Know

散步通过任何家居装饰店,一个d you are likely to see the word “security” over and over again. You can find security lights, fences, doors, locks, windows, cameras, alarms, and even mailboxes. Why is security so important to us? We all have a need to feel safe in our environment. We prefer well-lit parking lots. We like parks with clearly marked trails. We look for places that allow us to recognize and respond to any danger.

Just like adults, children need environments that help them feel secure. Children depend on adults to meet their basic needs: food, water, shelter, clothing. They also depend on us to protect them from harm. Feeling safe opens the door for children to build relationships, become confident, and meet their potential (Maslow, 1943, 1945). We cannot expect children to learn if they do not feel safe.

您是工作人员设计安全环境的榜样。您的经验，专业知识和专业连接有助于工作人员充分利用他们的空间。如果工作人员正在努力提供安全的室内和室外环境，可以让他们安排观察其他空间并与知识渊博的同行讨论他们的环境有助于。您是一个有价值的资源，因为您指出让儿童安全的环境的特征。

如果对任何环境中的安全有担忧，请确保工作人员知道如何报告问题。如果您看到任何严重的安全风险，您必须立即采取行动。孩子的生命可能取决于它。严重安全风险的例子可能包括破碎的游乐场设备或羽绒电线。立即发表讲话并帮助工作人员解决这些问题非常重要。一旦淘汰了立即危险的威胁，您可以帮助制定防止未来此类问题的计划。确保您熟悉美国消费品安全委员会及其召回列表。您可能需要努力识别和排除已召回的材料。您可以在本课程的参考资料和资源部分找到美国消费者产品安全委员会网站的链接。

主动监督是让孩子安全的关键。积极监督涉及扫描，预测和评估。这涉及穿过室内或室外空间，扫描儿童和环境的危险，预测潜在危险，并对环境进行必要的变化。安全设备和播放空间很重要，但没有取代积极的监督。重要的是，员工在方案中的工作人员实践积极监督。

The Importance of Working Efficiently

Learning to work efficiently will assist you in your safety efforts. Being a manager is demanding and it requires the ability to balance the sometimes competing priorities of management, families, children, and staff. One priority everyone can agree on is keeping children and youth safe. Your上市program'sprotocols and procedures are meant to be followed. They are your tools for ensuring the safety of children and youth. Are you using them consistently and efficiently?

Here are a few strategies for working more efficiently to ensure the safety of children and youth:

• Utilize information from safety checklists to determine priorities and handle high-priority tasks first. Safety always comes first.
• 减少过度的中断。记录一周中断，然后提出一个限制它们的计划。
• Schedule time to complete daily, weekly, and monthly checklists.
• Overcome procrastination. Break large tasks into smaller ones and do the task you like least first.
• Process paperwork efficiently. Attend to what's important and ignore the unimportant.
• Schedule time to respond to phone calls and emails.
• Organize files, your desk, and your office space.

环境风险

Risks are all around when caring for children and youth. In fact accidents are the leading cause of injury and death for children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Maintaining safe indoor and outdoor environments is critical to keeping children and youth safe. The way to do that is to make sure staff complete the required safety checklists as instructed and refer any safety issue to your attention immediately. As the manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that the facility maintains appropriate standards for safe conditions and sanitation every day.

Hazardous Materials

可以消除环境中的危险材料。如果一个项目说“远离儿童接触”，那么他们不应该在任何情况下都可以访问。例如，如果在您的每日步行的程序上，您观察使用学龄前儿童的老师使用BLEACH解决方案清洁表，您需要进行干预并提供纠正措施。亚慱彩票您有责任确保所有危险材料存储在其指定位置并适当使用。如果您有资料或玩具已被召回，请立即从您的程序中删除它们。如果工作人员正在完成每日清单，并且您正在关注担忧，则会大大减少环境危害的危害风险。

In addition to your staff keeping hazards out of reach, they also need to teach children and youth how to make safe choices for themselves. Children and youth need to learn that everyday items can be both helpful and harmful depending on how they are used. Scissors are a good example; they can be harmful if used inappropriately. The best way to keep children and youth safe is to model and teach safe practices.

