Emergency Preparedness Planning for Child Care Facilities Jason Tiller Director Saline County Health Department Salina, KS 2015 FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities WELCOME SIGN-IN TICKETS HOUSEKEEPING PACKETS FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  It is because of disasters like those described that we are here tonight. The outcomes from a disaster are bad enough. They’re even worse when they could have easily been prevented. Welcome to Emergency Preparedness Planning for Child Care Facilities. We’re glad that you’re here. We know your time is valuable especially on a week night so we hope that you get a lot out of this class. If you didn’t sing-in when you arrived, please make sure you sign in. The tickets you received when you signed in are for the drawings we will do at then end of the class. A few housekeeping notes: There are refreshments in the back so please help yourself at anytime. Restrooms are located out this door, take a left and go through the door at the end of the hall and then another left toward the exit. You will see the restrooms on your left. The packets you received are yours to keep, write on and hopefully, you will use them as your starting place for your facility’s plans. The disc contains a wealth of references as well as the forms and check lists located in the back of your packet. Those forms are templates that you can modify, use as is or change to fit your needs. Or you can make your own. I won’t be offended as if it doesn’t work for you, you won’t use it. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Point out content of the student packets. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Who am I? Director of the Saline County Health Department Also work in Public Health Preparedness and Health Education Retired U.S. Army Medical Specialist 20 years of experience with public health and disaster preparedness and response Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health Master’s in Health Education in progress Just like you – want to make sure my home, family and you are prepared. Instructor Background: Jason Tiller is the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator at the Saline County Health Department. Prior to the health department, he retired after 20 years with the United States Army as a Medical Specialist with extensive experience in public health and disaster preparedness in Iraq, Afghanistan and multiple location in the United States. He has also spent time preparing his home and family for common emergencies in Kansas. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health and is currently working on a Master’s Degree in Health Education, both from Kaplan University. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Course Objective By the end of this hour, you should be able to: Discuss Steps to Generating Child Care Facility Preparedness Plans FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  For the next hour, we are going to look at what goes into developing an emergency preparedness plan that is specific to the challenges of the child care facility. Each of you, per your licensing requirements, must have emergency plans in place. Some of you do, while some of you need some help. That is ok. We are going to work through some of this and help you figure it out. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities FACILITATOR’S NOTES: If you’re not familiar with preparedness or with this is your first time dealing with anything like this, it can be very overwhelming. There are hundreds, if not thousands of reference documents out there and trying to determine what is good and what isn’t was even difficult for me. My simple search returned over 2 million hits. That alone could cause most of us to quit. So we developed this class to work through the basics and provide you a forum to ask questions and maybe learn from each other too. Just keep in mind that we are scratching the surface here and there will still be some work that you have to do, but you’ll have help. As you can see, there are lots of websites and resources out there. And it can be confusing trying to figure out which ones are legitimate and which ones are down right crazy. Look carefully and evaluate the content. If it sounds really out there, ask someone else to take a look too. Usually, you can’t go wrong with government or non-profit sites but still evaluate any information if its relevant for you. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Show GOOGLE slide of search. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Benefits of a Plan Reduce Fear Reduce Anxiety Minimize the effects of the disaster on the long-term behavioral development Minimize impact to your business (COOP) Prevent Injuries Most importantly – These children spend more time during the day with you than any one else. FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  We mentioned earlier why having an emergency plan is good from a big picture view, but “because I said so” only works for moms’ and dads’. Why is any of this important to you besides being required to have your license? Having a plan can benefit you in many ways. It can help reduce fear, anxiety and long term impact on children and staff. It can help you get your business back up and running quicker. Many businesses never reopen after a disaster because they were not prepared before it. We will talk a little about Business Continuity of Operations (COOP) later. It can also help prevent injuries. Most importantly, these children spend more time with you during the day than with their parents so we have a responsibility to take all steps necessary to ensure their protection. