By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Discuss lost or missing child prevention and response.
Explain response to unauthorized persons on the premises.
Identify potential disasters and emergencies that early care and education programs should prepare for.
Summarize the three phases of emergency management (preparedness, response, and recovery).
Distinguish when to use each type of emergency response (evacuation, sheltering in place, and lockdown).
Licensing Regulations
Title 22 Regulations that relate to this chapter include:
101174
DISASTER AND MASS CASUALTY PLAN
Each licensee shall have a disaster plan of action in writing.
Disaster drills shall be documented and conducted every six months.
101216.1
TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS
A teacher shall complete 15 hours of health and safety training, if necessary, pursuant to Health and Safety code, Section 1596.866.
101224
TELEPHONES
All Child Care Centers shall have working telephone service onsite.
101229.1
SIGN IN AND SIGN OUT
The licensee shall develop, maintain and implement a written procedure to sign the child in/out of the center. The person who signs the child in/out shall use his/her full legal signature and shall record the time of day. All sign in/out sheets shall be kept for one month.
Introduction
An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation. Some emergencies will be obvious (such as natural disasters), but others will require early childhood educators to decide if it truly is an emergency.
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Once an emergency has been identified, it’s important to know what to do. This chapter discusses different types of emergencies, introduces the phases of a disaster, and more information about planning for different types of emergencies.
Lost or Missing Child
The best way to prevent children from going missing is to establish and follow procedures to monitor attendance. The following suggestions have been modified from New York City Health Code.
Identify who is responsible for taking attendance
Identify when attendance will be taken
Identify how attendance is going to be confirmed, documented, and reported
Make sure that staffing schedules ensure that adult-to-child ratios are maintained at all times
Have clear procedures for any times children are transitioning between classrooms and outdoor spaces
Follow procedures for transitioning children that arrive late or leave early
Train all staff in procedures
For special events and field trips
A coordinator should be identified
Ensure staff are familiar with the destination prior to event/trip
Follow procedures for documenting parental approval
Increase ratios with extra staff or volunteers (who have background clearance)
Determine communication procedures with dependable methods (develop communication tree)
Monitor attendance and take headcounts often
Maintain trip attendance log
Assign small groups of children to specific staff
Establish areas for regrouping
Take attendance before departure
And here are the procedures to follow if a child does go missing:
Establish instructions for reporting (when, how, and by whom)
Establish procedures for searching for the child while maintaining supervision of all other children
Document the incident
Develop actions to be taken in response to the event
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Unauthorized Adult Attempting or Gaining Access
There should also be policies and procedures in place to keep children safe from unauthorized persons on grounds of the early care and education program. Programs may choose to have entrances that are locked and only accessed through codes (each authorized person should have their own code) or by being buzzed in by a member of program staff.
Programs can also use cameras to monitor and record the entrances of the building, common spaces, hallways, classrooms, and outdoor spaces. Alarms and panic buttons are also something programs can consider using for added protection (and alarms protect the grounds even after hours of operation).
The front desk/entrance should be staffed with someone who can check each person entering to ensure they have been authorized to have access by matching their ID to the child’s record of authorized persons. Sign-in sheets should be used to document who is dropping each child off and who has picked them up. It is important to note that, unless the program has received a court order limiting the parent’s rights to custody, children cannot be kept from a parent.
The one exception to this is that according to California law, a program can deny access to an adult whose behavior presents a risk to children in the program. According to the California Department of Social Services and the Child Care Advocate Program, if a parent comes to pick up their child while inebriated or under the influence of drugs, child care providers must:
Make every effort to prevent the parent from taking the child by taking the recommended steps
Attempt to delay departure until you can contact another authorized person to pick the child up.
Consider calling the police if the person refuses to cooperate or acts in a threatening manner
If the child is taken, write down a description of the vehicle and the license plate and report the situation to the parent/legal guardian and/or police.
