Teach

Understanding Emergencies

Natural disasters, illnesses, injuries, or threats of violence can shatter the daily routine of a child care program. As a training and curriculum specialist, it is your job to keep children safe during these difficult events. You can also be a resource and comfort to families and communities that are struggling.

One of the first steps in responding to emergencies is understanding the types of disasters that might affect you and the children in your program’s care. As a trainer, it is your role to make sure staff members understand the disasters that could affect them.

Unusual events can require you to respond quickly. If there is the potential for injury or loss of life, these events are emergencies. Emergencies might affect your classrooms, program, local area, region, or the entire country. Examples of emergencies that typically affect child development and school-age programs are:

• Injuries: Children and staff may experience bodily harm while in your program. This may result from falls, collisions, or contact with poisonous substances.
• Inclement weather: Snow, ice, or extreme heat can affect the safety of children and families.
• Technology failure: Electricity or water outages can affect the way your program operates.
• Missing child: A child could leave or be taken from the program without authorization.

When emergencies are more severe, affect a larger number of people, or present a stronger risk, they can be thought of as disasters. The type of disaster you are most likely to encounter depends on the characteristics of the region in which you live. There are several types of disasters that might affect programs:

• Natural disasters: This type of emergency includes flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, forest fires, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, or other similar events.
• Technological: This type of emergency includes explosions, nuclear incidents, severe power outages, drinking-water shortages, oil spills, or fires.
• Terrorism: This type of emergency includes acts of violence or threats of violence against individuals or groups. Examples may include bombings, shootings, kidnappings, hijacking, or use of biological weapons.
• Illness or epidemic: This type of emergency involves the rapid spread of severe, potentially deadly illnesses, like the flu.

It is important for you and your team to understand the types of emergencies you are likely to face. Certain natural disasters, in particular, are more likely to affect certain regions of the country or world.

It is also important to remember that not all emergencies are disasters. It is very likely that your program will experience common emergencies like inclement weather, failure of electricity or water, or injuries on the playground. You must be prepared to respond to all emergencies large and small.

Making Sure Staff Members are Prepared for Emergencies

Your program has a contingency plan in place for emergencies. It is the responsibility of the trainer to make sure training requirements identified in your program’s emergency plan are conducted. Staff members must receive training on emergency procedures. They should have copies of the emergency plan located in their classrooms and programs, and they should have the opportunity to practice so they can respond appropriately when the real time comes. To complete their own Virtual Laboratory School lessons, staff members must become familiar with your program’s emergency plan in order to participate in the exercises and respond correctly to related assessment questions. Provide staff members with the information and experiences they need. Follow-up to make sure you feel confident that every staff member knows how to keep children safe. Involve staff in annual reviews of emergency plans and seek their input. This can make the plans more effective.

Your plan helps you answer questions like:

• Where will children be relocated?
• Have alternative sites been identified and arranged in advance?
• How will you relocate children if an emergency occurs during normal operating hours?
• How will parents be notified?
• What are individual staff member responsibilities?

Your emergency plan may also contain information about the following situations:

You should keep a copy of your program’s emergency response plan in each classroom for reference.

In the Apply section, you will find a guide for helping you learn about the emergency plans in your program.

Part of your plan should include making sure you can operate your program and keep children safe during an emergency. You should consider the materials you would need to keep children fed, sheltered, and secure. You also should consider the documents you would need if children were evacuated or injured.

Emergency provisions: The federal government recommends that families have enough provisions (food, clean water, infant formula, diapers) to last three days without power. This is a good goal for child-care programs as well. A stockroom should contain nonperishable food items, gallons of water, pre-packaged infant formula, diapers, extra clothing, first-aid kits, batteries, flashlights, storm radios, blankets, and any other supplies that might be needed. You should consider the provisions you might need if parents cannot pick children up (for example, the military base is on lockdown, or travel restrictions are in place).

Protecting important documents: If your program were flooded, would you lose all of the children’s medical files, emergency contact files, and staff training files? It is important to make copies of all materials and store them in a safe, separate location. If possible, electronic copies of records stored on a secure, remote server can provide peace of mind. In the Apply section, you will find a guide for helping you learn about the emergency plans in your program.

Model

What does emergency preparation look like? You can use video to share what preparation looks like across the country. Watch as these programs prepare for disasters in their areas.

Observe

Once a plan is in place, practicing it can help relieve anxiety and help you feel prepared should the real event occur. It can also help you, the staff, and the children remain calm in the face of disaster. Remember to observe staff members during emergency drills. Make sure they always take sign-in sheets, emergency medications, and emergency contact information during all evacuations and practices. Your evacuation plans (fire, tornado, lockdown) should be practiced at least monthly. Other emergency plans should be practiced at least yearly. Review of your emergency plan and evacuation plan must be included in new-employee orientation and training.

Visit the Child Care Aware site at https://www.childcareaware.org/library/ to get planning ideas about specific conditions in your locale.