Care Courses Blog

As a child­care provider, keep­ing chil­dren safe is your top pri­or­i­ty. Fol­low­ing state and fed­er­al guide­lines for trans­porta­tion safe­ty can help make that hap­pen. In this blog we pro­vide links to state and fed­er­al trans­porta­tion safe­ty guide­lines. Addi­tion­al­ly, we share some tips to help keep chil­dren safe at drop-off and pick up time, and when rid­ing in their par­ents’ vehicles. 

Keeping Children Safe — State and Federal Transportation Regulations

Each state has its own reg­u­la­tions regard­ing accept­able trans­porta­tion prac­tices for child­care pro­grams. You must abide by your state’s vehi­cle and trans­porta­tion require­ments. Many states require trans­porta­tion safe­ty train­ing for child care providers. 

If your pro­gram uses a pas­sen­ger vehi­cle to trans­port chil­dren, review your state’s laws for the use of car seats and boost­er seats on the Gov­er­nors High­way Safe­ty Asso­ci­a­tion web­site. In addi­tion to using appro­pri­ate child safe­ty restraints, you must also fol­low your state’s child care reg­u­la­tions for select­ing a dri­ver. By the same token, pay very close atten­tion to your state’s reg­u­la­tions for adult/child ratios dur­ing trans­porta­tion. In some states, the dri­ver is count­ed for ratio pur­pos­es, in oth­er states the dri­ver can­not be count­ed. Be sure to learn these impor­tant details before you trans­port chil­dren in a pas­sen­ger vehicle. 

There are Fed­er­al Motor Vehi­cle Safe­ty Stan­dards set by the Nation­al High­way Traf­fic Safe­ty Admin­is­tra­tion (NHTSA) specif­i­cal­ly for school bus­es and mul­ti-func­tion school activ­i­ty bus­es (MFS­ABs). Not sure if your program’s large vehi­cle is a MFSAB or a school bus? View The Nation­al Child Pas­sen­ger Safe­ty Board’s hand­out explain­ing how to tell the difference.

Each state has its own require­ments for the main­te­nance of vehi­cles used to trans­port children. 

Whether your state requires it or not, it is wise to use a vehi­cle inspec­tion check­list and keep a record show­ing that any vehi­cle you use to trans­port chil­dren has been main­tained to ensure prop­er work­ing order and cleanliness. 

Above all, learn and fol­low the reg­u­la­tions of your indi­vid­ual state. Find your state’s reg­u­la­tions in the Nation­al Data­base of Child Care Licens­ing Reg­u­la­tions.

Keeping Children Safe with a Written Transportation Policy  

Most states require pro­grams that trans­port chil­dren to cre­ate a writ­ten trans­porta­tion pol­i­cy. This pol­i­cy is used to doc­u­ment driver’s records, staff train­ing, vehi­cle main­te­nance, route plan­ning, par­ent per­mis­sion slips, emer­gency med­ical infor­ma­tion, and oth­er fac­tors that con­tribute great­ly to the children’s safe­ty. Def­i­nite­ly check your state reg­u­la­tions to learn oth­er com­po­nents you must include in your program’s trans­porta­tion policy. 

Even if your pro­gram does not pro­vide trans­porta­tion, a writ­ten trans­porta­tion pol­i­cy can help ensure children’s safe­ty at the time of drop-off and pick-up. Check­lists to account for chil­dren and a check-in and check-out sys­tem can help avoid acci­den­tal injuries. More­over, your program’s trans­porta­tion pol­i­cy is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to inform par­ents about where to park, and to rec­om­mend that they turn off their vehi­cles dur­ing the drop-off and pick-up process. 

Why is idling bad? 

The US Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) rec­om­mends imple­ment­ing a no-idling pol­i­cy to improve the air qual­i­ty in an around your facility. 

Idling is bad because:

• Car exhaust con­tains tox­ins which can cause can­cer, res­pi­ra­to­ry effects and oth­er health issues.
• Chem­i­cals from exhaust are harm­ful and make asth­ma worse.
• Children’s devel­op­ing lungs are more sus­cep­ti­ble to air pol­lu­tion than adults. 
• A “Hot Spot” of pol­lu­tion is cre­at­ed when many vehi­cles idle at once in a drop off/pick up zone.

Share this hand­out with par­ents, encour­age them to pledge to be idle free! The EPA rec­om­mends turn­ing off vehi­cles if they will be sit­ting idle for more than 10 sec­onds. Not only is idling a source of unhealthy pol­lu­tion, it can also dam­age vehi­cle engines and is a waste of cost­ly fuel. Most peo­ple waste 1–2 entire tanks full of gas every year by idling!     

Transportation Safety tips to Share with Parents 

The NHTSA web­site pro­vides guid­ance to help par­ents select the appro­pri­ate car seat for their child based on their age and size. The web­site also includes a sec­tion where par­ents can reg­is­ter their child’s car seat in order to receive alerts about recalls and safe­ty notices from the car seat’s man­u­fac­tur­er, and the NHTSA. 

Undoubt­ed­ly, a car seat only pro­vides safe trans­porta­tion for a child if it is installed and used prop­er­ly. Accord­ing to NHTSA, 46% of car seats and boost­er seats are installed incor­rect­ly. To help rem­e­dy this, par­ents can have their car seat inspect­ed by a cer­ti­fied tech­ni­cian free of charge. In most cas­es, cer­ti­fied tech­ni­cians also show par­ents how to cor­rect­ly install and use car seats. Encour­age par­ents to use the NHTSA search tool to find a local cer­ti­fied tech­ni­cian.  

Fur­ther­more, NHTSA also rec­om­mends that par­ents be aware of the dan­ger of heat­stroke for chil­dren when they are left in or sneak into a hot car. An aver­age of 37 chil­dren die per year due to vehic­u­lar heat stroke. A vehic­u­lar heat stroke can occur when the out­door tem­per­a­ture is 57 degrees or more. The “Park. Look. Lock.” cam­paign rec­om­mends that par­ents get in the habit of always check­ing the back seat of their vehi­cle and always lock­ing the doors. 

Make time to share trans­porta­tion safe­ty tips with par­ents. It can save children’s lives! 

Want to learn more ways to keep children safe?

Read our blog Top Five Mis­con­cep­tions about Sun-Safe­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about safe­ty in and around vehi­cles, take our course Trans­porta­tion Safe­ty. This course includes rec­om­men­da­tions to help you cre­ate your program’s trans­porta­tion pol­i­cy, check­lists, and more. 

Care Courses Contact

Please let us know how we can be of addi­tion­al assis­tance! Call us: 1–800–685‑7610, Mon­day through Fri­day, 9–5 ET, or email us days, evenings and week­ends: info@CareCourses.com. We’re here to help!