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Response to Unauthorized Person’s Attempt to Pick Up Child
According to the Public Counsel Law Center: Early Care and Education Law Project’s
Guidelines for Releasing Children
, if an unauthorized person attempts to pick up a child, a program should:
Resist their demands
Calmly request their ID and explain that the law requires that the enrolling parent/legal guardian authorize any person that will be permitted to pick up a child
Call the custodial parent right away and let them know what is happening
If the person refuses to comply, the police may need to be called
If the child is taken by force, get a detailed description of the person and vehicle to report authorities immediately
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Disasters and Emergencies
Early care and education programs should consider how to prepare for and respond to emergency situations or natural disasters that may require evacuation, lock-down, or shelter-in-place and have written plans, accordingly. Written plans should be posted in each classroom and areas used by children. The following topics should be addressed, including but not limited to regularly scheduled practice drills, procedures for notifying and updating families, and the use of the daily class roster(s) to check attendance of children and staff during an emergency or drill when gathered in a safe space after exit and upon return to the program. All drills/exercises should be recorded.
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Emergencies often happen suddenly and can be devastating to programs and communities. Emergency preparedness is the process of taking steps to ensure your early care and education program is safe before, during, and after an emergency. Whether a natural disaster such as a tornado hits or a man-made emergency such as the appearance of a violent intruder occurs, early childhood educators need to know how to respond quickly and appropriately to situations that could happen in their program, center, or home. It’s important for every program to create an emergency preparedness plan specific to their location, building, and grounds.
Early care and education programs play an important role in supporting children and families in their local communities before, during, and after an emergency through three phases of emergency management:
Preparedness—Takes place before an emergency. It includes being informed about any likely emergencies in your area; mitigating any existing concerns at your facility that could make an emergency worse; making plans to respond to emergencies before they happen; and building, maintaining, and updating supply kits you will take or keep with you during an emergency.
Response—Begins the moment you are alerted to an impending emergency and continues as the emergency occurs.
Recovery—Happens as soon as the emergency is over, when efforts are focused on food, water, shelter, safety, and the emotional needs of those affected. Recovery is also the process of rebuilding your program and returning to normalcy after an emergency, which is why it can last hours, weeks, months, or even years in the most extreme cases.
Preparedness
Ensuring you are prepared and ready for everyday activities is essential, and it is something you do every day in your program. Preparing and planning for emergencies is no different. Use the self-assessment in Appendix F to determine the steps you may need to take to develop a comprehensive and effective emergency-preparedness plan.
You will also need to consider the types of emergencies your program could experience. What types of emergencies have previously occurred in your area? Is your program in a flood zone or an area commonly threatened by wildfire? Do you experience severe weather events? Is there a history of violence in your community? Here are some possible emergencies to consider:
Tornado
Earthquake
Hurricane
Flooding
Tsunami
Thunderstorm
House Fire/Wildfire
Active Shooter/Violent Intruder (Prepared for?)
Blackout/Power Outage
Extreme Heat
Winter Storm/Extreme Cold
Landslide/Mudslide
Volcanic Eruption
Your emergency plan should address all aspects of your early childcare education program, including the number and ages of enrolled children and any special health care needs or concerns of children and staff. While developing your emergency plan, use community resources for different perspectives and recommendations on preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. These resources can include but are not limited to:
Child care health consultants
Mental health consultants
Child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs)
First responders, such as fire, law enforcement, and emergency medical personnel
State/territory child care licensing agency
Public health departments
School district personnel, if your program is located within a school
Community physicians who are disaster experts
Making Your Emergency Response Plan
Working together and communicating what to do during an event is essential. Understanding everyone’s role during an emergency before the emergency occurs helps make the response procedure quicker and more efficient. Establishing responsibilities can be addressed during training sessions and planning meetings before an emergency or drill, to ensure staff are comfortable with the procedures.
Types of Emergency Responses
There are many types of emergencies. The key to remember is that each is a method to put effective barriers between you and a threat. The difference is in the types of threats and what kind of barrier is called for.
Evacuating is a means to leave a dangerous situation or area (e.g., because of a fire).
Sheltering in place is the use of a structure and its indoor atmosphere to temporarily separate you from a hazardous outdoor atmosphere (e.g., tornadoes, earthquakes, severe weather, landslides, or debris flow). It entails closing all doors, windows, and vents and taking immediate shelter in a readily accessible location.
A lockdown is a shelter-in-place procedure that is used in situations with intruders or emergencies that involve potential violence. Lockdown requires children and adults to shelter in a safe room, lock doors, and remain quiet until the event is over.
