5 Emergency Operations Plans You Need For Your Home Daycare.
Emergency operations plans for home daycares are important because, in an event that an emergency occurs, your job as the childcare provider is to keep children safe.
You do not want to be coming up with an emergency plan in the moment! That will only bring added stress and could potentially put you and your little ones at added risk.
In this blog post, I am sharing the emergency response plans I have created for my home daycare. I encourage you to create your own emergency plans on how you will respond to various scenarios before they happen.
Emergency Response Plans
Emergency Response plan checklist:
- Local Emergency Numbers
- Emergency Contact Information
- Shelter in Place
- Evacuation
- Medical Emergency
Local Emergency Numbers
The first thing to do when creating emergency preparedness plans is to compile a list of all your local emergency numbers. Store this list in an emergency binder that is in a place that you or staff can get to quickly.
- Nearest Hospital Emergency Room
- Ambulance or Rescue Squad
- Poison Control Center
- Department of Children’s Services Child Abuse Hotline
- 911 (or equivalent)
- Police Department and/or Sherriff’s Office
- Fire Department
- Emergency Management Office
- Electric Company
- Gas Company
- Water Company
- Insurance Providers
Having these emergency numbers available allows no time to be wasted when you are in need of assistance.
Emergency Contact Information
The next part of your Emergency binder should include contact information for parents/guardians of children in your care.
This information is kept in your emergency binder so if you have to evacuate the home or daycare you can grab the binder quickly and take it with you.
What to include for each child:
- Child’s Full Name
- Birthdate
- Parent and/or Guardian Names and Numbers
- Emergency Contact Names and Numbers
- Doctors Name and Number
- Allergies
- Medications currently taking
- Special accommodations and/or medical conditions
Shelter in Place
The type of emergency determines how you react to the situation. Are conditions safer inside or outside the home daycare?
To shelter in place means you stay in the home or building during an emergency. These types of emergencies could include tornadoes, earthquakes, and/or dangerous person.
Practice Drills
It’s important to practice drills on a regular basis. If you are state licensed you will probably be required to keep a record of your monthly practice drills.
If possible make the designated place where you take the children the same for a tornado or dangerous person. This allows you to practice the drill but also protects the innocence of the children.
In my home daycare, all I have to say is, “drill” and the children know exactly what to do.
An Emergency Operations Plan For Shelter in Place Includes:
- A designated place where adults and children go. (Best if no windows and can be locked)
- How caregiver will attempt to keep the children quiet? (Small toys, books, or tablets)
- Individualized plans to accommodate infants, children with disabilities, or chronic medical conditions. (diapers, bottles, medications)
- How will communication occur with parents and guardians? (text message, email)
Evacuation
An Evacuation emergency plan is exactly how it sounds, it’s emergencies that you evacuate and leave the daycare. These types of emergencies would include fire, gas leak, or water leak.
Evacuation Drill
Practicing evacuation drills in your daycare is very important. I have found this type of drill can be more challenging than a shelter in place drill. Practicing with your little students will improve all expectations if you ever find yourself in a real emergency.
My students do not wear shoes in my home daycare. This poses a problem if I need to get children out quickly. When we first started these drills they would run to their shoes and start putting them on.
With trial and error, my current plan is for shoes to go into a laundry basket upon arrival. If we have to evacuate, the children know to run outside without shoes. I or my assistant will grab the laundry basket and we will put shoes on the children once we are safe.
Another issue I found with evacuation was getting nonwalkers out quickly. To manage this task more quickly, I leave a small fold-up wagon that I can grab and put all nonwalking students in. This wagon can then be quickly pulled right through our exit door.
Home Daycare Evacuation Plan Sample
- Evacuation Route (regular and alternative)
- Emergency Preparedness Bookbag (supplies, first aid kit)
- Grab Emergency Binder
- Individualized plans to accommodate infants, children with disabilities, or chronic medical conditions. (diapers, bottles, medications)
- How will communication occur with parents and guardians? (text message, email)
- Procedure for releasing children to guardians.
Medical Emergency
In the event of a medical emergency, you want to be prepared and ready. Here are some ways you can best prepare for medical emergencies.
- Obtain CPR and First Aid License
- Have a well-stocked First Aid Kit
- Follow all safety licensing policies
- Keep all medications in a locked box
- Prepare and manage allergens
- Individualized plans for children with chronic medical conditions
- Always have a phone available to call emergency services
Emergency Operations Plans Includes
Above I have gone over the top 5 emergency operations plans that are usually required by your state to meet basic requirements for emergency preparedness while planning to open a home daycare.
As a seasoned childcare provider, I have other emergency action plans that I include in my emergency binder. I will list them below to give you more ideas to think through to keep your little students safe.
- Loss of electricity
- Lost of heat or cooling
- Loss of water
- Loss of child
- Heatwave
- Pandemic Outbreak
- Communicable Disease
Emergency Action Plans
In a real emergency, you are going to be stressed! Keep your emergency action plans as simple as you can will help you remember important steps easily. Update and review your plan at least every 4 months or after each drill. Lastly, I encourage you to take training classes on handling emergency situations. If you are licensed, you can count these classes towards your professional development hours.
Being prepared gives you and your clients peace that you can handle an emergency situation.
If you are wanting more childcare provider help and tips check out my main provider page full of posts just for you!
Check out this great article on Safeguarding Your Home Daycare: What Experts Have to Say