Keeping Children Safe While in Child Care
Keeping children safe in child care settings is a top priority for the Office for Children. All child care providers with a state license or a county permit are required to have a plan for dealing with emergencies.
One important thing you can do to help your child care provider with their emergency plan is to give them your current emergency contact information:
- Phone numbers where you can be reached at work, and your cell phone and pager numbers.
- Names and phone numbers of relatives or neighbors who are authorized to pick up your child in an emergency.
- Names and phone numbers of your children's doctors.
If your child is in child care before or after school, you may wonder what happens if an emergency takes place while your child is in school. Here are the emergency response plans for the Fairfax County Public Schools.
Keeping Children Safe at Home
It's also important for you to have an emergency plan at home. For example, it's important that your children know where your emergency supplies are. It's also important to practice fire drills and other safety procedures with your children. During actual emergencies, help your children by:
- Acting calmly, but seriously.
- Talking with them about what is happening and what you are going to do.
- Listening to their questions and answering them honestly.
Talking with your children after emergencies, even emergencies that happen to other people, is also important. Here are some resources for helping you discuss tragedies with your children.
Check Fairfax County's emergency preparedness Web pages for other tips about keeping your family safe. The state has also launched an emergency preparedness Web site in Spanish.