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Types of Disasters What do you think? The types of disasters are ________. FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Before we can begin to plan for disasters, we first have to identify what disasters are. So, I have a piece of flip chart paper on the wall, I want us to come up with as many possible types of disasters as you can think of. While you are doing this, think about inside your place, outside your place and the area surrounding your place. Please call them out orderly so I can write them down. We have one minute to think as many as we can. Go. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: On flip chart paper, the instructor will write down answers that participants provide during one minute on what types of disasters they can think of. Review what they came up with and address what they didn’t off this list:   Tornado Fire Train Derailment Gas Leak Flood Utility Outage (Black out) Crime Abduction Severe Storms/Thunderstorms Hurricanes Extreme Heat/Cold Earthquake Disease Outbreak April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities April 21, 1995 FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Why are we here tonight? Many of you will remember the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City on April 21, 1995. This act of terror took the lives of 168 people including 19 children located in the day care center. I’ll be honest, this happened so quickly and with such violence that preparations wouldn’t have made a difference. A hazard assessment may have prompted them to move the day care somewhere else but until this happened, every one believed that it couldn’t happen to us. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Show picture of Murrah building after bombing. Source: http://www.history.com/topics/oklahoma-city-bombing April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities May 20, 2013 FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Disasters can affect us at any time. Tornado season is upon us. So is the necessity to make sure we are prepared. The elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma was devastated by a F5 tornado in May of 2013. Nine children were killed, seven when the school collapsed. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Show Moore, OK Plaza Towers picture. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/20/us/oklahoma-moore-tornado-anniversary/index.html April 2015

WARNING: Beware the Rabbit Hole! Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities WARNING: Beware the Rabbit Hole! FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  WARNING: BEWARE THE RABBIT HOLE. Before we go on, I want to warn you about the rabbit hole. Some of you may have seen a rabbit hole and its tunnel system as it goes deeper and branches off more and more. In the preparedness world, there is a rabbit hole too. And like Alice in Wonderland, it can take you to some strange places, if you’re not careful. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Move to “normal” people picture. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  This is when a relatively normal person starts with the basic preparedness actions and lets “prepping” take over. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Move to “Doomsday Prepper” slide. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Just remember the more you dig, the more what if’s you’ll find and the deeper you’ll go until you are on your own episode of National Geographic’s, Doomsday Preppers. A note of caution: You prep to live, don’t live to prep. Don’t let every waking moment be about preparing for the next big event or you’ll miss out on the important events right now. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Source: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/doomsday-preppers/ April 2015

Basic Elements of a Disaster Plan: Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Basic Elements of a Disaster Plan: What are my hazards? Do I stay or do I go? If I go, where do I go? What do I need to have? How will parents know what I have done? Who can help me? How do I keep my business running after? Who do I call? FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Is there anyone that feels a little overwhelmed trying to answer all those questions right now? We could go into detail about each of these questions but we’ll keep it more focused on how to answer these questions because most of you may have unique situations or circumstances. This is where you have to be careful about the rabbit hole because any of these questions can take you down a really crooked path if you’re not careful. * ACTIVITY AND NOTES: * Flip to next slide of flow chart gone crazy. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  You could look like this. One simple question turned into a complicated, convoluted, knotted up mess that has you throwing your hands in the air while running away screaming. Now let’s talk about how to identify hazards in your area. