floor, your plan needs to cover how non-walking children get down the stairs.

Children with disabilities or health needs must be part of the plan. If a child uses a wheelchair or an inhaler, or needs a certain medicine, know who is responsible and what goes with them. Carry emergency medicine and care plans with you.

The Go-Bag

Each room needs a go-bag or binder that an adult can grab in seconds. It usually holds:

• The current attendance list, updated through the day
• Emergency contact and authorized pickup lists
• Allergy and medical information, and care plans
• Emergency medicine, kept where it is ready to go
• A first aid kit
• A phone and charger or a charged power bank
• Diapers, wipes, formula or snacks, and water for young children
• A flashlight and a whistle

Check the bag on a schedule. A contact list from last year or an empty flashlight is no use. If your program shelters in place or could be cut off, it should also store food, water and supplies for the length of time your plan sets.

Accounting for Every Child

Counting is the center of the whole plan. A building is not safe until each child has been found.

1. Grab the attendance list as you leave. Don't stop for personal items.
2. Check bathrooms, nap areas and closets in your room on the way out, as your plan says.
3. Close the door behind you, if you can do so safely.
4. At the meeting place, do a name-to-face count.
5. Report the number to the person in charge, including any child who is missing. Tell them where the child was last seen.
6. Do not go back inside for any reason. Tell firefighters what you know.
7. Keep counting until every child has been released to a family.

Keep children with their usual adults when you can, and keep them calm. Sing, tell stories and use your normal voice. Young children will take their mood from you.

Practicing Drills

Drills let everyone learn what to do when no one is scared. Your state sets the schedule. Monthly fire drills are a common rule, and other drills, such as for severe weather or lockdown, are often required less often. Keep a record of the date, time, how long it took, how many children took part and any problems.

• Run drills at different times of day, including nap time.
• Use different exits, including the backup route, so that no one expects only one.
• Include all staff, including part-time staff and substitutes.
• Prepare young children in simple words. Use calm language in lockdown drills, and avoid scaring them.
• After each drill, talk about what went wrong, and fix it.

Your state may require a certain number of training hours, and federal rules list emergency preparedness as a required staff training topic.

Keeping Families Informed

Families need to know the plan before an emergency happens. Share where you will go if you must leave, and how you will reach them, such as a text system, phone tree or website. Ask families to keep their contact details current. During an emergency, your director usually sends the messages, so don't post on your own social media. A public post can spread wrong information or reveal where children are.

Reuniting children with families needs care too. Use your sign-out list, and release children only to authorized adults, with ID if needed. If a parent can't come, the child stays with staff.

Tell your director if you see something that would slow an evacuation, such as a blocked exit or a broken crib wheel. Keep exits clear and doors unlocked from the inside. Check that smoke alarms and extinguishers have current inspections, and know where they are.

Common Mistakes

Check Your Understanding

1. The fire alarm sounds at nap time. You have 8 sleeping infants and one coworker. What do you do?

Use your room's plan. Load babies in the evacuation crib or carriers, grab the attendance list and go-bag, and leave by the planned route. At the meeting place, count by name and report the number.

2. You reach the meeting place and count 13 children, but your list shows 14. What do you do?

Recount by name. If a child is missing, tell the person in charge at once, say where the child was last seen, and tell firefighters. Do not go back inside.

3. A tornado warning sounds. A new aide starts to lead the children out the door. What do you say?

Tell her that a tornado calls for sheltering in place. Bring the children to the safest interior space, take the go-bag, and count everyone.

4. Your program lists a backup location. A parent asks where it is. Can you tell them?

Yes, if your program shares it with families, which it should. Follow your director's guidance on what to share, and keep the location off public social media.

Key Takeaways

• A childcare plan must cover evacuation, relocation, shelter in place, lockdown and reuniting families
• Know exactly how infants and non-walking children leave your room
• Keep the attendance list, contacts and care plans in a go-bag you can grab in seconds
• Count by name before and after you move, and report every missing child at once
• Keep emergency numbers and your address posted by every phone
• Drill at different times, with different exits, and fix what goes wrong