Protecting Children in Child Care during Emergencies

Children age five and under are some of our most vulnerable citizens.  They are dependent upon the people who care for them.  This begins of course with the parents in the home, but then extends to the thousands of day care facilities that exist today.  With many parents being single parents and with both mother and father working outside the home it is more typical to have kids in day care than it is for one half of the marriage to be a stay-at-home parent.

 

With this being the situation it is appropriate that emergency managers do everything possible to advance the preparations by childcare providers for emergencies and disasters.  We know that if they are not prepared before a disaster their issues when disaster strikes will become our problem.

 

Unfortunately it will take laws to be passed before there is better compliance with the needs of children--just like everything else.  See Protecting Children in Child Care During Emergencies for a standard of care that has been developed by Save the Children and the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA).

 

Becoming actively involved with promoting legislation is something that we need to do as emergency managers.  You cannot always wait for your State Emergency Management Agency or someone else to lead on legislative issues.  It is one example of how we need to be involved in politics if we are going to be effective