你是一个重要的角色模型提供安全materials. You should help staff members select materials and review their purchasing requests. Review their purchasing lists or requests. Talk to staff members about the materials they request and how they can be used safely in child-development or school-age programs. If an item is appropriate for only a certain group of children (i.e., an item for children ages 10 or over in a school-age program for children ages 5-12), begin to discuss ways the staff members can introduce the toy, set guidelines for its use, and make sure it is used safely. Ask questions about the staff members’ goals for the item and how those goals could be reached with age-appropriate materials. Help staff members think in advance about potential safety issues. For example, if a school-age program has a toy for children ages 10 and up, help the staff member practice what they might say to younger children who want to play. Model ideas like, “We need to be safe. Let’s find a toy that we can play with together.”

You can also model using toys and material safely. If you see materials that seem unsafe, say something. Step in to help children if needed. It is your responsibility to help keep children safe. Always debrief with staff members after you have modeled or helped out in a program. Be sure to explain why you did what you did.

You can model how to check toys and materials for safety. Regularly walk around your program and inspect toys and materials for damage, and report problems. Make sure staff members are supported when they report problems with materials.

Shared Spaces

Areas that are used by multiple classrooms of varying ages are particularly prone to safety risks. These areas include large-muscle rooms, bathrooms, eating areas, and hallways. Toys and materials that are appropriate and safe for one age group can be dangerous for another. Restrooms can become hazardous as the day goes on if water and paper accumulate on the floor. Slippery conditions can lead to falls. Your staff needs to always inspect for environmental hazards such as these before children and youth enter a shared space and report any safety concerns immediately.

Playgrounds

If you ask children their favorite part about attending your program, they might say playing outside. Playgrounds present the greatest exposure to environmental hazards just by their nature. Every year, there are over 200,000 injuries on playground equipment, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Playgrounds need to be safely maintained every day.

The space used for outdoor play must be well defined by a fence that is safe and in good repair. The gate must have some type of locking mechanism that prevents children and youth from leaving the play area. The outdoor play area should be free of hazardous debris. This is especially important if others use or have access to the play space when the program is not in operation. When the weather gets warmer it’s important for staff to check the temperature on play surfaces so children don’t get burned.

According to the National Safety Council, 79 percent of playground injuries are from falls. Having adequate fall surfaces can help lessen the severity of injuries. Swings and climbing equipment should never be placed over grass, concrete, asphalt, blacktop, dirt, or other hard surfaces.

Playground equipment can be dangerous if it's not adequately maintained. It's your responsibility to ensure that your playground equipment meets the Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines. Here are a few important hazards to have your staff look out for:

• Swings, slides, and climbing equipment that are not stable or securely anchored
• 破碎或有裂缝或锋利边缘的设备
• Openings that can become entrapments
• S-hooks whose openings are greater than the thickness of a dime

It's your responsibility to ensure that the staff is trained on how to use your上市program'splayground safety checklist and what to do when safety concerns are identified. When you and your staff take a proactive approach to the maintenance of playgrounds, they remain fun places instead of becoming unsafe places.

Staff Safety

Safe environments are as important for your staff as they are for children and youth. Having the right equipment accessible can prevent injuries. Working with children and youth all day is a physically demanding job regardless of age; having ergonomically correct furniture, safe equipment, and functional materials assists in preventing workplace accidents.

工作人员需要保持警惕，因为他们为他们服务的儿童和青少年而言。如果发生了工作场所的事故，工作人员需要立即通知您，以便您采取适当的行动。

Management Practices That Support Safe Environments

下面的图表总结了您对儿童和青年安全安全的关键职责。

Watch this brief video to hear about ways to ensure environments are safe.

安全环境问题

Completing this Course

有关本课程中的预期和随附的学习，探索和应用资源和在整个课程中提供的活动的更多信息，请访问管理安全环境Course Guide。

To support the professional development of the direct care staff members or family child care providers you oversee, you can access their corresponding Course Guides:

• Infant & Toddler Safe EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• Preschool Safe EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• School-Age Safe EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• Family Child Care Safe EnvironmentsCourse Guide