See a sample evacuation plan and example blank plans for evacuation, shelter-in-place, and lockdown in Appendix G.
Building an Emergency Kit
Building an emergency supply kit is an important part of preparedness. This kit ensures that your program has sufficient supplies and food if you and the children need to shelter in place or evacuate in an emergency for at least 72 hours. Make sure that all items are up to date and not expired. Consider appointing someone to be responsible for routinely checking expiration dates of the food in your kit. Here are some items you might consider including in your kit:
Emergency contact information for children and staff
Attendance sheet
Facility floor plan with evacuation routes outlined
Printed directions to evacuation sites
Medication list with dosing instructions for each child who takes medication
Battery- or hand-powered weather radio
Battery-powered walkie-talkies to communicate with staff
Fully charged cell phone and charger
Flashlight and batteries
First aid kit
Diapers, toilet paper, diaper wipes
Sanitary wipes and hand sanitizer
Non-latex medical gloves
Dry or canned infant formula
Bottled water
Non-perishable food
Work gloves
Paper towels
Blankets
Alternative power source for electric medical devices (if needed)
Whistle
Wrench or pliers for the director to turn off utilities
Matches in a waterproof container
Games or activities to entertain children
Practice Your Plan
Practicing your emergency plan in advance helps everyone respond quickly and appropriately when an emergency situation arises. You won’t know if the plan works unless you try it out, so practice with all children and adults. If you have enrolled children or staff with special health care needs or disabilities, address these specific needs with community partners during practice.
Regular emergency drills, both announced and unannounced, help everyone become familiar with emergency procedures and activities. This can reduce panic and fear during an actual emergency, freeing participants to focus on how to evacuate, shelter in place, or lockdown.
Reunification Procedures
An effective method of reuniting children with their parents and guardians after an emergency is an often-overlooked component of an emergency plan, but it is very important. Including up-to-date emergency contact information for each child in your emergency kit can help provide structure around this process. Reunification procedures that should be communicated to families:
Evacuation or shelter-in-place locations
What the program will do during a lockdown response
What families should do during a lockdown response
Who will contact families before, during, and after an emergency
How families will be contacted (e.g., text, email, phone call)
Procedures if a child needs to be transported for medical care (e.g., who will accompany the child, where they will go)
It is important for programs to have procedures in place if children cannot be reunited with their families immediately. Roads close, care gets delayed, and work shifts go into overtime during emergencies for parents/guardians working in hospitals or as first responders. Having a plan in case you need to take care of a child overnight is a critical part of your reunification procedures.
What is Mitigation?
Mitigation is similar to preparedness and involves reducing the seriousness or severity of disasters or emergencies. It is also a way of preventing future emergencies or disasters. Use the following checklist in Appendix H to ensure you are mitigating your program’s risks.
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Response
The goals of the response phase are to:
Determine that an emergency is occurring
Determine appropriate response (evacuation, shelter in place, or lockdown)
Activate the emergency response plan
Maintain communication with all staff and first responders
Establish what information needs to be communicated to staff, teachers, assistants, children, families, and the community
Provide emergency first aid as needed
Refer to Figure 5.18 to see the process responses should follow.
Response is directly related to preparedness—the more you prepare and practice your emergency response, the more efficient your response will be. After performing an emergency all involved parties should reflect upon how the drill went and provide feedback on what worked and what did not work. Updates and revisions to the plan and procedures should be made based on that feedback. Teachers should also discuss the drill with the children afterward, so the children can ask questions and understand what happened.
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Responding to Fires and Earthquakes
Earthquake Response – Drop, Cover, and Hold On
In order to be prepared to respond when there is an earthquake, teachers should identify safe places. A safe place could be under a sturdy table or desk or against an interior wall away from windows, bookcases or tall furniture that could fall on teachers and children. The shorter the distance to move to safety, the less likely that someone will be injured.
Everyone should practice drop, cover, and hold on. Have children go under a table (or desk if school-age) and hold on to one leg of the table or desk. Have them protect their eyes by keeping their head down.
If an earthquake occurs inside, everyone should drop, cover, and hold on until the shaking stops. Teachers should then check everyone for injuries and look for things that may have fallen or broken that may now be a hazard (including fire). If evacuation is necessary, everyone should use stairs.
