Emergency planning

 To understand why it's important to write your entire plan down and make sure everyone knows what to do, you should understand what an emergency preparedness plan is and why it matters. An emergency preparedness plan is a set of documents that make sure that your child care business will continue to operate if there is an emergency or disaster. These documents tell the steps and rules needed to keep children and staff safe in an emergency. 

Often during an emergency, people may feel overwhelmed. Having an easy to follow plan (that everyone knows about!) can help your employees feel more confident in their actions. It can ensure that you and your team are ready to provide support and ensure safety for children and families during stressful times.

An emergency preparedness plan can take some time to develop, but it is important to complete. When creating a plan, set a realistic deadline for completion to keep yourself accountable. Also, consider having a small team of other staff members, if you have them, and parents or caregivers who could help you think through the procedures as you write them. A plan can be created in five steps:  

Step 1: assess your business for areas of risk 

Brainstorm the types of natural disasters or emergency situations that could affect your child care. Is your business prone to certain natural disasters that would require an evacuation, like floods or hurricanes? Do you live in an area that is at risk for extended loss of heating/AC, water, or power? Consider an unexpected absence of management, a public health crisis, a security threat, or other unexpected situations. 

Next, you want to determine how likely they are. You can create a simple table and have a probability of high, medium, and low. For each type of situation first write one line about how you would address it. Typically, there are two scenarios – staying put and getting out. For example, if you have concerns about a violent parent, you are likely going to stay put, lock the doors, and limit entry. In other situations, like a power outage, fire, or a flood you may want to get out of the building. Likely you will find that most, if not all, the scenarios will require one of these two responses. If they don’t you can create new ones.  

It is difficult to address every potential issue. In the least, you want to focus on the high probability risks. Additionally, you could cover medium and low probability ones using the same responses (such as stay put or get out).  

Step 2: create a process for emergencies 

Write down the steps to take in an emergency. The simpler you can make it, the better, so people can keep it clear in their heads during an emergency. Start with sounding an alarm and end with verifying that all the children are where they should be. This could be in the building or at an evacuation point outside the building. If you can, having a flow chart may help.  

Document both the on-site and off-site evacuation locations, as well as shelter-in-place locations. Remember to document secondary routes to evacuation locations in case primary routes are blocked. For your off-site evacuations, include instructions on how children will be transported to off-site locations. Some questions to consider are: 

• Do you need buses or vehicles?
• If you provide care for infants or children with special needs, how will you transport them?  

The plan should also include an emergency evacuation and relocation diagram with: 

• A floor plan of your home or center, two exit paths from each room, unless a room opens directly to the outdoors at ground level;
• The designated location outside of the child care home or center where all caregivers and children meet to ensure everyone has exited the building safely;
• Plans for parent or caregiver pick up; and
• The designated location inside the building where all caregivers and children will take shelter.  

You will want to make sure that your plan includes (and you follow up on getting) any needed supplies and a list of each child, their parent or guardian and contact information as well as any allergies, medications, or other special care needs. You should also have phone numbers for all staff members, passwords for important online systems, contact information for property managers or landlords, a list of all approved repair companies, such as plumbers, electricians, pest control companies, and account numbers for financial institutions and utility services. The more sensitive information may be kept separately with limited access to staff.  

Designate at least one person on your team as the person in charge if you are not available. If you have staff, this could be an assistant director, administrative assistant, or trusted lead teacher. Choose someone that is willing and able to take charge in an emergency and make sure that person is trained on the protocols of how each situation should be handled if you are not present. 

Keeping physical copies of the emergency preparedness plan (in addition to digital ones) allows for easier accessibility in instances where electronic access may not be possible. It also allows for the plan to travel with the person in charge should they need to move to another location. To create your binder, you should gather all your documents in a way that preserves their order and keeps the pages safe. An easy way to do so is to invest in a 3-ring binder where you can use plastic sheet protectors for easy organization. Your binder should have designated sections for each component of your emergency preparedness plan – like chapters in a book. Creating a table of contents is a great idea and will help your employees find the sections they are looking for. It is recommended that you keep two printed copies of your emergency preparedness plan along with one saved on your computer and another at an off-site location. This way, for example, if you have a home fire that destroys the print copies and your computer, you still have a copy. When creating your emergency preparedness plan, it is important to remember that it should be written in the language or languages needed so that anyone within your business can easily understand the actions to take either during an emergency or in your absence. 

Step 3: share the plan 

Sharing your plan with all staff members is very important. Even if an employee is not the designated person in charge, everyone should be very familiar with your emergency preparedness plan. It is recommended that you make the review of your emergency preparedness plan part of your onboarding process with all new staff and that employees review the plan at scheduled intervals, at least yearly. An easy way to do this is to review the plan with everyone during a staff meeting. After review, each person should sign off that they have reviewed and understand the emergency preparedness plan. Make sure you provide time for staff members to ask questions or provide suggestions if they have them. 

Communicating how emergencies will be handled with parents and families is essential. This information should be written down for families in your child care parent contract in a section about your emergency preparedness plan upon signing up. When reviewing with families, stress your notification plan to explain how you will communicate with them during and after emergencies and make them aware of all evacuation locations.

Step 4: hold drills and revise your plan 

It is important to practice evacuation and shelter-in-place drills on a regular basis. 

• Follow state licensing and other applicable regulations for drill frequency and type (in many cases, this is monthly)
• Involve all children who are present at the time of the practice drill in the drill;
• Give children simple instructions and talk about what is happening; and
• Complete a drill log. 

Emergency preparedness plans should be reviewed at least yearly for accuracy, and updated as staffing changes occur. It's a good idea to consult with emergency services when creating or making changes to the emergency portion of your plans. They can provide valuable feedback and suggestions.  

Having a written and well-organized emergency preparedness plan can make all the difference during emergencies. Protecting the children in your care, as well as your staff, is your number one priority and your emergency preparedness plan will play an important role in ensuring their safety. While it may be hard to imagine a disaster striking and affecting your business, having an emergency preparedness plan in place will bring peace of mind to you, your staff, and your families. Once you have your plan developed, it's time to take the steps to implement it.

Disclaimer

The information contained here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, or financial advice.