Prevention begins with designing and furnishing centers to promote supervision and safety, taking special care with windows, doors, stoves/microwaves and electrical sockets and cords. Furnishings should be stable with few moving parts and large openings to avoid entrapments.

Designing safe play areas
Facilities must comply with state and federal regulations to obtain and retain licensure following jurisdiction-specific statutes and regulatory survey requirements. Playgrounds should be designed and equipped to match children's ages and abilities. Centers should also:

• Ensure outdoor play areas are accessible, close to phones and drinking water.
• Use fences, gates and natural barriers to prevent wandering and keep out intruders.
• Ensure proper drainage to eliminate standing water.
• Locate moving playground equipment like swings away from walking paths to avoid collisions.
• Separate children of different ages and abilities.

Transportation guidelines
Whether child care centers transport children daily or occasionally, there are key guidelines for transporting children safely:

• Never leave children unattended in a vehicle.
• Maintain appropriate staff to child ratios on all trips.
• Ensure vehicle drivers are licensed and conduct yearly DMV checks.
• Train drivers to transport young children, including those with disabilities.
• Ensure the proper utilization of child passenger restraint systems.
• Remove responsibility for passenger supervision from the driver.
• Train drivers to drive defensively and handle emergency situations.
• Ensure vehicles are properly maintained and repaired.
• Equip vehicles with first aid kits and fire extinguishers.
• Teach children how to safely enter and exit the vehicles.
• Adopt a strict policy to account for each child when they enter and exit vehicles.
• Ensure an adult escorts children when they cross traffic.

Selecting and training the staff
Selecting staff, substitutes and volunteers requires a comprehensive hiring and training system.. Safety policies must be concise, clear, written and enforceable. They must describe the center's rules regarding health, safety, hiring, supervision, training, transportation and emergency planning.

Hiring practices should include authorized criminal, credit and motor vehicle background checks. Written job descriptions must clearly address health and safety issues. New hires should undergo program orientation, including a review of policies and regular in-service staff development.

Keeping clear, accurate, confidential health and safety records is an essential component of a child care operator's responsibilities. Only authorized personnel should have access to these records. Records of child allergies and medication administration and authorization forms should be a part of this record keeping. A center also must maintain emergency phone contacts close at hand, and use injury report forms to keep records of incidents.

As a trusted insurance professional, agents can work with their insurers and child-care center customers to provide coverage for these exposures and provide loss control to minimize risk.