Emergency preparedness at a licensed BC daycare, and what to ask

Families touring a daycare ask about ratios, food, the daily routine, and the outdoor space. Those are sensible questions and we answer them every week. One subject comes up far less often, and it happens to be among the most clearly specified things in British Columbia's rules for licensed child care.

What happens in an emergency.

Section 22 of the Child Care Licensing Regulation is short, and unusually concrete. Where much of the regulation sets out principles a centre has to apply with judgement, section 22 gives numbers and schedules. That makes it a good subject for a parent to ask about, because the answers are checkable.

What the regulation actually requires

A licensee in British Columbia must do several specific things.

Emergency exits that meet the Building Code. The exits from the facility have to meet the standards set by the British Columbia Building Code. This is structural rather than procedural, and it is checked when a facility is licensed.

A fire drill system meeting the Fire Code. The centre must have a system of fire drills that meets the requirements of the British Columbia Fire Code, and every employee must be trained to implement it.

An emergency plan. The regulation requires a plan that sets out procedures to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from any emergency. Those four phases are named in the regulation. The plan covers emergencies generally rather than fire alone, which is the point of having it in addition to the fire drill system.

Training for every employee. Employees must be trained to implement both the fire drill system and the emergency plan. Not the manager alone. Everyone.

Practice on a schedule. The fire drill system is practised at least once a month. The emergency plan is practised at least once a year. Those two frequencies are different on purpose, and a centre that runs monthly fire drills but has never walked through the broader plan has done part of the job.

The fire drill system posted where people can see it. A copy has to be kept in a prominent place at the facility.

Reliable communications equipment. The licensee must have access to communications equipment that works during an emergency.

Monthly is the number that surprises most parents. Twelve fire drills a year, in a building full of two, three and four year olds, is a real operational commitment, and it exists so that the routine is familiar to children rather than frightening.

The first aid requirement sits beside it

Section 23 works alongside section 22. A licensee must ensure children have immediate access to an employee holding a valid first aid and CPR certificate obtained on completion of a course meeting the requirements of Schedule C of the regulation.

That person also has to know the medical conditions of the children in care and be able to communicate with emergency personnel. Those two conditions matter as much as the certificate. A first aid ticket held by somebody who does not know which child carries an epinephrine auto-injector is a piece of paper doing less work than it looks like it is doing.

First aid kits have to be readily accessible. If you want the detail on what a centre must know about your child before their first day, our post on allergies and what we need before day one covers the medical side of enrolment paperwork.

Records, and why the centre keeps asking you to update them

Section 57 requires a licensee to keep current records for each child. Those records include the child's name and birth date, immunization status, attendance, parent and emergency contact information, medical history, medication administered, and any special instructions.

The word doing the work in that requirement is "current". A phone number that was right two years ago is not a current record, and in an emergency it is worse than useless, because it consumes time that nobody has. When a centre chases you for updated contact details, this is why.

Section 60 sets how long records are kept afterwards. A child's record is generally retained for at least two years from the date the child is discharged from the facility. Criminal record check authorisation forms carry a five year period. Employee records are kept through the period of employment.

Earthquakes, and why the annual practice looks different

British Columbia sits in a seismic region, and the emergency plan is where that gets addressed. It looks nothing like a fire drill.

A fire drill moves everybody out of the building quickly. A significant earthquake may make leaving immediately the wrong move, may make the assembly point unusable, may cut power and water, and may leave a centre caring for children for hours longer than a normal day because parents cannot physically get across the region.

That is why the plan has four phases rather than one. Preparing covers supplies and training before anything happens. Mitigating covers reducing harm, securing heavy furniture being the obvious example. Responding covers the hours during and immediately after. Recovering covers what comes next, which in a real regional event may run for days.

PreparedBC is the Province's emergency preparedness education programme, and it publishes guides for households as well as for organisations. Most of what it recommends for a family also applies to a centre, which makes it useful reading for a parent who wants to understand what a good answer sounds like before they ask the question.

Why the practice matters more than the plan

A written emergency plan is a document. What makes it useful is that people have walked through it, in the actual building, with the actual children.

The difference shows up in small things. Educators learn which door the youngest group moves toward without being told. Children learn that the alarm means walking to a particular place with a particular adult, which is the part that keeps a real evacuation from turning into thirty frightened children in a corridor. Staff find the problems that only appear in practice: a door that sticks, a route blocked by a delivery, a group that takes twice as long as anyone estimated.

Monthly practice sounds excessive until you consider who is doing it. Two and three year olds do not carry a plan in their heads. They carry a habit. Twelve rehearsals a year is what turns an alarm into a familiar routine rather than a shock, and a child who is not frightened moves faster than one who is.

