Child Day Care SAFER Program

Screening Assessment For Environmental Risk

The Child Day Care SAFER Program is an initiative to identify licensed child day cares that are operating on land or in buildings that could be impacted by hazardous chemicals. The SAFER Program also works to ensure that new day cares are located in places that are safe from hazardous chemicals left by past (or current) operations. We are also using the SAFER Program to help child day cares be more environmentally safe and green.

Past manufacturing, industrial or agricultural uses can sometimes leave hazardous chemicals behind in buildings or on the land. In addition, if businesses using chemicals (such as a dry cleaner, nail salon, auto body shop) are within the same building complex as a child day care, the indoor environment of the day care may be impacted by the chemicals.

The SAFER Program establishes procedures to help ensure that child day cares are located in places that are safe from hazardous chemicals contaminating the land or buildings.

Consult the following resources for more information:

• ATSDR Webinar Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013

  The Children Are Where? How Professionals Can Ensure Childcare Facilities are Safe from Environmental Hazards (click here to listen)

• Circular Letter: New Initiative: Child Daycare S·A·F·E·R Project

• SAFER Brochure

• Protocol

• Property History Questionnaire for Child Care Centers and Group Child Care Homes

• Environmental Issues Referral Form For Daycare Center Inspections

• Making Child Care Centers SAFER: A Non-Regulatory Approach to Improving Child Care Center Siting; Public Health Reports, 2011

• Green Cleaning in Child Care Settings