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Hazard Identification Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Hazard Identification Inside Outside around my area Outside near my area FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  We’ve talked some about the different types of disasters, now what about disasters or hazards in your area. Let’s take a couple of minutes to talk about identifying what kinds of disasters or hazards are in your area. This process is important in your planning as it drives what else you do later. There are many ways to assess your facility and the area around it. One of the easiest is to take a walk through your facility and write down every spot that could be a hazard (gas line), a shelter (inner room) or an evacuation point such as window or door. The same can be done around your facility as well. Another option is to get a different perspective by using software like Google Maps. Look up your area and then look at the areas around it. Are there train tracks, grain elevators, electrical distribution centers, for example. Try to identify as many possible hazards as possible. Don’t worry, you’re not going to need to plan for each of them but at least you’re aware they exist. If you take a look at this map I have here, some of the hazards I have identified; the compressed gas facility next door, the railroad tracks, the grain elevators and the police station a couple blocks over. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: Point out shelter areas and other markings on map of health department. Then show hazard marking on standard road map then blown up Google Map. April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Do I stay or do I go? Situation Types of children Number of Children versus Providers Special Needs FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Whether you decide to stay in your facility or evacuate your facility can depend on a lot of things. It can depend on the situation such as a gas leak nearby where you may have to evacuate or a tornado that requires a safe room. It could also be affected by the number of kids such as toddlers vs infants and in relation to the number of providers. You also have to consider special needs children. What if you had to evacuate with a child that is in a wheel chair? This is where a little acronym called PACE becomes helpful. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities P.A.C.E. P – Primary A – Alternate C – Contingent E – Emergency FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  PACE is an acronym that just gets you to thinking, “If that doesn’t work, then what could I or would I do next?” This doesn’t imply that you need to have a written plan for each and every contingency but at least consider them. I know what we said earlier about the “what ifs” but this is where you exercise judgment. If the “what if” can have a major impact on you, then it may be prudent to take some actions to minimize the impact. If the “what if” doesn’t have an impact but is more of a nice to know, then you can leave it alone for now. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities If I stay? What do I do? Identify shelter Shelter Kit FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  What if you decide to stay? If the incident happens quickly like a tornado warning or is too dangerous to go outside, such as the case in a chemical spill, then you will need to stay inside in your shelter area. Each place needs to have an area identified as the shelter and everyone needs to know where it is, preferably on a map of the facility. The shelter area needs to be a place that can provide protection and be large enough to fit everyone. A basement area, or if that isn’t going to work, then a space on the first floor away from windows and enclosed by interior walls. It is also a good idea to have an emergency kit in the shelter area in case you are trapped there. If the layout doesn’t allow that, then steps may be taken to fix that or, as a last resort, an area away from the facility may have to be designated. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

If I decide to go, where do I go? What do I do? Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities If I decide to go, where do I go? What do I do? How do we get out? Where do we go? What do we need? Go – Kits? FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  If the scenario forces you out of your facility and you have to leave, where do you go and what do you do? There’s nothing so stressful or dangerous as an emergency happening and you and your staff are trying to grab kids and stuff and run out the door and then it hits you, “You don’t know where to go”. Or you wonder can you get the kids and everything else in the car? This part of disaster planning takes a little more consideration. It’s easy to make plans and preparations that allow you to stay in your facility because its familiar. The scary part is when you have to leave and aren’t ready for that. Here is some things to consider. When you are thinking about places for you, your staff and kids to evacuate too, you want to consider having a near place, a far place and a very far place. This helps in case there is a large emergency and provides alternate places to go in case one isn’t usable. You also need to know how to get out. Have all exits marked and have a meeting point established outside the building. Remember that doors are not the only exits. You may have to use windows to escape the building during a disaster so knowing which ones you can get out is important. Make sure that they aren’t shatter proof or have obstacles like bushes in the way that may prevent getting out the windows. Regardless of the exit, can you escape from the building or does it open into an enclosed courtyard? All of these things needs to be considered and marked on the building map. Make sure that staff know the routes and that routes are practiced. Practicing can help identify other things that may be needed to add to the plan. You don’t have a lot of time when emergencies occur so having go kits, among other things is necessary. Go kits have all the necessary stuff in them to take care of people while they evacuate. We’ll talk more about kits in a little while. Other things that you need will be business records, child contact information, and car seats and car space for each child and staff. One suggestion for trying to quickly identify children during an evacuation is to use event bands like those used at concerts or water parks. You can get them customized with your facility contact information, they go on quickly and kids can’t pull them off. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Stay or Go? Either way, how do I let the parents know what we did and where we are? Message Group Signage Pre-planning Contact Forms FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  After a real or threatened disaster, parents are going to be calling to check on their kids. If you stayed in your shelter, that may not be too much of a problem. If you had to evacuate, then you need someway to tell the parents where you went. Here are some suggestions: You could have a text message group set up to send alerts to all the parents of where you are going? This would be helpful too in the event a large scale evacuation took place and you may be going somewhere other than your planned evacuation spot. You could also have signage that is posted in the window or on the doors that alerts parents where you have gone. This is where having the child contact information is important. A very important suggestion here is to involve the parents in identifying evacuation places or at least make sure they have a copy of the evacuation locations. Its important to also make sure they have they know the reunification procedures such as picture identification and who is authorized to pick up the kids too. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities KITS Shelter vs Go 72 hours Tailor to your needs Basic kit better than nothing FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Some of the questions I’ve heard and have had myself include, what do I need in a kit and how much of it do I need? And just as importantly, how do get it all and pay for it? There are many checklists out there such as the basic one listed in the FEMA brochure in your packet. The list that we are going to look at is adapted from the FEMA’s recommendations for kits for child care facilities. We’ve added a few other suggested items that they didn’t have on theirs. Here are some things to consider: 1. If you don’t have a kit yet, make a basic one. You can expand it later but some kit is better than no kit. 2. If you are a facility, then you may need to look at things a little differently than a home based child care. Both will need to have a kit for sheltering that has enough stuff in it for 72 hours. This time frame is the basic recommended time frame for planning due to the possibility of being trapped in the shelter after a disaster. 3. The difference is when its time to make a kit that you can take with you, often called a GO-Kit. For facilities, it may only need the basics for 24 hours since the kids will go home and so will the staff. For those that have home-based child care, your GO-Kits will need to be planned for 72 hours to include your children and/or staff as well as your family that lives in the home too. So this can increase the amount of stuff you need. 4. I would suggest a kit that can be used for shelter or as a GO-Kit. This will cut down on the amount of stuff that you are trying to pack. This is also dependent on your facility. You may not have time to run to the basement and grab the kit during a situation where you need to leave quickly. Just know there are options and you need to adapt the kit to your needs. A couple of other things about 72 hours: may be stuck in shelter or in evacuation place. Parents may be first responders or injured during incident and not able to pick up their children right away. (Note: May be a good idea to identify what parents are first responders such as EMS, police or fire and develop plans for their children in the event they can’t get there.) Storage of the kit is important to consider. Not just where but what you store it in. Whatever you put the kit in, you need to make sure that you can carry it. Practice picking it up and loading it along with the children. This what we call rehearsals. You may need to use a backpack if you are the only provider or you can use a case if there are more than one of you to carry the kit. Have an inventory of the kit including what is there and how much. Also note on your inventory, the expiration dates for anything that can expire. The CDC has a campaign that reminds people to change their clocks and check their kits. This reminds people to make sure that everything is still good to go. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ How do I pay for this? Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ How do I pay for this? Discount Stores Garage Sales Clearance Here and There Parent/Staff Help Pre-Made Kit FACILITATOR’S NOTES:    As we look at the list of suggested items on the list, many of you are doing the math in your head and are realizing that this can become expensive very quickly. Here are some suggested ways to help offset the cost. 1. Many items do not need to be new or high tech so you can but them at stores like Dollar Tree or Dollar General. You can also go to second hand stores, thrift stores, shop clearance areas and go to garage sales. 2. You can pick up a few pieces at a time. Get the basics but then pick up other stuff, one or two pieces each pay day. This way the cost is not so impactful of your budget. 