The same logic sits behind the annual emergency plan practice, at a slower cadence, because the events it covers are rarer and the response is more complicated.

Four questions worth asking on a tour

Where do you take the children if you have to leave the building? Any centre should be able to name the place. The answer being specific matters more than the place being impressive.

How will you contact me, and what happens if the phone networks are down? Congested networks are normal in a regional event. Text messages often get through when calls will not. Ask what the centre's second route is.

Do you keep an out-of-area emergency contact for our family? Local lines jam in a local emergency while long-distance frequently still works. A relative in Alberta or Ontario can act as a relay between you and the centre when neither of you can reach the other directly. It costs nothing to add to a file.

Who is authorised to collect my child, and how do you check? Being asked for identification at the door by an educator who has met you before is the system working. The authorised list does not relax during an emergency, and a centre that would hand a child to an unlisted adult in a crisis has a problem that predates the crisis.

Our guide to licensed child care in BC goes further into what licensing covers and how to check a facility's record, and the post on questions to ask on a daycare tour collects the rest of the tour questions worth having ready.

What a good answer sounds like

You are not looking for a rehearsed speech. A centre that answers these questions easily, without needing to go and find someone, is telling you the plan is something staff actually use rather than a binder on a shelf.

The best answer to "where do you take the children" is a named location the person can point toward. The best answer to "how will you reach me" includes a fallback. The best answer to "when did you last practise" is a recent month, said without hesitation.

None of this makes an emergency pleasant. It makes the difference between a centre improvising and a centre following something it has walked through before, with the same children, in the same building.

Frequently asked questions

How often does a licensed BC daycare have to practise a fire drill?

Monthly. The Child Care Licensing Regulation requires a licensee to have a system of fire drills that meets the British Columbia Fire Code, to ensure every employee is trained to implement it, and to practise the system at least once each month. That is a considerably higher frequency than most families assume, and it is one of the more concrete requirements in the whole regulation.

What is a daycare emergency plan required to cover?

The regulation requires an emergency plan setting out procedures to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from any emergency. Those four phases are named in the regulation itself. The plan has to be practised at least once a year, and every employee has to be trained to implement it.

Is a fire drill the same thing as an emergency plan practice?

They are two separate requirements with two separate schedules. The fire drill system meets the Fire Code and is practised monthly. The emergency plan is broader, covers any emergency rather than fire specifically, and is practised annually. A centre that only runs fire drills has met half of what section 22 asks for.

Does a daycare have to post its fire drill procedure where I can see it?

Yes. The regulation requires a copy of the fire drill system to be kept in a prominent place at the facility. That makes it one of the few required documents a parent can simply read while standing in the building, alongside the licence itself, so it is reasonable to look for it on a tour.

What first aid training is a licensed centre required to have on site?

The regulation requires a licensee to ensure children have immediate access to an employee holding a valid first aid and CPR certificate obtained on completion of a course meeting the requirements of Schedule C of the regulation. That person must also know the medical conditions of the children in care and be able to communicate with emergency personnel.

What should I ask a daycare about earthquakes specifically?

Ask where children go if the building has to be evacuated, how long the centre is equipped to shelter in place, and how you will be contacted when local phone networks are congested. British Columbia is an earthquake region, and the annual emergency plan practice is where a centre rehearses an event of that kind rather than a fire.

How will a centre reach me in an emergency?

Through the contact information held in your child's records, which the regulation requires the centre to keep current. Ask what the centre's backup is if cell networks are overloaded, and ask whether it holds reliable communications equipment for use during an emergency, since that is also a requirement.

Why does a daycare ask for an out-of-area emergency contact?

In a regional emergency, local phone lines and cell networks become congested while calls outside the affected area often still connect. An out-of-area contact gives the centre and your family a route to reach each other when local numbers will not connect. It costs nothing to add and it is the sort of detail that only matters once.

Who is allowed to collect my child in an emergency?

Only the people your family has authorised in writing, recorded in your child's file. That does not relax during an emergency. If someone new needs to collect your child on an unusual day, the centre needs that in writing from you, and being asked for identification at the door is the system working rather than a lack of trust.

How long are my child's records kept after they leave the centre?

The regulation sets retention periods by record type. A child's record must generally be kept for at least two years from the date the child is discharged from the facility. Criminal record check authorisation forms carry a five year period, and employee records are kept through the period of employment.

Before you visit

We are happy to walk through our emergency plan with any family touring the centre, and to show you where the fire drill system is posted. If there is anything about your child's medical needs that would change how we would handle an emergency, tell us before their first day. Contact us to arrange a visit.