If an earthquake occurs when people are outdoors, they should stay outside, moving away from buildings, trees, streetlights and overhead lines, crouching down and covering their heads. Many injuries occur within ten feet of the entrance to buildings. Bricks, roofing and other materials can fall from buildings, injuring persons nearby. Trees, streetlights and overhead lines may also fall, causing damage or injury.
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Fire Response
Programs should have clear escape routes drawn on floor plans that note all doors, windows, and potential barriers. Every room should have two escape routes, which should be kept open/accessible at all times. And the evacuation site (and a backup evacuation site/temporary shelter) should be identified. These plans should be posted in every room and all program staff and families should be familiar with these (and regularly practice them).
If a fire occurs, 911 should be called immediately. A designated staff person should get the current record of the attendance and the emergency contact information for all of the children. As the children and staff evacuate, each should be noted so that no one is left behind. No one should go back into the building once it has been evacuated
Everyone should proceed to the evacuation site or temporary shelter. For children that cannot yet walk (infants, toddlers, or children with mobility impairments) a large wagon, or emergency crib on wheels, or similar equipment can be used for evacuation.
Recovery
The recovery phase refers to the actions taken from the time the emergency ends until the needs of staff, children, and families are met. It includes helping affected families resume their daily activities and helping all those affected cope with the aftermath of the emergency. Recovery can last for a few days, weeks, months, or even years. The goals of the recovery phase are to:
Rebuild your facility or home if necessary, and restore services as quickly as possible.
Meet the needs (physical, health, emotional) of children, families, and staff.
Provide a supportive and caring environment that brings normalcy back into children’s lives.
Incorporating recovery resources into your emergency-preparedness plan can help you reach these goals more quickly while providing mental health and emotional support to children, families, and staff.
Reunification
Safely returning children to their families after an emergency begins to bring children and families back to normalcy. Preparing for this by keeping up-to-date emergency contact information for each child in your emergency kit can help provide structure around this process. As discussed in previous chapters, make sure you are communicating with families throughout the emergency, if possible. This communication may help the reunification process begin more quickly, as families may be able to safely pick up their children sooner.
Damage and Needs Assessment
A damage assessment of your facility or home after an emergency is crucial for your early childcare education program to open again. Assessments will differ based on the type of emergency your program, center, or home experienced. Resources to help you complete a damage assessment: b Flooding: usa.childcareaware.org/flooding/ b Hurricane: usa.childcareaware.org/hurricanes b Tornado: www.ready.gov/tornadoes Ensure that your early childcare education program has been given the all-clear from licensing and emergency officials before reopening.
Continuation of Services
After conducting your damage and needs assessment, an action plan is needed for how your early childcare education program will resume services to families. Use community resources, they can connect you to resources that can help you re-open your early care and education program or provide children with temporary child care. Resources related to the continuation of services: b childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/resource/continuation-child-careservices-louisianas-experience
Mental Health and Emotional Needs
Mental health support is a high priority after an emergency. Children and adults who have experienced stress and/or loss, either at the child care program or at home, may have difficulty coping. By offering a safe place and resources like mental health consultants, early care and education programs support children, families, and staff coping with fear, anger, and grief and help them resume their lives in a healthy way.
Coping with Disaster, Emergencies, and Tragedies
Keep in mind the following:
Everyone who sees or experiences an emergency is affected by it in some way.
It is normal to feel anxious about your own safety and that of your family and close friends.
Profound sadness, grief, and anger are normal reactions during or after an emergency.
Everyone has different needs and different ways of coping.
Acknowledging feelings and focusing on your strengths and abilities can help recovery.
Difficult memories of the disaster can be triggered by certain loud noises, weather events, or news clips from the emergency. This may be true even years later.
Engaging Families in Supporting Their Children After a Disaster
Further resources about how families can help children cope after a disaster:
When early care and education programs have staff that are knowledgeable about how to identify and respond to injuries and emergencies, they are prepared to keep children safe.
It’s important to remember that emergencies can take many forms. Early care and education programs should be ready to act in the event of any type of emergency by being prepared and by knowing how to respond and recover.
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Office of Child Care: Child Care Resources for Disasters and Emergencies: www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/resource/child-care-resources-for-disastersand-emergencies