3. You could also talk to parents about what you are trying to do and ask for parental help in purchasing certain supplies that you may need. For those of you with kids in school, you are doing this already. 4. You could also buy a pre-made kit. The plus side is that it has a variety of things you can use. The draw back is it may not have specific things you need and you must go through everything in the kit to know what it is and how to use it. (NOTE: You have to do this in your own kits but you’ll be doing it as you put it together anyway.) ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Business Continuity of Operations (COOP) Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Business Continuity of Operations (COOP) Child care is still a business and part of planning on how your business will continue. Documents Insurance Ready.gov has a set of tools called the Business Continuity Planning Suite. FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  There is a whole class that can be done on Business Continuity so I am just going to hit on a couple of highlights here. You have brochures in your packets that talk about business planning for disasters. Almost 75% of small business’s that are damaged by a disaster never re-open. This is your livelihood and parents depend on your for their child care. Some key points we need to make: 1. Have all your documents backed up. You can do this by using a cloud system or you can back up your business files on a flash drive. On suggestion is to back up on a flash drive and store the drive in a separate location away from your business incase the building is destroyed. This way your back up is still available. 2. Have insurance documents up to date with pictures of equipment. Also have this on a flash drive off site. 3. You could also locate areas ahead of time that may be useful to continuing your business. You might be able to have applications or other forms as pre-filled out as possible to save on time. 4. Ready.gov has a set of tools called the Business Continuity Planning Suite that can assist you with planning. The information is also on you disc. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities  HELP!!!! NETWORKING FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  You are not in this alone. When you signed in, their was a column that asked if you wanted to be in the network. The network that I am referring to here is a way of providing each other mutual support before, during or after a disaster. For instance, some of you could buy certain items in bulk and then you could distribute the supplies among each other. If one facility is having a difficult time with a certain aspect of plan development, then they could ask the other what they did? Possibly, certain sites may be able to serve as evacuation sites. Try to involve parents in the plan, either through supplying materials and effort. Some of them may have experience that could help you with the plan. This involvement also gets parents thinking about preparedness actions and they may start to take actions at home. This expansion of preparedness actions can make a whole community more ready for a disaster. Being prepared can also help reduce stress from the fear of the unknown of disasters. For those of you that indicated that you would like to be involved in networking, I will send you the list in a few days. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Conclusion Preparing takes time and effort but the effects of not preparing can’t be replaced. Take your time, ask questions and don’t be afraid to ask for help. A great plan that is put on a shelf, serves no one. You have to practice, practice, practice. That includes staff first, then kids and parents. Review the plan and make changes. This should be a living document. FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  There is much more that we could go over if we had more time. Just keep in mind that preparing takes time and effort but the benefits are worth it. We don’t have the luxury to be unprepared because other people’s lives are dependent on it but it doesn’t have to be done over night. Ask questions of each other, contact me, research but most of all, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Practice your plan. Don’t just put it on a shelf. Practice with the staff over and over, then practice with the kids and parents too so they are confident and know what needs to happen. Get the community involved if you think you may need help. Review the plan after practices and at least twice a year when you change the clocks and check your kits. This should be a living document as situations and learning changes. Remember, the disc has more resources that you can look at. There are also template forms that you can use as well. I am going to have everyone fill out the evaluation and we will award the door prizes before we go to questions (or take some questions, go to evaluation and door prizes, then can go back to questions). If you have questions about other things after the class, you can send me an email and I will try to respond as soon as I can. I am also offering to review your written plans when they are complete. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Additional Resources Ready.gov FEMA Course IS 36 Multi-Hazard Planning for Child Care Child Care Aware http://www.ks.childcareaware.org/ Red Cross Child Care Licensing at KDHE: http://www.kdheks.gov/bcclr/emergency_ preparedness_planning.htm FACILITATOR’S NOTES:  Here are some websites that can provide you other information and tools. ACTIVITY AND NOTES: April 2015

Emergency Preparedness Planning for Childcare Facilities Questions: April 2015